A Curious Fact Concerning Google Ranking

It is interesting to note that, according to figures released by Google and AOL regarding clickthroughs by search result positioning, it is distinctly preferable to be listed as the eleventh result rather than positions sixth, seventh, eight, ninth and tenth.

So, if, following a Google search, your site is listed in positions six to ten then it would appear to be in your interests, (if you cannot get listed at position five or above), to try to drop your position down to eleventh place.

However, some conclusions that can be gained from this information are not quite as unexpected, as, according to the figures released, the percentages of clickthoughs according to search result ranking also show that almost half of those submitting a search to the search engine will opt to click though to the first link.

The difference in the number of clickthoughts between items returned at positions one and two is a little surprising though, with position one gaining a massive 42.1% share versus a relatively meagre 11.9% share for results returned in second place – nevertheless, this shows that the first and second results serve to secure more than half of all clickthroughs.

Items returned in third place receive a 8.5% share of clickthroughs, with this figure falling to a 4.9% share for fifth placed returns. This is where it gets interesting, as items returned in sixth place secure only a 4.1% share in comparison to items in eleventh place receiving a 4.37% recorded clickthrough rate.

The reason for this appears to be that results placed at eleventh invariably appear on the second page of returns, which would indicate that many users, rather than linking through to a site from halfway down the first page, will opt to load the second page of returns and then follow the link featured at the top of this page – which just happens to be the eleventh return on the search undertaken.

What can be deduced from these figures is that, whilst half of the users submitting searches to Google are – in the main – happy to go with the first result returned, there is an element of users that will opt to look further down the results before linking through to a return. This would subsequently indicate that a proportion of users are somewhat dismissive of higher placed returns, perhaps due to the fact that it is inevitable that the big hitters have almost certainly secured the top rankings for a given search term.

Found this page interesting? You may also find this page of interest – concerning Wikipedia’s top 100 page views.

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