Organic search and click-throughs

According to recent studies, search engine users overwhelmingly click on organic results as opposed to paid ads by a whopping margin of 94 per cent to 6 per cent.

One study looked at both branded and non-branded search queries. On branded searches, the top search result received the most clicks, which makes sense, considering the search is likely to be navigational in nature:

  • Result 1: 80%
  • Result 2: 6%
  • Result 3: 4%
  • Remainder: 10%

On non-branded searches, however, the data indicates searchers are more willing to go well beyond the top 3 results (more than 50% of the time!):

  • Result 1: 35 %
  • Result 2: 15 %
  • Result 3: 11 %
  • Remainder: 39 %

With the natural tendency for users to trust organic listings over the paid counterparts,  one has to wonder why small businesses aren’t improving their SEO rankings to get listed higher and more frequently for the keywords their suspects and prospects are typing into Google.

The best part of all of this is that organic search results are essentially free – once you know what to do, it’s quite easy and a lot less effort than the alternative – Making enough money to pay for paid listings!

If you want to know how to turn browsers into buyers or leverage blogging for a small business, click on the hyperlinks or contact us.

We’ll tell you what your web design company won’t tell you….

1 Response to “Organic search and click-throughs”


  • This is very interesting. The cost of operating a successful PPC campaign can quickly get out of hand, and to maximise results from Adwords requires constant change and effort, especially for us.

    The Graffiti Eaters have used Adwords for a number of years, with varied results. Even as a new recruit to the company, I have already found that keywords used to search for our services can depend on many factors, such as seasonal (building cleaning services have a high search rate at the moment), or even political (we experienced a spike in graffiti removal enquiries following the election).

    Whilst we have had this facet of online marketing for sometime, now we are looking to incorporate organic SEO strategies into our business, and are thankful to Exponential Programs for introducing us to initiatives such as business blogging.

    With these statistics, increasing organic search rankings should be a high priority for everybody!

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