Slingshot SEO recently released a great white paper on measuring click through rate averages via organic search on Google and Bing. One takeaway on the click through rate averages presented in the paper is the value of search results on pages beyond the first page may be increasing. The results of the study are below and show a dramatic difference between Google and Bing.

As shown in previous studies, most click through rate averages for Google have shown that 95% of the traffic is generated from a search ranked in the top ten. However, according to the above only 52.2% of Google’s searches on the front page are resulting in traffic; and even less on Bing at 26.3%. What’s happening to the other 47.8% of the time on Google and 73.7% on Bing?

There are a couple of thoughts on that subject and Slingshot alludes to a few.

Our interpretation is the following:

• Both Google and Bing search pages have changed a lot in the last 18 months. It’s now possible to refine your search by filtering out results for the past day, month or year. As well as look at results for different types of media and by location. Some of the click through rates have probably been lost to people simply refining their search.
• The advent of Google Instant that suggest searches as you type has also made refined searches easier. Before you would simply click through on the result and then click back if you didn’t like it. Now you can scan the page and enter in a new search without even clicking through
• People are searching a bit deeper. While some of the loss of the traffic in the top ten can be attributed to filters and instant searches; the numbers are too great to suggest this is all due to filters and instant.

More study

At this point, it’s clear that more study needs to be done to continue to illuminate user behavior. Right now neither Google or Bing have said anything regarding whether their filters and instant search have made their results more refined and decreased bounce rate which is people clicking on a search result and then bouncing back to the search page because they didn’t find what they are looking for. Our feeling is that its more than likely the new features have dramatically reduced bounce rate; because they are still part of Bing and Google.

What this means is that while the lion’s share of organic search traffic still comes through the top ten search results; the value of having results in the top 30 has increased, albeit slightly. Our recommendations would be to continue to monitor your keywords. Strive for getting major keywords within the top 30 where there is a small, but growing, amount of traffic to be had. Once you are settled in the top 30, go for the top ten and then the top 3. Use software to manage the tracking the results so you can make sure those search terms are yours for the taking.