12 Aug FACT: TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE CLICK THE FIRST GOOGLE SEARCH RESULT
Fact: Twenty Five People Click the First Google Search Result
- A study by Sistrix analyzed over 80 million keywords and search results. The study aimed to understand user engagement.
- The results revealed average CTR drops considerably after the first search result.
- More than a quarter of Google users click the first search result. The average organic click-through-rate of the first search result in 28.5%.
- The second and third results had an average CTR of 15% and 11%, respectively. The tenth search result had an average CTR of 2.5%.
Google Click-through-Rates
- SEO is critical for ranking and driving traffic.
- According to Sistrix analysis, the second-place web page will generate at least three times more clicks than the sixth place page. The first place page earns ten times more clicks than the tenth place page.
- The CTR for pages on the second page of Google search results had an average of less than 1%.
- Many factors impact the CTR of the pages on each position on the first page of search results.
Factors Impacting Click-through-Rates
- The most significant factor is the layout of SERPs.
- A majority of queries generate the traditional ten blue links SERP layout. Other queries generate other types of layouts.
- Here are other types of SERP layouts and how they affect CTRs.
SERPs with Sitelinks
- Sitelinks extensions are useful for boosting traffic.
- The first position page with sitelinks extensions will achieve an average CTR of 46.7%.
- One of the possible reasons that sitelinks appear in search results is because the query involves a specific website.
- As such, the first result with sitelinks will receive half the clicks.
Featured Snippets
- The study reveals that there is no benefit for a page to display a featured snippet.
- The click-through-rate of such pages is 5.3%, which is below average.
- When the first search result has a featured snippet, the average CTR for position 2 and 3 is above average.
Knowledge Panels
- Knowledge Panels do not affect clicks as well.
- The average CTR for such pages is 16% rather than 28%.
- These pages receive fewer clicks because the knowledge panel provides the user with the answers they need.
SERPs with Google Ads
- All the top positions in the SERP are affected if the page is full of ads.
- However, the knowledge panel affects organic results more.
- The CTR is reduced by 10% in the presence of Google Ads.
- On the contrary, knowledge panels reduce CTR by 12%.
Bottom line
- The key takeaway from the study is that the keyword search volume should not be the only factor to consider when evaluating links.
- SERPs with Sitelinks extensions perform better.
- Featured Snippets and knowledge panels do not improve clicks for a web page.
- Presence of Google Ads hurt all positions on the first SERP.
