Why Page 2 Of Google Search Results Is The Best Place To Hide A Dead Body
There’s a long-running joke in the SEO world: “The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results.” It gets a laugh, and a nod of agreement. Because the reality behind the punchline is brutal: almost no one clicks beyond the first page.
In an age of instant answers and shrinking attention spans, users rarely scroll, let alone explore what’s beyond the top ten results.
According to data from Chitika, roughly 92% of all search traffic goes to page one. That leaves the remaining pages fighting over the crumbs. In SEO terms, if you’re not ranking on the first page, you’re effectively invisible.
For brands and publishers, that means great content alone isn’t enough. Visibility is everything.
The funniest reply to this was “Or page 1 of Bing”
More interesting data:
According to SEO Advantage, the very first search engine results page (SERP) sees about 32.5% of overall search traffic in terms of clicks. The 2nd domain sees 17.6%, while the 7th only sees 3.5%
The total of average CTR for top 10 queries is 208%, meaning users click more than twice on the first result page
At 53%, women are slightly more prone to click on paid search results than men
It’s been theorized that Google will start using an author’s influence to determine the ranking of their content for relevant queries
With Google constantly rolling out new features, there’s no longer such a thing as a standard SERP for everyone. The team at Virtual Hosting has put together this great infographic that examines what today’s SERPs look like and what it means to be on page one of search results.
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