Bing: more than 50% of users click the first search result

by · April 26, 2013

The value of a listing on the first search result page is well know. Getting listed as the first result is even more important if you want to get as many website visitors as possible.

Bing has just published a blog post that shows that more than 50% of users click on the first search result:

“On average, over 50% of users click on the first result on the page. From there we see a significant drop, with less than 1% of people clicking on the 8th link on the page. The figure below shows the click-through rate dropping from position 3 on, where position 3 could contain an Instant Answer, or the 2nd web result that was pushed down because there was an Instant Answer above it, etc.”

search result click distribution

The lower rankings get more clicks when the user uses the ‘Back’ button

Although most users click the first result, many of them come back to the search result page and check the other results on the page:

“When users click on a result, then hit the browser back button, they typically look lower on the page. Statistics showed that the click-through rate on lower positions are a factor of five to eight times higher after a back button. This observation led to a change to Bing in the US in late May 2012 so that the SERP initially showed eight algorithmic results, and the page was extended to 12 after a back button.”

Other studies confirm that the first result is the most important result

In addition to Bing’s blog post, several studies confirm that it is very important to be listed on the first result page and that the first result gets the majority of clicks:

Click distribution of first search result page

If your website is not listed on Google’s first result page for your most important keywords, you should do something about that. The Top 10 Optimizer in SEOprofiler can help you to get your website on Google’s first result page for keywords that deliver paying customers to your website.

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