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Don't Count On Google Traffic Unless You Get #1 Spot?

by leclaims
40 replies
Wanted to get your opinion based on your own experience.

Is it even worth trying to get to page 1 of Google unless you know you can get the #1 spot, or perhaps #3 or higher, in a relatively short period of time?

From what I've observed it seems that because there are so many sponsored ads on the top half and right side of the page, visitors won't even bother with natural results other than position 1 (3 or higher depending on screen resolution).
#count #google #spot #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author jan roos
    A lot of people that are looking for reviews, especially for expensive products will scroll all the way down page one and even onto page 2 and 3 looking for reviews about whatever it is they are going to buy.

    When this happens you can sometimes make more money being further down the page because once people get to your site they are really ready to buy and am just looking for that one sign to pull the trigger. If your site can give them that sign then you are good to go.

    Hope that made sense
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    • Profile picture of the author theentry
      Originally Posted by jan roos View Post

      A lot of people that are looking for reviews, especially for expensive products will scroll all the way down page one and even onto page 2 and 3 looking for reviews about whatever it is they are going to buy.
      Make sense. I always check page #2 and #3 if I'm searching for reviews. But for other stuff I'm not.
      So it highly depends on the niche of your site
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  • Profile picture of the author netmatrix
    It is obvious that the #1 position gets the bulk of the traffic.

    However, you can get a good amount of traffic in position 2-5 as long as there are a lot of searches for the keyword. Think popularity.
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  • Profile picture of the author wasblue
    I have two sites that are in the # 10 spot and I get traffic daily from them. One is a review site and one is selling a click bank item.
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    • Profile picture of the author leclaims
      Perhaps my question is most apparent in product searches. Random example: white dinner plates. Your search may be different based on your location, but I see sponsored results on the top and right, and shopping results (product photos) under the sponsored results on the top. I don't even see any natural results unless I scroll down. Seems to me that someone shopping for white dinner plates would have all they need here and wouldn't have to scroll down to look at the natural results. Would be pretty disheartening if I created a site targeting the keyword phrase white dinner plates and realized that this was happening.

      I'm just wondering if Google is starting to lose sight of the purpose of the search engine and is focusing more on the "paid directory" side of things with their AdWords program.
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      • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
        Originally Posted by leclaims View Post

        Perhaps my question is most apparent in product searches. Random example: white dinner plates. Your search may be different based on your location, but I see sponsored results on the top and right, and shopping results (product photos) under the sponsored results on the top. I don't even see any natural results unless I scroll down. Seems to me that someone shopping for white dinner plates would have all they need here and wouldn't have to scroll down to look at the natural results. Would be pretty disheartening if I created a site targeting the keyword phrase white dinner plates and realized that this was happening.

        I'm just wondering if Google is starting to lose sight of the purpose of the search engine and is focusing more on the "paid directory" side of things with their AdWords program.
        It may be worth investing in Market Samurai so you can see the difference in search volume between PPC and organic results. I'm looking at a keyword now that says if I was #1 organically I would get around 400 hits a day but for #1 with adwords, you would get 21 clicks a day.

        I may not be 100% accurate here as I think Googles a little secretive of it's true figures, however I thought organic traffic got way more hits than adwords traffic.
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        • Profile picture of the author PatriciaJ
          I just got one of my sites into 9th position for quite competetive keywords from 48th a few weeks ago and gained about 100 more visitors a day. I can see in the stats that searches for those keywords has grown over that time and I was getting some traffic from those keywords when the site was 48th. So yes you can get traffic with natural results when your sites are not in the top 3 though that keyword example is for an information search.

          That particular site is ranked 3rd for a product that just has one Amazon ad amongst many and it gets searched for and so do many of the other products. So product brand names are important too when it comes to getting traffic

          I have noticed the growth of paid for ads and shopping links and agree with leclaims about Google losing sight of the purpose of the search engine. Bit hypocritical really when you think about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Thayer
    The fact is that clicks do drop significantly from #1 to #2. They decrease from positions #2 to #10, but not as drastically. It's estimated that the #1 position in the SERPs gets about 3.5x more clicks than the #2 position and 14x more clicks than the #10 position.

    However, if you can still rank on the first page (the higher the better, of course), why wouldn't you? Assuming that your target keyword has a respectable amount of monthly searches, you're still going to be benefiting from the traffic somewhat... and FREE traffic, at that.

    Personally, I often click on results anywhere in the top 10... or even on the second or third pages, at times. A lot of it is based on the snippet that Google shows. If it doesn't look like something that fits what I'm looking for, I move down the list. Smart SEOers use the description META tag on each page and include the keyword(s) that they are targeting.

    Adwords ads ("sponsored ads") have declined in popularity over the last few years. They don't get nearly the number of clicks that the organic results do.
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  • Profile picture of the author dougsanders
    I have a shoe site that jumps between 6 and 8 and I move quite a few pairs of shoes per month for the companies I affiliate with. If you are relying on Adsense you probably won't see much success, unless you are in a high paying niche. But when it comes to affiliate marketing I think being on page 1 means you will see some sales--obviously sitting at number 1 though means much more growth.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Thayer
    Google shows shopping links when you search for "white dinner plates" because it naturally assumes that you are looking to BUY white dinner plates. Maybe you're trying to determine the aerodynamic properties of white dinner plates for use in skeet shooting, or you're writing a school report on how white dinner plates are manufactured. But most people are just looking to buy dem some plates.

    Most searches do not have product images; it depends on the keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author Terry Hatfield
    You are stuck in your mind!!!

    You are way over thinking it. Just build a site and start making some money.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kamran
      What I have noticed is that even if my site is not ranking in #1 for my target keyword, it ranks #1 for many long-tail variation of it. When I look at analytics I notice a lot of my visitors come from these long tail variation.

      That said, for many of my keywords, I do receive good traffic by being on middle or bottom of the first page of Google. Like Jan said above, if people are really looking for the information they would be willing to scroll down and check all the results. I do the same when I am searching.
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  • Profile picture of the author dannyadams
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    • Profile picture of the author Robert Domino
      Originally Posted by dannyadams View Post

      This is a controversial viewpoint (and I already know people will disagree with me) but I wouldn't "count on" Google traffic at all. Actually, I wouldn't count on a single source of traffic no matter what it is...especially something that is out of my control.

      What if you do spend 6 months getting to number 1 (or longer) and you stay there for a week and get slapped? What if Google changes it's algorithm? What if, what if, what if....

      I try to "count on" my personal brand, building a following and building name recognition. Your name can never be "slapped" unless you do something stupid.

      Good luck.
      This is totally irrelevant (no offense).

      If you have a website, you should do some SEO regardless. It doesn't need to be compicated and expensive. Yet if someone does even basic SEO work, they will usually rank for some long tail keywords.

      So, you can "count" on Google traffic. It's just a slow(er) process.

      ie: I have a french article on one of my websites which, without targetting it, ranked well for a keyword and its long tail counterparts.. it made a ton of money over the years.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
        Originally Posted by Robert Domino View Post

        This is totally irrelevant (no offense).

        If you have a website, you should do some SEO regardless. It doesn't need to be compicated and expensive. Yet if someone does even basic SEO work, they will usually rank for some long tail keywords.

        So, you can "count" on Google traffic. It's just a slow(er) process.
        As much as there is little love lost between Danny and myself, I see his
        point.

        Personally, I count on nobody but ME to bring me traffic and sales.

        Having said that, I'll use the hell out of everything I can in order to
        attain my goals.

        And that includes milking Google for all they're worth.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Williams
    Yes, it is still worth to build sites even if you never get higher than #5. I have several sites that I set and forgot long time ago, those keywords hang on the first page but not on top, and these little sites still make a $100 or two each month, and that`s without doing anything.
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    • Profile picture of the author singhavn
      I think 70% of people don't look beyond 5th position
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    • Profile picture of the author theentry
      Originally Posted by Alex Williams View Post

      Yes, it is still worth to build sites even if you never get higher than #5. I have several sites that I set and forgot long time ago, those keywords hang on the first page but not on top, and these little sites still make a $100 or two each month, and that`s without doing anything.
      Same here, got a few SE one-page wonders (build&forget method) and they are making a few bucks here and there... (some more, some less)
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      • Profile picture of the author leclaims
        I think you have to identify your "niche" when it comes to driving traffic to your sites, and then perhaps worry about SE results as a secondary benefit to those efforts and not focus 100% of your effort on Google results.

        Your immediate traffic flow will help bring in some income (hopefully) while you're waiting for your site to creep up in the rankings (if at all).

        At least this way you won't put in 3 months or 6 months of effort with nothing to show for it if your site never ranks well enough.
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by Rob Thayer View Post

          The fact is that clicks do drop significantly from #1 to #2. They decrease from positions #2 to #10, but not as drastically. It's estimated that the #1 position in the SERPs gets about 3.5x more clicks than the #2 position and 14x more clicks than the #10 position.

          However, if you can still rank on the first page (the higher the better, of course), why wouldn't you? Assuming that your target keyword has a respectable amount of monthly searches, you're still going to be benefiting from the traffic somewhat... and FREE traffic, at that.

          Personally, I often click on results anywhere in the top 10... or even on the second or third pages, at times. A lot of it is based on the snippet that Google shows. If it doesn't look like something that fits what I'm looking for, I move down the list. Smart SEOers use the description META tag on each page and include the keyword(s) that they are targeting.

          Adwords ads ("sponsored ads") have declined in popularity over the last few years. They don't get nearly the number of clicks that the organic results do.
          This is why it's worthwhile being on the first page (or three) even if you have no hope of ever dislodging #1.

          I'm not going to quibble with the estimates Rob quoted. Over a large and diverse sample, they're likely pretty close. I'm also guessing that those stats don't differentiate between human searchers actively looking for something we might have a commercial interest in and general searches. It might not even separate human and machine based clicks.

          I'm convinced that, for humans actively looking for something, the title and description displayed are far more important than just position on the page.
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          • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
            I dunno...I get traffic from Google being on page 20.

            :confused::confused::confused:
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            • Profile picture of the author DogScout
              Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

              I dunno...I get traffic from Google being on page 20.

              :confused::confused::confused:

              Yeah, depending on niche, in some, being 7 gets more traffic than 1. Also depends on how appealing the descriptions and titles are to people with buying intent of the sites above yours. If the result above yours are easily ID'd as info sites, buyers will scroll to the 1st title and description that they feel will lead them to what they want to buy. Lots of variables. If you are in a niche where the main keyword has a buying site with fantastic title and description in position 1, then, yeah, you need to be #1 for that keyword to get quality traffic from it.
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            • Profile picture of the author IndigoJack
              There is no one answer for this. I have some sites that, if they weren't on page 1 #1, 2 or 3 it would seriously harm their prospects of getting any significant business.

              But then there are others that aren't even on page 10 and they get shed loads more visitors than the page 1 sites! They are still being found.

              It all depends upon your niche - some need more help.
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              • Profile picture of the author Digital Info Diva
                IndigoJack is correct - it really depends on the niche.

                Don't just concentrate on page 1 - make sure you saturate the top 10 to
                build your brand. One of my niches consistently gets traffic from lower
                ranked pages, but after analyzing the stats, it appears to be more because
                of the brand.

                If you're on page 1 but not the top listing, the last position isn't bad - it's the
                last item people see before clicking to the next page!
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              • Profile picture of the author RanD
                I have a site on page 2 in Google for a highly competitive keyword. It was the first site that I built and I did everything wrong. I went for the main keyword in the niche, promoting physical product where all my competition are the actual specialty stores selling the product. There's really no reason for traffic to ever get to my site, but I still get around a thousand unique visitors each month. Almost all of it from Google, and most are from people searching on the primary keyword. <shrugs>

                In other niches, that would probably be even more likely. In niches where you are only competing with other marketers and web 2.0 properties, the top sites may not really offer what people are looking for. I don't ever just click on the #1 listing. I tend to looks at the first few as a whole, and I choose the ones with the best descriptions of what I'm looking for. If I do click on the link and the site has little to offer, I just hit the back button and find another listing. Too many marketers put all their focus on ranking the site, and not enough in providing what visitors are actually looking for. There are often times where I am looking for something and have to digl several pages deep in Google to find what I am looking for. I'm sure that it's the same for others.
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                • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
                  When I was doing some research for this thread:

                  http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...-p1-serps.html

                  I came to the conclusion that most of the statistics people love to quote (like the Google 'golden triangle') have a flaw when it comes to marketing.

                  They don't make any attempt to differentiate between types of searches.

                  Regardless of how much we all wish that most searchers were looking to buy something, it just isn't so.

                  > If I'm looking to check the spelling or definition of a word, the odds are quite likely the top result will answer my question. The same thing applies to things like currency conversions, weights and measures, and simple facts.

                  > If I'm just looking for something to amuse myself, I'll type in a search and start clicking at the top. If that page doesn't have what I want, I'll bounce. I do a lot of searches for stuff like 'fishing videos'.

                  > Many of the studies I read attempted to deal with this by giving searchers two lists of tasks - finding a given home page and finding very specific bits of information. Many of the searchers found the home page by searching for the name of the company. Anybody shocked when it came up first? Same for the info searches. Type in something like 'capitol of Montana', and the first result or two is likely to have the answer right in the snippet. This leads to longer fixations on those snippets.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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            Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

            I'm convinced that, for humans actively looking for something, the title and description displayed are far more important than just position on the page.
            ^^^^ This.
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            • Profile picture of the author Rikki_Fawkes
              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              ^^^^ This.
              Yes - exactly. I'm sick of getting #1 results on Squidoo that have been deleted months ago. And Google thinks they're so smart!
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  • Profile picture of the author Vcize
    Anywhere in the top 5 usually gets pretty decent traffic, depending on how crazy google news is going with sticking articles in the middle of the page on that day. Sometimes when it gets particularly spammy you really need to be top 3.

    Somehow, I get traffic from some of my links that are way down at the bottom (usually around 8% of the monthly search volume for that keyword), which is odd because I never typically make it that far.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nail Yener
    Originally Posted by leclaims View Post

    From what I've observed it seems that because there are so many sponsored ads on the top half and right side of the page, visitors won't even bother with natural results other than position 1 (3 or higher depending on screen resolution).
    That all depends on the nature of the search term and how your page is related to it. Simple SEO(on page/off page) will help you to some extent. But if you can write compelling titles and descriptions for your pages, you can steal the visitors from your competitors even if you are below spot #3.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
    I have found from many years of experience and studying User Search Data, that you can expect somewhere between 2% and 5% of the monthly results if you are on the front page but not in the top three positions.

    Obviously, the data changes from month to month, keywords being searched for, and how well you write your descriptions but 2% - 5% is a good bet when looking at your potential traffic based on the monthly totals.
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    • Profile picture of the author leclaims
      Personally, I don't want to get sucked into an Adwords campaign that could easily cost me hundreds of dollars a month, with nothing to show for it, just to have that top sponsor spot.

      I suppose I'll take my chances with 2% to 5% and hope I can get some good results.
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      • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
        Originally Posted by leclaims View Post

        I suppose I'll take my chances with 2% to 5% and hope I can get some good results.
        Most people try so hard to find a way to be in the top three spots that they settle for smaller search numbers for keywords.

        But my question to them is, would you rather have 70% of Ole' Dead Larry's Creek or 2% of the Mississippi River?
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        • Profile picture of the author leclaims
          Originally Posted by Matt M View Post

          Most people try so hard to find a way to be in the top three spots that they settle for smaller search numbers for keywords.

          But my question to them is, would you rather have 70% of Ole' Dead Larry's Creek or 2% of the Mississippi River?

          Excellent point. Man, how do you decide which on to shoot for??!!

          Hopefully the folks that come from Ole' Dead Larry's Creek love to spend money!!
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  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    I have often received more traffic from links in positions two and three than I did from links in position one.
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  • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
    I'm on page 1 for one of my keywords, and on pages 2 and 3 for some other ones - and I see daily traffic from all of them. Personally, if I'm really searching for good information or the right product, I have no problem heading to pages 2, 3, 4, etc.

    Don't get so caught up in the number 1 spot. There are plenty of posts from people on here who are number 1 for certain keywords, and still can't get any traffic. It's not like a #1 ranking guarantees instant success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adriana Copaceanu
    One other thing to note is that even if you get the most traffic at #1, that doesn't mean you'll get the most sales in that position.

    Most of the time, potential buyers are not content with the first thing they come across: they want to compare, so they go and check positions #2, #3 and even beyond.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewT
    Getting to page 1 will get you traffic but pos 1 to 3 is where you really get the big share of the traffic in my experience
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich77sm
    On one of my sites, it bounces from 1 to 2 about every week.
    The one im fighting with has NOTHING to do with the exact search terms and my traffic still suffers by 60% or more. Makes no sense, but then again... people =)
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    • Profile picture of the author Rikki_Fawkes
      Positions 2 and 3 aren't always so bad... I sometimes get "#1 Blindness" for some reasons and always start scanning down the page for the results 2-6.

      I know it's preferred, but I personally don't like position 1 too much because of its proximity to the sponsored ads.
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