Ranking on page 1 position 3 but hardley any visits

[Westernoriental]

in one of my projects the expected vistors is around 23000 weve got the keyword onto the first page position 3 and weve only recieved 30 vistits this month, my qustion is why?

are the local searches from google analtics that tell you thier are 23000 searches for that keyword false

please can someone shed some light on this, my client is totally over the moon with his ranking but cant believe that hes only recieving 30 visits  this month from what we thought was a million dollar keyword

[Dr-Pete]

I'll just add this post I wrote on SEOmoz a bit back - it talks about how rankings might not drive the traffic you expect:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/im-ranking-wheres-my-traffic

[Devin_Anderson]

Number of monthly searches + SERP rankings are important, but are not the only factors that can effect your click-through rate.

You might also need to take a look at your meta title & description - is it catchy & relevant? Or dull and spammy? What are the results around you like? If their copywriting is particularly stunning they may be stealing some potential clickers away from you each time.

Also, what are the paid search results like for this term? If there are loads of them you may be appearing further down the page than a 3rd place rank typically would. The same goes for blended or location-based searches (the maps and blended media results can push you right down the page)

[HelpingHandNetwork]

check out this url http://markup.io/v/0cf4cz2dwmjw this will help...

0cf4cz2dwmjw

[perytestusr]

Like the comment below, your are probably looking at broad.

Look at exact match and then calculate artound 8.5% to 9.8% of that search volume should be your clicks.

This is percentageis based on my KPI's from over 15 different websites and many many keywords. The average visits we are getting from a 3rd position keyword.

[HelpingHandNetwork]

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I would also add that the estimates of traffic are also for top position. 1/1 And you maybe looking a broad match vs exact match. In my experience position 3 or 2 are not heavy traffic getters unless something is trending hot.  I would look at your title tag relevancy and meta description that is pulled that could make or break clicks. Also it depends on what word for example the term apple may have thousands of searches and let say I get to pos 3 page 1 that doesn't mean I am going to get lots of traffic because people will look at title tag url and meta description and know I am not apple..

[Daylan]

30 does sound fairly small based on the 23000 you've mentioned, and Nebraska's answer sounds like it may be on the money. Another thing to keep in mind is that actual clicks to a term are often a fraction of the amount of searches. EG: 23000 searches might equal 3000 clicks (random number). Also keep in mind that a term might have PPC results which could could be taking traffic. And the fact that you are number 3 (based on these numbers - only receives on avg 7% of traffic that view the result) is also probably playing a part. Then there's the whole localised/personalised search result aspect that may be influencing it somewhat.

[NebraskaChicagohh]

Are you looking at broad match or exact match for the search volume? That is the most common error regarding traffic assumptions.