Google searches by AOL users confirm top of the search results matters
Howard Lake | 4 September 2006 | Blogs
The accidental release of data on some AOL users’ search activity at Google has confirmed that getting your website to the top of the Google search results pages matters if you want to attract traffic.
According to the search logs, the top result on the search pages will generate 42.1% of all clickthroughs, with the second result attracting 11.9%. Drop down to the 10th result on that first page of results and you will be attracting just 3% of clickthroughs.
There’s a tiny amount of encouragement for those whose charity website does not make it onto the first page of Google results for relevant keywords. The next page of 10 results (11-20) still generate some clickthroughs – 4.37% on average, but if your website is listed in positions 41-50 you will probably only be securing 0.57% of all clickthroughs.
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So the message, not surprisingly, is to ensure your website ranks as high as possible for relevant keywords on Google and other key search engines. Just appearing on the top page isn’t good enough – you need to be in the top two or three to be confident of attracting a sufficient proportion of the available traffic.
- Google to make anniversary with €1 million in grants (26 November 2018)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.