SEO Scoop

Posted by DazzlinDonna on August 9th, 2006 in SEO Tips

Breakpoint, an earnersforum member, calculated the AOL data from August and showed the difference in clickthrough rates for the top 10 search results. How important is the #1 spot? Pretty darn important. Here are the figures:

Total Searches:9,038,794
Total Clicks: 4,926,623

Click Rank1: 2,075,765
Click Rank2: 586,100 = 3.5x less
Click Rank3: 418,643 = 4.9x less
Click Rank4: 298,532 = 6.9x less
Click Rank5: 242,169 = 8.5x less
Click Rank6: 199,541 = 10.4x less
Click Rank7: 168,080 = 12.3x less
Click Rank8: 148,489 = 14.0x less
Click Rank9: 140,356 = 14.8x less
Click Rank10: 147,551 = 14.1x less

Interestingly, position 10 does slightly better than position 9, which is what I would have assumed, since it will be the last place for the eye to land if not satisfied with the previous results.

If you are the first to "discover" any of my posts in StumbleUpon, one of the following categories would probably be the most appropriate to place it into. You don't have to choose one of these, of course, but based on what I usually write about, there's a good chance any of my posts will fall into one of these categories.

Business * Computers * Computer Graphics * Computer Hardware * Computer Security * Databases * Ecommerce * Internet * Internet Tools * Linux/Unix * Marketing * Search * Self Improvement * Web development * Weblogs(Blogs) * Windows * Writing

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14 Responses to “AOL Data reveals how top 10 positions affect CTR”

1. SEO Portal Says:
   August 9th, 2006 at 8:34 am

   I got the same numbers from my sample; 42% from all the clicks are on the #1 spot. nearly 90% of the clicks are on the first 10 results..

   for more numbers see here:
   http://www.seo-portal.com/aol-.....006/08/09/

2. DazzlinDonna Says:
   August 9th, 2006 at 8:39 am

   Good to know. I like the graphs on your site. Helps to visualize it nicely.

3. earlpearl Says:
   August 12th, 2006 at 2:34 pm

   Really powerful evidence of the importance of a number 1 ranking versus overall 1st page rankings. In that example #1 had more clicks than the next 6 rankings. Hmmmm. gotta look hard at where I can get #1’s and where I need ppc, and where I need to get the long tail.

   Dave

4. Luis Says:
   October 22nd, 2007 at 3:19 am

   I can confirm these numbers, I had a site ranked on position 1 and then on position 7, the traffic was ten times less.

Trackbacks

1. Click Rate for Top 10 Search Results - Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog
2. Le Blogueur » Répartition des clics sur les 10 premiers résultats Google
3. SEO Expert » Blog Archive » Estimated Click Rates for Top 10 Search Results
4. ???????? ?????? » Blog Archive » Keywords
5. ????NB??? » Blog Archive » ?????????????
6. Maciej Ziemczonek - praktycznie o internecie » Arytmetyka wyszukiwarkowa
7. Search Engine Positioning Consulting & Support » Blog Archive » AOL User Data Harvested for Click Through Rates
8. As Ricky Bobby says… » Small Business SEM
9. SEOKING.nl » Click Through Rate bij Organische Zoekresultaten Verhogen
10. What a Top Google Search Ranking Means to Your Bottom Line: The Value of Search Engine Optimization | Online Marketing Blog RSS Ray