Why You Need To Be #1 In Google

Dale Earnhardt was famous for saying that “second place is the first loser” and when it comes to the search engine placement, nothing could be more true. Optify just released some new numbers that make getting to the #1 position in Google all the more important.

Here is a summary of this new study:

- The top 3 positions on page 1 of Google receive 58.4% of the clicks

- The #1 position in Google receives 36.4% of the clicks

- The #2 position in Google receives 12.5% of the clicks

- The #1 position in Google receive as many clicks as positions 2-5 combined

- Head terms in the #1 position had a higher click through rate (32 percent) than long tail terms (25 percent). However, long tail terms had a higher overall Click through rate on Page 1 of Google than head terms (9 percent vs. 4.6 percent).

- #1 position in Google gets 34.35 percent of impressions; #2 position gets 16.96 percent; and third gets 11.42 percent

BUT WHAT ABOUT PPC ADVERTISING?

Since most law firms can’t reach the #1 positions in Google, some will resort to PPC (Pay Per Click) spending instead. So how effective is PPC spending? Well, according to recent studies by Jupiter Research, not very good. Jupiter found that six out of every seven clicks (87%) on the search engine result page are generated by organically listed sites and that 79% of participants either didn’t look at sponsored links at all, or looked at them only after they had gone through the organic results.

So doing the math, PPC advertising only generates around 13% of the clicks on the first page of Google for any given search keyword result. From an ROI perspective, this means that every dollar spent on PPC is only 15% as effective as a dollar spent on organic placement. However, with the recent changes in the Google results pages, I advise that if you are going to do PPC, only bit for the top 3 positions in Google for any given word/phrase or don’t bit at all. Moreover, with the growth of mobile search, I could make a strong argument that being #1 for your PPC terms is a good idea as well.

THE BOTTOM LINE WITH TOP SEARCH ENGINE PLACEMENT

When it comes to attorney marketing online, I always advise clients to play for the first page on any given subject. If your goal is not to reach the first page (either now or later), don’t play the game. Why? Because 90% of people never look past the first page in Google and we have seen above, people click largely on what they see first – with everybody else coming is as the first loser.

Contact Us Today to learn more about how your law firm can reach the #1 position in Google from the search engine optimization experts at the SEO Consultant Firm.