The difference between first and second place in Google

Analysis by Brown Bear Media shows the difference to revenues a single placing can make.

During the same high traffic period in 2007 and 2008 a single page appeared at the number one and number two positions on Google.co.uk for a specific phrase. All other things being equal this has allowed us to analyse the difference between the top two positions in terms of generated web traffic and consider the marketing implications.

Our results revealed that the top place attracted 42.1% more traffic than the second placing (78,000 views as opposed to 54,000 views).

With such high traffic volumes we can be very secure in the statistical significance of the data.

Our client is unwilling for us to reveal the page name or keywords in question to protect their revenue stream, but we can assure you we looked for factors other than google positioning to account for the disparity between clicks and found nothing significant.

What are the online marketing implications of the data? Well supposed you had a particular page currently at second place on the Google rankings which was earning you £50,000 pa. By moving up to the first position you could expect your revenue to rise to £71,050. Assuming for arguement's sake that 30% was profit, you would now be bringing in an additional £6315 profit. Therefore you could reasonably justify a spend of £2,000 on an SEO campaign to move you up to the top position; therby providing you with a creditable Return on Investment of 3:1

Of course, these assumptions are based on just one set of web analysis data and we would urge you to think carefully before planning a budget around this solitary piece of marketing intelligence. Nonetheless it does serve to show us that getting a feel for what small differences in search results positioning can be used to effectively plan your budgets more accurately and help you contribute more to your company's bottom line.

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