Percentage of clicks on google's first page - please help.

[papeter]

Can someone please advise me of the percentage page rank figure for people
clicking on 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th listing position on Google first page?

I think it could be 43% for number one position then it drops
quite a bit for 2nd etc etc.


Thank you very much


papeter

[HunterSnake]

I can't answer your question specifically, but I can make a recommendation.

Vanessa Fox's Marketing in the Age of Google talks a lot about the psychology of searchers. It's an extremely good read and I couldn't recommend it more.

It's inexpensive and reading it thoroughly will answer the questions you've posed here and many, many more.

[MarkR]

This may help - Google Organic Click Through Rate (CTR)

[shakingspear]

You might want to check out the Cornell Study:

Distribution of Clicks on Google's SERPs

[Ryan6]

If you're in top spot then you're doing well if you can take a 50% share. It is pointless to crunch specific numbers though as it will be different for everyone. In Google Webmaster Tools, Google provide you with all of this data anyway.

[JamesM]

There are two many variables for any figures to be meaningful as the current layout of SERPs vary so much between different searches and searchers. Adwords blocks, product listing, site links, multiple page listings - too many variables!

[dburk]

Originally Posted by MarkR

This may help - Google Organic Click Through Rate (CTR)

Hi MarkR,

While Neil did a nice job putting that information together and presenting it, he made a major error and his data is way off. Specifically his AOL data was calculated incorrectly. Instead of crunching the raw data, he used a summary chart that showed how the percentage of clicks broke down over the different positions. He then incorrectly represented those percentages as a CTR. In fact the CTRs were about half those rates.

CTR (Click Through Rate) is the ratio of clicks to searches not the percentage of clicks. About half of all searches are abandoned without any click. The searcher will often hit the back button, or simply type in a new term, without ever clicking any listing on the page. This can be easily confirmed by crunching the raw AOL data for yourself.


@papeter,

Your top percentage is way too high, according to the leaked AOL data it is about 23% CTR for the #1 position and drops rapidly from there.

[Jonas Iri]

Unless you are on first spot, the tite is extremely important. If you see a list of the exact same title on first page, the one title that stands out takes the cake. For example, you search "sugar free chewing gum", and hypothetically you get those results:

Sugar free chewing gum
Buy sugar free chewing gum
sugar free chewing gum fan page
sugar free chewing gum deals
DOG CHOMPS A SUGAR FREE CHEWING GUM!
Good sugar free chewing gums
.
.
.

Even if not on first place, you would probably click on the 5th link only out of curiosity. This is just an example but it helps you get an idea that not being on first place does not mean low click throughs, if you are smart.

[darthtoon]

It is difficult to give exact figures, but you're right that is drops significantly after the top spot, and again after the top 5.

[FreshPLR]

The thing to remember of course is that you can be number 1 for a lot of long tail keyword pages on your site (or in articles you produce which link back to your site).

Then providing each of these long tail keyword pages, which are at 1, 2 or 3 in Google, point to your homepage, you will over time move towards #1 in Google for your main keyword, assuming that is in your homepage title (and possibly the domain name too).

Hope that helps.