The importance of SEO and the impact that high-quality search engine optimisation can have on a website is significant. SEO is often the difference between barely any traffic and swimming in new visitors. For this reason, page one and top ranking results are aspired to by most businesses for their keyterms. What may be useful to know is some industry stats that put SEO into context.[endclip] This blog article details industry results (as of July 2014) and explores some of the more interesting trends that came out of a recent study published in July by E-consultancy to do with the effect that PPC and brand vs non brand have on organic click-through-rates (CTR).
The overall CTR for desktop search engine results pages (SERPs) shows that the number one ranked result achieves the highest share of clicks with a 31% CTR and significantly diminished results for subsequent rankings, a 14% CTR for second place rankings, a 10% CTR for a third place ranking and so on. No surprises here but hopefully these stats are useful for understand how top ranked keyterms are useful for driving your web traffic and your business forward.
Not so surprising was that pages two and three pick up just 5.59% of clicks and have significantly lower click-through-rates (CTR) than any page one result. Something we all are aware of in principle and search engine optimisers that are worth their toffee know that anything not on page one is not driving any significant business and needs work.
Ranking vs CTR gap
One of the revelations that came out this research is that the gap between first and second place is narrowing, perhaps signalling a trend that it's not only the top result that commands traffic anymore but arguably that the top three should all be factored in as major Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Second place rankings CTRs increased from 12.5% in 2011 to 14% in 2014. While the CTR for rank one results dropped from 36% to 32% reducing the gap between the top ranking result and second place from 23.5% in 2011 to 18% in 2014.
The reasoning behind the drop is speculative but it is suggested that adverts and Google's own comparison results have reduced the prominence of the number one slot and gone some way toward leveling the playing field for other authoritative sources to compete organically and via PPC.
How PPC affects CTR
The number of ads also plays a role and has some surprising results. Two or three PPC ads have the effect of reducing CTR for the top organic position, but on the flip side results with just one ad increase it. E-consultancy try and explain this by going back to the fundamental organic principles of relevancy and trustworthiness. When there are more ads it is more difficult to distribute trust, however when there is only one (particularly if supported by a top ranking result) the lack of competition focuses trust and relevancy on the one brand.
Ad presence reduce CTR of rank one listing by a third (from 26% to 17.5%). This is because organic results are less visible than they used to be. For competitive terms it could be that the organic listing is competing against paid ads and sponsored listings. The reason this is important is because using paid ads to protect your brand terms and push competing organic results further down the page you are able to dominate search engine results pages and draw a greater share of clicks to your website.
Branded vs non branded
Branded search results provide a much higher CTR. This is because the results match the users search intention and the expanded site links that Google give to authoritative brands, supported by knowledge panels, mean that brand terms can dominate search results.
The blog article by Graham Charlton sums it up well when he says; "Put simply, if you're not on page one of Google, you're almost nowhere."
To discuss your SEO and PPC please contact us and a member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible. Alternatively you can call the office for a chat on 01323 735800 or email Harry at harry@barkweb.co.uk.