CTR for Google Rankings
-
I run a local business, and I'm working on ranking for keyword + city. I currently rank on the first page for just about every keyword I'm working on, but only the top 3 for a little less than half. Because the search volume is so low for each keyword (for most cities Google doesn't have an estimated monthly search volume) the grand total of a few searches a month for each keyword + city combination is where I get my traffic.
Although I seem to be getting consistently higher in the rankings, I am curious as to how much more traffic I can expect. I read somewhere that sites that are ranked number one are clicked 50% of the time, number two 20% of the time, number three 15% and from there on it goes down fast. Rank 7 and on is below 1%. Probably around 30% of my keywords are ranked between 7-10 and probably about 20% are ranked 4-6.
Are the CTR numbers fairly accurate? I understand that there are a lot of influences on CTR, such as title/description, but generally is that somewhat accurate?
If it is, I am missing out on A LOT of traffic.
I am pulling about 800 unique visitors a month from Google. If I get in the top 3 for most of my keywords, can I expect significantly more traffic? I ask the question because there are many other things I could be doing with my time to help the business aside from SEO. I don't want to be working constantly on SEO if traffic is only going to increase very little.
-
Most studies seem to contradict each other at least a little on this but they all give a general idea like this one... not sure how accurate it is, but I found it ages ago at
http://www.seoresearcher.com/distribution-of-clicks-on-googles-serps-and-eye-tracking-analysis.htm
-
If your competitor has exact match and I have exact match + (kickass price or free shipping or top secrets or free beer) then who is going to get the clck?
-
One last thing. I would love to tack on a bit of my USP to the title of the pages such as: "Product + City | USP" but I worry that I would take a hit in rankings because my title is not an exact match with what most people are searching for. Right now there is a close competitor that has pages for "Product + City" in their title, EXACTLY the same way that I do. I think a bit of USP would help CTR soar above the competitor. But if I do that and fall to the second page then it won't help at all.
Do you think this is something I should be worried about?
-
I did a little testing with the state but I was not concerned with state. I figured that local people already assume the state.
What I did find about the state is that the google stats seem to show that people use the Mich abbreviation instead of MI. My assumption is that these people are out of state and not sure if MI is Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi or Missouri. So if I was targeting people outside of the state I would want to use Mich as the abbreviation.
I do know that exact matches typically rank higher than close matches. Therefore I am testing the city+product to see if the ranking increase. In theory I should get better rankings, more traffic and more sales.
-
Thanks for the thoughtful answer! In my case what I have found is opposite a little actually. My service is available throughout my entire county. I am trying to not be spammy in my seo but It's just too difficult right now to make 100% original content for each city I am ranking for. Whereas sites that are ranking above me seem to have less back links and authority but they actually have a physical location and are only offering services in one or two cities.
Is it possible to outrank the smaller websites for their cities if I gain even more trust with the search engines? Right now I just began my linking campaign, and I don't have a whole lot.
-
Thanks for the answer. I am curious about one thing. In your testing did you use the state along with the city name ever? I am convinced that in searches most people do not use the state abbreviation, but I want to show up for those who do. I doubt that using the state in the title/h1's/links etc would make too much of a negative impact, but perhaps it is lowering the weight of the more important keywords ie. product+city as to lower rankings. Do you have any experience with this?
-
One way to get a better number is using Google Webmaster Tools. To test how people search for my product + city I created a few separate sites. Then playing with all the major SEO elements of the pages on the sites. The sites contained a product+city name in the domain. I made sure the site wasn't spammy but contained good product information.
After running the test I found a few things:
1. The google estimated traffic was pretty close to the test numbers (impressions in /webmasters)
2. People were searching for stuff I would have never guessed and finding my pages.
3. People were searching for city+product more than product+cityI am now in the process of creating some pages with city+product in the key elements and see if the placements and numbers increase.
-
When I first started my main site I set my goals on a particular keyword. I just knew that if I got the #1 position I would be swimming in hits (and cash). After a lot of hard work and some successful linkbait I have managed to achieve the #1 position for this keyword. My traffic for this keyword has increased but not dramatically. My conversions are up but only slightly. It was a real disappointment. According to the Adwords Keywords tool I should have had tens of thousands of visitors each month for this keyword. I know now that it just isn't accurate!
I think that every keyword is different. For some keywords, being #1 could change things dramatically. For others it may have only a minor effect.
-
If you move up in the rankings you will almost be guaranteed a higher CTR. So, moving up will bring you a return.
But will that return make a profit?
I believe that it is important to consider who is above you. If you are a tiny local business at #4 with 22 backlinks and the three positions above you are Goliath Brands at #1 and #2 with 1,000,000 backlinks and Major Publisher at #3 with 900,000 backlinks then you might be attacking the US Navy with a slingshot.
In those situations, all is not lost... you still have your title tag that can be used as a lethal weapon. What is your value proposition?....
-- offer a kickass price in the title tag
-- offer immediate free shipping in the title
-- tell them you have the "Secrets to Success"
-- tell them you have "Free Beer"
These will get potential customers onto your website.
If you have something to brag about you should be using the kickass title tag all of the time... but it is especially important if you want to elicit clicks away from the site that ranks above you and that you have little hope of beating.
-
The estimated number of keyword searches is just that, an estimate and is not accurate at all but its all relative.
With that said, this recent blog post has some very useful information on CTR:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/110421-092523
So yes, you will end up with a lot more traffic when you move up to the #3 and then #2 and hopefully #1 spot.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What kind of impact does a 404 have in a sitemap regarding ranking?
We recently had a site update where our robots file disallowed our sitemap for about two weeks. When we found the problem and resubmitted the sitemap to Google Search Console, it found a 404 error. Does this have any impact on ranking or visibility if we are still recovering from the disallow?
Algorithm Updates | | GaryBlanchard0 -
Which is the best way to rank a site?
Hi, I have been working on SEO for a long time, recently I started a new site where I was aiming to rank different niches but I am stuck. First I covered some keywords related to sports then I shifted the niche to hunting. My idea was to cover a niche fully then move on to the 2nd so the authority of the site can also help rank the 2nd niche but the problem is I am unable to rank my site. Should I be considering only a very specific niche site or should I continue doing all the stuff on the same site. Please checkout my site ReviewsCase.com and let me know. And if has also done the same please let me know.
Algorithm Updates | | seoasikhan20 -
Question: About Google's personalization of search results and its impact on monitoring ranking results
Given Google's personalization of search results for anyone who's logged into a Google property, how realistic and how actually meaningful/worthwhile is it to monitor one's ranking results for any keyword term these days?
Algorithm Updates | | RandallScrubs0 -
Input on Experiment with Google
As I'm doing more research into Google's devaluing links, I can do nothing more but to wonder if we will be penalized for previous links (bad links). Here is the situation: Our company was ranking very well for this particular keyword (within the top 3 positions on Google). However, in the last 6 months, we have seen rankings drop significantly (now to the point Google doesn't even recognize the existence of the page). With Google not recognizing us, we decided to do an experiment. The experiment: Make another page with a different URL and delete the existing page that is not ranking in Google. Our Experience: We have noticed that our pages will get indexed and ranked within weeks or making a new page. Our Goal: To get ranked on Google Will our new page get penalized from the old page if it's an entirely new URL? Will the fact that Google in devaluing our links effect our new page that we are trying to get ranked? Any insight would be of great value. Thanks in advance
Algorithm Updates | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Sharp Drop in SERP Ranking for Specific Keyword
I'm sure this happens to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. My pages http://www.cleanedison.com/leed and http://www.cleanedison.com/courses/leed-green-associate suddenly dropped off the map over the past 2 weeks for the keyword "LEED Certification" I tried to limit the number of times "LEED" was mentioned on the first URL (/leed) to try to combat an over-optimization penalty but I did not for the second (/leed-green-associate). Both of them have fallen precipitously and are no where to be found on Google. What can I do to troubleshoot this? Is there anyway to guard against this in the future?
Algorithm Updates | | CleanEdisonInc0 -
Is it normal to receive 2 mails from Google?
I filed a reconsideration request that was answered in less than a week. Subsequently I was told that no manual penalty was in place but various algorithm factors might be causing my heavy drops in ranking. Then I got a second email which was even more specific. This was great, really heartening stuff and a total surprise as it was very helpful. Is it normal to receive 2 emails from Google with such clear information? I have been very pleased by the comments they have made as it has shown me that they're more customer focused than I had been led to believe by all the research I had done pre reconsideration request. Has anyone else had a clear outline of what they needed to fix and has their site subsequently rebounded post fixing?
Algorithm Updates | | swimwithfishes0 -
How to retain those rankings gained from fresh content...
Something tells me I know the answer to this question already but I'd always appreciate the advice of fellow professionals. So.....fresh content is big now in Google, and i've seen some great examples of this. When launching a new product or unleashing (yes unleashing) a new blog post I see our content launches itself into the rankings for some fairly competitive terms. However after 1-2 weeks these newly claimed rankings begin to fade from the lime light. So the question is, what do I need to do to retain these rankings? We're active on social media tweeting, liking, sharing and +1ing our content as well as working to create exciting and relevant content via external sources. So far all this seems to have do is slow the fall from grace. Perhaps this is natural. But i'd love to hear your thoughts, even if it is just keep up the hard work.
Algorithm Updates | | RobertChapman1 -
Site Usage Statistics and organic ranking
I'm not sure if anyone has tested this properly but i'm begining to suspect that google is using site usage statistics as a site quality guide and ultimately as a ranking variable. The this what i've seen so far on one of my sites (site A) Week 1= bounce rate (83.88%), Avg time on site (0:0:57), Pages/visit (1.28) no changes made to the site apart from the usual link building. Week 2: Traffic drops by 30%, Keywords generating traffic drops by 39%. Bounce rate (87.25%), Avg time on site (0:0:43), pages/visit (1.21). I replaced all affiliate links on my homepage to internal pages where the chunk of the content is and did a reconsideration request. Week 3: Traffic goes up by 30%, keywords generating traffic goes up by 65%, Bounce rate (30.41%), Avg time on site (0:3:02), Pages/visit (3.74). This is not the most scientific test but surely google must be using these variables and a ranking factor? Anyone seen something along these lines or have thoughts on it?
Algorithm Updates | | clickangel0