Google click through rates – the importance of 1st page ranking

Google published data over 12 months ago containing information on the click through rates from 36 million search queries. Everyone knows the importance of the top positions in Google but the data emphasises how you really DO need to be at the top of the SERP’s.

Below are the positions within google and the clickthrough rates

#1.  42.3% of all clickthroughs
#2. 11.92%
#3. 8.44%
#4. 6.03%
#5. 4.86%
#6. 3.99%
#7. 3.37%
#8. 2.98%
#9. 2.83%
#10. 2.97%

Attaining the #1 position in Google will result in nearly 4 times more traffic than the #2 position.  Looking at figures for the 2nd page of the SERP, the figures drop to less than 1% of the clickthroughs, thus proving that many visitors do not browse beyond the first 2 pages of search results.