Organic search engine placement is important as demonstrated by a recent white paper issued by Oneupweb’s Lisa Wehr.
In her study, Wehr used the day a site achieved a Top30 placement at Google as a baseline and examined increases in visitors and conversions. Her findings are interesting as they not only confirm assumptions about Top10 placements, they also show stronger than expected results for sites with Top20 and Top30 placements.
As any SEO sales-person will tell you, conventional wisdom says a first page or Top10 placement at Google will bring visitors and increase sales. Wehr’s paper offers quantifiable statistics showing how powerful a front page placement can be. She found that after a period of two months in the Top10, her clients received an average of 627% more unique visitors with conversion rates increasing by 194%. Approximately 23% of these sites previously appeared in the Top30 with 77% debuting in the Top10.
The paper debunks the perception that second or third pages placements do not benefit clients. Wehr found that second and third page results bring dramatic increases in site traffic with a 517% increase in unique visitors after the first month and a 942% increase after the second. This part of the study focused on sites that had not achieved placements before appearing on the second or third page at Google. While sites in the 11 – 30 position might attract visitors, they are not seeing the dramatic increases in conversions enjoyed by sites ranking in the Top10.
The last thing the study proved was that sites appearing after the third page of results simply do not sell. After seeing thirty results across three pages, search engine users are more likely to use different keywords or a different search engine. Going into the study, the team at
Oneupweb worked under the assumption that being in the Top10 is better than being in the Top30 and that appearing below the Top30 was like not appearing at all. Their report confirms their assumption and offers SEOs a credible source to quote statistics from.
To view the white-paper, please sign up here.