Being Number 2 Never Stunk So Bad

A 2006 study by Cornell University, using eye racking and control groups of undergrad students, showed the breakdown of how many clicks each listing (1-10) get in the Google SERPs. This has been an age old question that professional SEO consultants have been trying to figure out.

As you can see by the chart above there is a significant difference between being #1 and being #2! The top spot gets you over 56% of the clicks and the #2 spot only about 13%. That is a gigantic difference. Also of important note is the difference between #4 and #3. At the #3 spot you get 9.82% of the clicks and the #4 spot only gets you 4%. I have known that there are huge differences in being #1 and not from experience with clients I have worked with. But having a formal study done by Cornell is nice because it validates things more. Of course these numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt because each keyword search could result in different click behaviors. Actually there are many things that could skew the results. But the idea is to show that there are significant differences within the top 4 or 5 spots.