42% of Searchers Click the First Result
October 2, 2005 | Category: Search Engines, SEO NewsA recent study examining the behavior of search engine users, and led by Professor Thorsten Joachims of Cornell University, has uncovered some interesting findings.
The study showed that 42% of users click on the first available result when conducting searches, while only 8% click on listing #2. Although it has long been known that the #1 result is favored by searchers, these figures do a good job of illustrating how strongly so.
Where the findings got really interesting though was when SERPs were fed through a script to reverse the order of the top two results. In these cases, 34% of users still clicked on the top result, while 12% clicked on #2.
This demonstrates that the exact same search result can go from a CTR (click through rate) of 12% to a CTR of 42%, by moving up a single spot. A very staggering difference, to be sure, and it seems to suggest that search engine users care more about positioning than actual relevancy.
For more information on the findings of this study, please visit http://www.useit.com/alertbox/defaults.html.
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Published by WealthStream Innovations
[…] In ideal circumstances, you should try not just to be on the first page, but to be listed first on the first page. The power of being first is demonstrated by a recent study, which found that 42% of searchers will click the first result on a page one. Compare that to just 12% who click the same result when it moves down to position number two. […]
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