New Study Shows 20% of Google Clicks Go To Number 1

This is an extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates 04 August 2017.

Check out the stats from this new study which show that only 20% of Google clicks go to the No 1 listing, and see the tips on how to turn this data into better performance monitoring and improved SEO strategies.

Contact me to help turn your organic search ranking performance data into actionable share of voice insights.

#SEO #SERP #ClickThroughRates #KnowYourNumbers

Summary:

• You have to drill through a few charts in the Internet Marketing Ninja’s study, but eventually you spot that in terms of organic click-through rates, only 20% of non-branded clicks go to the number 1 spot in organic listings.
• In fact, the CTR (click-through rate) distribution curve is vaguely similar still to the AOL Click Through Data which launched 10,000 SEO discussions over the years, even if the initial numbers are a lot smaller now.
• IMN analysed 20,000 queries, 64mm impressions and, 4mm clicks. (This compares to 9mm clicks from the original AOL data).
• If you spend a while digging into the data, there are nuggets in there. The biggest point that you walk away with is that the click distribution varies enormously based on brand / non-brand, B2B vs B2C, and so on, so these figures should always be taken with a large grain of salt.

Actions to take:

1. Review the charts from IMN. They make good reading.
2. Apply the distribution curves to your own ranking performances to get an idea of Share of Voice between you and your competitors.
3. Use this information to formulate SEO strategies which are focused on being more visible than competitors, as well as ranking number 1.
4. Contact me to help turn your ranking data into actionable share of voice insights.

Discussion:

Organic click-through rates are the stuff of legend, ever since AOL accidentally allowed information from just under 10 million search clicks to leak out. It would be fascinating to see Google’s data on this now.

I like this study. It seems to have a good base of data. It is naturally skewed by selection, rather than random walk picking, but it probably has more than a grain of accuracy to it.

What is evident from the data is that fewer people are clicking on search results, as Google strives to surface more information immediately, and that you have to take Share of Voice into account when judging SEO performance – simple rankings do not cut it.

More info:

• Internet Marketing Ninjas 2017 CTR Study
• Basic Goal Setting and Monitoring
• Basic Competitor Research

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We recently released the super-exciting The State of SEO in mid-2017. Read it now.

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• Only 20% of non-brand search clicks through to number1 now.
• Much lower than old AOL data of ~40%.
• Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
• Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.

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