SEO: Be First or Go Home
The Importance of Being First
As we engage in our search engine optimization efforts, it is critical to find keywords where we can rank in the first page. This is critical because the click through rates for being on the first page vs. later pages is tremendous. In fact, even the difference between being in the top five vs. later five is very significant.
A survey conducted by iProspect showed that nearly 40% of survey respondents said they do not go past the first page when they search. And only 10% go beyond the first 3 pages.
And an analysis of the AOL search data set showed that even within the first page the results were clickthrough rates were significantly different:
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
How do we get to be #1?
Given this data, it’s clear that we should focus our SEO efforts on getting to the front page. This is - of course - easier said than done. At the same time, there are some very basic things we can do to improve our chances for success.
And it all starts with proper keyword targeting. Often times as search marketers, we focus only on the high volume keywords in our domain.
However, the reality is that there is significant search volume and often a lot less competition for “long-tail” keywords. These keywords - the often ignored long tail keywords are the ones that no search marketing maven can afford to ignore!
