How important is it to optimize your site for the number one position (or as close to number one as possible)? Well, in a recent report by Thorsten Joachims at Cornell on the recent study of click-through data[PDF], it becomes *very* clear being number one makes a HUGE difference in click-through-rates and therefore your profitability.
Jakob Nielsen explains more in his post “The Power of Default Values“.
While the report does not cover anything surprising, the numbers and behaviors are an interesting subject. This study was conducted on the Google search engine.
Some interesting gems from the article…
Click behavior for number one and two spots
Users click the top hit not because it’s any better, but simply because it’s first. This might be due to sheer laziness (after all, you start from the top) or because users assume the search engine places the best hit on top, whether that’s actually true or not.
Clicking because it is the best link?
If users always clicked the best link, then swapping the order of the two links should also swap the percentages, and this didn’t happen. The top hit still got the most clicks.
On the other hand, if users trusted the search engine implicitly and clicked the top link simply because it’s first, then swapping the links shouldn’t change the percentages. This didn’t happen either. The top link’s click rate dropped from 42% to 34%. In other words, 8% of users clicked elsewhere: 4% clicked the second hit (which was originally first) and 4% clicked other options.
Clearly, the bias towards top search engine rankings should be enough to take the step towards optimizing your site now if you have not already done so. If you would like to work with me personally, I’d be happy to do so. Get in touch with me via email using the information on my SEO contact form.