Which is better: Way bottom on 1st page of results, or top of 2nd?

The answer to this age old question!

[PFOnline]

After about 2 years, I have finally made it to the coveted first page in the 10th position for my sites main keyword...

...And have noticed a big increase in visits!

About 300 more unique visits a day to be exact.

I hovered at rank #11 for months, (1st result on 2nd page) and only received on average of about 1000 visits a day, but now that I moved up 1 rank, to the first page, I'm averaging around 1300. Quite a difference 1 rank makes!

So I think in conclusion, even if it is the 10th position (at the way bottom) of the 1st page, it is still better than the top position of the 2nd page!

I can only imagine what would happen if it moved up a few more notches! :)

[troels nybo nielsen]

> I can only imagine what would happen if it moved up a few more notches!

Careful now. Don't have too high expectations. #10 might actually be better than #9 or #8. I have three different domains that are all represented with two pages in top 11 for a not very competitive keyword. And #10 is doing better than #3 and #4, but that may of course have a lot to do with titles and descriptions.

[PFOnline]

Yeah, but you gotta agree that 1st page/10th position is better than 2nd page/1st position! ;)

Major difference!

[jcoronella]

#10 is better than 11 or 9 or 8.

If you can control the rank that carefully, however, you should be able to get yourself above #5.

[DaveN]

the top four positions in Google are #1 , #2 , #3 , #11

get more referrals from #11 than #4 -> #10 ;)

DaveN

[James_Dale]

I think it depends what you are selling.

I was amazed when dropping from position 1 to position 18 for my major keyword still brought in plenty of referrals.

There is much more to success than SEO placement if you are in a service industry. Even if that industry happens to be SEO ;)

[sullen]

yup - depends on the site.

I have a non-commercial time-waster site which got 25% more traffic when it was #11 as when it was #10. I guess our users are handier with the "next" link than most.

Plus, now we're #6 and get shedloads more traffic than #10 or #11.

[skipfactor]

I guess our users are handier with the "next" link than most.

As a user, I'm ready for 'fresh' results after a scroll to the bottom.

[plasma]

Everything after #5 is useless.
It's like you wouldn't be found at all.

[Chndru]

Everything after #5 is useless.

Tell that to Google, they might then revert their hardware resources to some "useful" tasks ;)

[plasma]

Tell that to Google, they might then revert their hardware resources to some "useful" tasks ;)

Well, I meant it's useless for webmasters ;)

[BigDave]

I think it really depends on a whole bunch of factors, including the type of visitor your site is likely to have.

It also makes a difference how well your site stands out from the sites listed around your site. I would take an indented 11-12 over a 10-11 any day.

[Crush]

A friend of mine says he never clicks the first few site "because they use tricks to get there" Now who would do that? ;)

but I think statistically 85% of people click one of one of the first 3

[Mark_A]

I think it depends on what people are looking for and if they know anything about the market and the players in it already.

So for me

If its a big purchase, lots of money or time and I know little about it then I am less likely to only look at top of page 1 in fact I may have to get to page 10 to find the real people selling the stuff anyhow :-)

If its a convenience bit of data or purchase then who cares, first to provide the solution get my attention ..

[ogletree]

There are some areas that people go to all sites that sell what they want in the first 3 pages. Unless the first page is full of relavant results which is very seldom. When I was looking for a live help desk program I had a list of 10 programs. I went pretty deep. I settled for one that somebody else found for me. There are still a bunch of goofballs out there that don't seem to care about Google. I have since learned to click on the Yahoo Directory to find sites like one I can find easily. I don't go to DMOZ because it is so out of date and has so many holes.

[Kirby]

I think many people who know what they are looking for actually read the results before clicking, so blanket statements that one position is better than another is a bit of a generalization.

[shaadi]

#3 is the best position!

[2_much]

Depends so much on the kw, i have a #1 for a single competitive kw and 2nd pafe is useless, for other even bigger keywors the first page has so much variety that people will dig further.

[PFOnline]

#10 is better than 11 or 9 or 8.

I can see why #10 is better than 11, since it moves you from page 2 to page 1, but why would it be better than 9 or 8?

Is this just the case in your experience?

Just wondering. :)

[Mark_A]

Have to say that I really dont watch single ranks that closely .... position 1 or page 1 or page 2 I watch or lower .. but I watch referrals most and enquiries, I know ranking is an important part of that but its only one part and its enquiries that convert that I am after.

[digitalghost]

>>Everything after #5 is useless.

ROFL

Personally, I've found 11 to convert better than 10, 7-10 seems to be a blind spot. #5 converts slightly higher than #1, position #3 converts the best. Used tens of thousands of phrases for the research over two years.

Surprise, surprise, MSN converts better than any other engine I researched. Google, is under the industry average of 2%.

[chadmg]

Personally, I'll never go past page 3 or 4 when searching for something. If a search engine can't deliver what I'm looking for by then, I'll move on to other keywords or another search engine.

10 may be better than 9 or 8 because if you scroll down straight to the bottom, your eyes should read from bottom to top. I think hits/ranking has to do with how relevant the other sites with those keywords are. You could be 2nd in the serps and get very little visitors if the number 1 guy is what everyone is looking for.

And also what is displayed for your site with those keywords. If I search for "what are widgets" and my eyes quickly scan the page and find "Widgets are..." I'll go there first. I'm not necessarily going to click each link in order until I find what I want.

[LogicMan]

"get more referrals from #11 than #4 -> #10" - DaveN

I'll swap you two postition 11's for one position 5.

Given that what the searcher can see (Title, Desc, etc) is the same, I have experienced a big increase by moving from top of page 2 to any place on page 1.

[digitalghost]

Just a quick note, stop thinking in terms of referrals and start thinking in terms of conversions.

Noticed in this thread that it is mostly about traffic. Traffic is easy to get. Conversions earn coin.

[NFFC]

>but why would it be better than 9 or 8?

Its #1 on the way back up the page.

[Chndru]

Surprise, surprise, MSN converts better than any other engine I researched. Google, is under the industry average of 2%.

because half of the pie is snatched by the Adwords listings on the other side :)