We've talked about how to improve your search engine rankings, but how important do you think it is to have high search engine rankings for the keywords that your customers will be searching for?

Today we're going to look at some of the research that has looked at how users use search engines, and which positions you should want your website to rank for in search engines.

What research is there?

The past few days I have been working through several research projects which studied how users use search engines. These reports include:

• Enquiro eye trackings reports from 2005 and 2006
• Search engine usage data leaked by AOL in 2006
• iProspect blended search results study from 2008
• Enquisite Report from 2008

What does the research show?

Essentially, all this research tells a similar story: higher search engine results generally means an increase in click through rates.

Here are some interesting facts:

• According to data leaked by AOL in 2006, the number 1 organic search result has a click through rate of 42%, the second result 12%, and the third result 8%.
• Research undertaken by iProspect (2008) showed that around 70% of searchers click on a result in the first page of search results, the Enquisite (2008) found that it was 90%.
• Research by iProspect showed that image, video and news sections blended in with search results have a high click through rate: 31% of users click on images blended in with search results, 36% of users click on news and 17% of users click on videos blended in with search results.
• The image below shows the results of a study of an eye tracking study of Google conducted by Enquiro in 2005. It shows that users spend most of their time looking where the colours are hottest - in the red, orange, and yellow sections of the page. It shows that users' eyes are directed to the top search results, this is known as the "golden search triangle".

Conclusion

These figures help add weight to the argument of how important search engine optimisation is. They show it should be your objective to get the highest ranking positions, and you should optimise image, news and video results. Nevertheless, the true value of search engine rankings can only be shown by measuring your rankings along with your traffic numbers and conversion rates.

If you want to regularly keep track of your search engine rankings, there are a few software packages which you can use including WebCEO, Advanced Web Ranking and the Rank Checker plugin for firefox. My personal preference is Advanced Web Ranking, but it comes with a fairly hefty price tag, the Rank Checker plugin for firefox is free.

Feedback

How important do you think search engine rankings are for your websites?

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