Aaron Wall of SEO Book fame, has out done himself again by recently publishing a lengthy article entitled “How much is a #1 Google ranking worth?”. The guide points out the importance of achieving 1st place rankings in Google and teaches readers how to place an approximate value on doing so.
A couple of quotes I found particularly interesting were:
- Based on this data, if you are ranking 8, 9, or 10 you may be able to increase your traffic for that keyword 1,400% by ranking #1. Even jumping from #8 to #3 can triple your traffic.
- In early 2008 Google’s Avinash Kaushik stated that 14% of Google clicks are on paid search ad and 86% of clicks are on organic search results.
- 2008 Penn State research titled Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries [PDF] found that roughly 80% of search queries were informational, while approximately 10% were each navigational and transactional. With so many searches being informational and navigational, it is unsurprising that people click the organic search results more often than the associated PPC ads.
View the full article on SEO Book here.
On a related note, tt’s also important to note that relying on Google as your only source of traffic can be a fatal mistake. As their ranking algorithms change on an ongoing basis it’s quite possible that your site could loose its position in Google without proper monitoring and updates. For many business loosing their 1st page placement would be fatal.
If a significant chunk of your leads and revenue come from the web, specifically Google, it would be wise to consider alternate sources of traffic including:
- Social networking sites such as Linkedin and Facebook
- Consider an offline PR campaign
- The blogosphere (interacting with bloggers)
- Relevant forms and niche sites in your industry
- Email marketing
If you have additional tips for my readers, post your thoughts to the comments section.
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