Link Clicks: The Importance of Being on Top
Search marketing has taken the web by storm in the past couple of years as companies look for ways to further market their products to the general public. All exposure, even in the slightest bit, is beneficial to a company. As a result, the popularity of search result ads has skyrocketed with companies vying for ad spots.
So, just how important is it to be on top?
According to new research from Compete.com, which analyzed “tens of millions” of consumer-generated search engine results pages, the difference between a first and second place listing can be huge.
As seen in the illustration above, organic listings, or listings that show up due to relevance, make up 85% of the total listings with the other 15% coming from paid search listings. Now when it comes to clicks on these organic listings, the majority of the them (53%) go to the top result with the second result seeing a mere 15% of the action. The dropoff between the first and second results is huge, and thus highlights the brand’s need for a strategy that includes “constantly monitoring results due to the ongoing evolution of search engine algorithms.”
Even amongst the paid listings, the results at the top perform much better than those under it. This is shown in the following diagram:
The research shows that although the majority of paid search ads are displayed in the right sidebar, the majority of clicks by consumers occurs in the top portion of the page. Although the top listing on the right gets 4% of the clicks compared to 3% for the second, the third listing in the top section more than doubles this, getting 9% of the clicks. The top listing at the top of the page gets a whopping 59% of all paid search clicks. Choosing the right location for the ad is thus a very crucial step in optimizing a company’s marketing strategy.
Overall, as can be seen, being at the top of the page is extremely important in terms of click percentage by consumers. This article ties into our class directly by discussing the importance of click thru rates for effective marketing. Higher click through rates were characteristic of the listings at the top of the page and would thus yield a pricing that is higher. Although the article does not go into the valuations for pricing the different placements for listings, it supports the fact mentioned in class that companies would be willing to pay more for a greater ability to reach consumers. This article highlights the importance of being on top and I personally found it very interesting. It has caused me to think and analyze my own click habits when it comes to search results and advertisements.
Source:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2215868/53-of-Organic-Search-Clicks-Go-to-First-Link-Study
– Ramen & Red Bull