According to research from seoClarity, there’s isn’t a huge drop-off from the first to second result on desktop devices. Number one has a click-through rate of 19.3 percent, while number two drops to 11.4 percent and progresses consistently from there over the course of the first page of results.
Mobile is a different story: The top spot gets a CTR of 27.7 percent, while the second entry plummets to 9.2 percent. What this indicates is that people don’t spend a lot of time hunting around on mobile search. Instead, if they don’t see what they’re looking for immediately, they’ll probably just perform another query, instead of scrolling and clicking back and forth.
Make sure content is page one material
So should you struggle to be number one? Brands can improve their SEO odds is by concentrating on the first page, rather than the first entry. Search results are often determined by context these days, and the best strategy in the world can’t change a person’s search history, location or Google+ connections.
Want to learn about the effect context has on Google results?
Check out our semantic search eBook, Speaking Google’s Language.
By not only targeting specific keywords, but also writing in-depth content naturally containing relevant terms sites can gain SERP visibility. A Brafton client in the electronic payments industry saw good search performance for one keyword, but that didn’t guarantee high traffic numbers. The company’s highest-converting prospects come from organic search, so we knew widening the SERP net was the answer to improving the business’ bottom line.
By branching out from the original target keyword and including content about related topics and subjects, we were able to help many landing pages and blogs consistently appear on the first page of relevant search results.
In many ways, modern SEO is not about guaranteed methods for being the first entry in results pages, it’s about providing answers that searchers want. High-quality and in-depth content that explores all the angles and answers commonly asked questions will cover the first page, and if the right person asks the right question, your content will be number one.
