A website with the first position in Google results receives 33% of the search traffic for a keyword or phrase, compared with 18% for the second position, according to a recent report by Chitika Insights.
In addition, being in the first position on any page of results contributes to more traffic than the second position on that page. For example, traffic from users drops 27%, 11.3%, and 5.4% from the first position to second position on pages two, three, and four, respectively, of Google search results.
Below, additional findings from the report, which was based on an analysis of Google search traffic in the United States and Canada.
Traffic Volume By Page
There is a significant drop in traffic volume between the last position on a page and first position on the next page. For example, the 10th search result received 2.4% of traffic on average, while the 11th received only 1%.
The drop in cumulative traffic moving from one page to another is even more significant. Sites listed on the first Google search results page generate 91.5% of all traffic from an average search. When moving from page one to two, the traffic drops 95%—and 78% and 58% for the next two pages, respectively.
About the research: The report was based on an analysis of tens of millions of online ad impressions in which the user was referred to the page via a Google search. From the referring Google URL, Chitika was able to extract the position that the page was on within the prior search results page. The data was collected between May 21 and May 27, 2013.
