The difference in CTR between position 1 and position 10 on Google is huge!

Question: “Where’s the best place to hide a body?”

Answer: “On page 2 of Google!”

It’s an old classic among SEO jokes. Very few users click through to page 2 on Google after a search. The same actually applies to the bottom results on page 1. So you might wonder how long it would take for anyone to notice if the body was instead hidden among the bottom results on the first page.

In other words – everything happens at the top of the search results.

In this blog post, you’ll see how much difference it actually makes whether you’re first or tenth in Google’s search results. Both are on the first page, but just being there is not always enough – you need to reach the top positions to see any difference in traffic.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking, CTR Study, January 2019. All searches

Above you can see how clicks (CTR) are distributed per position for all searches. The data is from January 2019, but remains stable throughout the year. The blue graph shows desktop searches, the red shows mobile searches. The graphs are quite similar, except that position 1 has a higher CTR on desktop than on mobile. Possible reasons are that mobile is often used for research before purchase, while the actual purchase is done on desktop. Position 0 (Google My Business, Featured Snippets, etc.) often dominates more on mobile searches.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking, CTR Study, January 2019. Brand vs non-brand

The graph above shows CTR split between brand searches (blue) and non-brand searches (red).

As you can see, CTR is generally higher when people search for a brand, which is related to users usually knowing what they’re looking for. Advanced Web Ranking defines a brand search as a keyword included in the domain name.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking, CTR Study, January 2019. Commercial searches

The above graph shows how CTR is distributed for commercial searches – that is, those containing words like “buy”, “price”, and more. The graph looks similar to the others – it is primarily first place that gets the most clicks, followed by the rest of the top 3 results.

What traffic can I expect?

Below you can see how average CTR is distributed across the positions on page 1 of Google. As you can see, the difference is huge between position 1 and 10 – resulting in major differences in traffic, even if you’re already on the first page.

It’s worth remembering that CTR is only a percentage – it is also based on the actual number of searches for each word. If you rank 1st for a word with 10 searches/month and have a 35% CTR, you get 3.5 visitors per month. If instead you have position 2 for a word with 100 searches/month and a CTR of 15%, you get 15 visitors per month – so sometimes it’s better to be second with a high volume keyword, than first on a low volume keyword.

But if you’re down at position 10, you get very low traffic even if search volume is high. With 1,000 searches/month and position 10 CTR around 1.5%, you only get 15 visitors/month. If you move up to position 3, with CTR 10.75%, traffic is seven times larger. Position 1, with CTR around 30%, gives you twenty times as much traffic.

You rarely have a 100% conversion rate, so clicks aren’t everything. The conversion rate also depends on what counts as a conversion – for example, it’s faster to get someone to sign up for a newsletter than to make a purchase.

Here are some examples of how your position on the first page affects the result if the conversion rate is 5%:

Example for position 10:

Searches per month: 1,000
Average position: 10
CTR position 10: 1.5%
Conversion rate: 5%

You get 15 visitors per month.

Of these, 0.75 convert per month.

Same example for position 1:

Searches per month: 1,000
Average position: 1
CTR position 1: 30%
Conversion rate: 5%

You now get 300 visitors per month.

Of these 300, you get 15 conversions per month.

The difference is clear. Instead of getting a conversion every 40 days from position 10, you get one every other day if you’re first. Imagine then how long it would take if it was 100 searches/month instead of 1,000.

The conclusion is simple:
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth aiming for the top instead of just settling for a spot on page 1 – the answer is definitely yes. It takes more resources, but the reward in clicks and conversions is much bigger if you go for the top 3 than if you stay at the bottom.

About the study

The table and graphs above are based on data from Advanced Web Ranking, which, among other things, measures the importance of keyword ranking every month. Depending on the graph, it covers up to 10,000,000 keywords from close to 85,000 sites. The study is international so there may be certain differences depending on which country you target with your SEO.