How Much is a First Page Position on Google Worth?
Created on Thursday, 14 April 2011 20:03 Published Date Hits: 1003
When I wrote SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website on Google’s #1 page, in picking the title, I was responding to the countless of emails I get each day which continue to ask the question every webmaster asks: “How do I get my website on the first page of Google?”.
A first page position in Google is more than just a vanity request. As the recent soap-opera with JCPenney and Overstock and Google’s internet sheriff act shows a first page position is worth a lot and the very top slot on Google’s first page is worth even more. Enough, at any rate, for multi-million companies to actually risk getting in trouble by Google (and risk getting banned as has happened in the JCPenney and Overstock cases), in order to attain it.
Just how much it is worth to have your website appear for a particular search term at the very top of Google’s first page has now become apparent thanks to some original research carried out by Daniel Ruby, Research Director at Chitica Inc.
Websites which find themselves on the top spot of Google’s first page get almost 35% of the traffic for that query. Positions two through to five received, collectively, another 35% and the remaining five contestants on Google’s first page split 30% of the remaining traffic amongst them.
This huge difference between the top slot on Google’s first page and the rest shows a lot about human psychology and online buyer perception. It also shows why there is simply so much competition to get on Google’s first page and then not just stay there but climb to the very top slot on it.
