In nearly all searches – though there are some exceptions – the #1 top listing gets the greatest percentage of clicks. How much? As much as half, or 50% – sometimes more. Positions #2 and #3 generally split the next 25%. In other words, the Top 3 listings will get 75% of the traffic! The remaining 7 listings will get most of the rest, in decreasing percentages.
In other words, the majority of people will click on one of the first search results listed. Further, depending on screen resolution, all 10 of those Page 1 results may not be visible without scrolling, further lessening the chances for those lower listings.
This means that if we aren’t able to reach say the Top 5, we don’t even have a shot at most of the traffic.
Getting top search engine listings is both an ‘art’ and a ‘science’, however it is far more ‘science’ than ‘art’ – which is a good thing, if you understand the ‘science’!
So, just how do rankings work?
Perhaps the most valuable thing you can get out of these blog posts is a strong and accurate understanding of how search engines and rankings actually work. When you have that foundation, it becomes simply a matter of ‘going through the motions’ to get your pages ranked well, funneling qualified traffic to your targets.
We will begin our discussion of search engine traffic by going over some critical ideas and concepts. For some of you, this may mean “un-learning” some bad information, and correcting a lot of mis-information.
I’m going to touch on four ‘Key Concepts’ in the next posts!!!
Phoenix Education 