Research Study

If you don’t rank

firstinmobile
you may as well be on the 2nd page
Here’s why.

CTR Research Study | Page 1

A study of 2 billion impressions doesn't lie…
…Now is the time to optimize for mobile!
Overview
This research study is part one of a three-part series
conducted recently and released in September to ourclients at “Clarity ‘14”, ourannual user conference, prior
to SMX East.

going back over one year. What made it evenmore exciting was the fact that it was alreadybroken down by Desktop vs. Mobile.

So Why Another CTR Study?

Click through rate studies
have been compiled byvarious researchers andcompanies since the adventof search marketing. They
provide a very important
foundation for marketers inforecasting results, projecting
SEO return on investments
and building models for
estimating the market sizeand potential.
What makes seoClarity’s
study remarkably diﬀerent
from all other studies is thesheer volume of actual data
analyzed. The team analyzed
over 2 billion impressions
and over 2.6 million clicks
collected over a 90 day
period from approximately
400 Google Webmaster Tools
accounts. We arrived at arobust CTR model by device,by keyword type and byindustry.

When we looked at the landscape ofavailable studies we realized the following:• Most existing studies were already outdated
due to the constantly evolving PPC landscape(which has the effect of significantly changing
organic results visibility and thereby
associated CTRs)• Across our clients who agreed to share datafor research purposes we had a far moresignificant data set than leveraged everbefore by anyone for such a study; The
hypothesis was that a larger data set wouldprovide more statistical confidence andability to drill down & segment in different
ways (such as keyword types, industry,device types, etc.)• No one had done a mobile CTR study - yet.

1) To make sure it
reflected the most current
PPC landscape and thatany recent changes that
may have occurred inthat space were reflected
in organic CTRs.
2) We also wanted to
avoid any seasonal
impact on the CTR
model. Click-throughrates can shift
dramatically during thebusy 4th quarter and also
during shopping periods
such as Valentine’s Dayand Mother’s Day.
Summer was the moststable period of data towork with.

As with any CTR study, there are a few caveats
which we’ve listed at the end of this report. We
advise readers to pay special heed to thesebefore using the data or extrapolating their own
conclusions from it.

This incredible data set
provides the most up-todate and reliable insights
into the performance of organic search rankings
compared to any other study done prior. In fact,
based on comparison to existing studies, seoClarity’s
study is the largest study ever.

Methodology

We took this data anddecided first to limit it toa 90 day period spanning June throughAugust. The reasons
were:

The methodology was quite simple. Since
seoClarity already collects Google Webmaster
Tools Data daily, we had ready access to all of
the data in our databases (for clients who hadagreed to share their data for research purposes)

Next, since GWT datacontains AVG positions
that are decimals, wenormalized the ranking
positions to morerounded numbers byusing standard rounding.
Positions 1.0 - 1.4 were grouped to 1, 1.5 - 2.4
were grouped to 2 and so on. (We tested otherways of grouping the average positions too, but
found this to provide the most accurate
clustering of CTR’s by position.)

The Data

The numbers are the real diﬀerentiator between
our study’s model and previous studies. We
studied over 2 billion impressions(2,083,535,220[!] to be exact). This translates to2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net

CTR Research Study | Page 2a high level of statistical confidence for each and every rank position; In fact, there was a minimum of 35 million
impressions per ranking position. From that, there were over 2.68 million clicks (268,173,670) broken down by
over 2.2 million unique keywords (2,206,664).

The Results
What follows is an examination of various models that demonstrate the fact that ranking first in the search
results is more important than ever.

The Desktop Model

What we see in the data is a steady regression from position 1 at 19.3% to position
9 at 2%. It’s interesting that the data shows position 10 with a higher click throughrate then position 8 or 9.
Usability studies have shown this is primarily because many users scan the top few
rankings & then scroll to the bottom of the page (source).

2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net

CTR Research Study | Page 3

The Mobile Model

Position 1 CTR for the desktop was just under 20%... so where does that put
mobile? The Mobile model is the most interesting CTR model in this research study,
as it’s the first of its kind. It is the most comprehensive data set made up of purely
mobile data. This is based exclusively on Webmaster Tools data. What we see is alarge CTR for position 1 - nearly 28% - and then a significant drop-off to about 9%
for position 2.
This means that ranking in position 1 for mobile is 3x more valuable than ranking inposition 2. If that doesn’t give you a reason to get on the mobile bandwagon, I don’tknow what will.
Will Ferrell summed it up best as Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, “If you ain’t first,you’re last.”

2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net

CTR Research Study | Page 4

The Brand/Non-Brand Model (Desktop Only)

In the third portion of the study, we put together a brand vs. non-brand model. As isto be expected, there is a much higher CTR for brand keywords at position 1
compared with non brand. Brand also sees a larger drop to from position 1 toposition 2 and another drop from 3 to 4.

2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net

CTR Research Study | Page 5

The Industry Models

Our final CTR model examines 4 different industries - Retail, Fashion, Travel &Electronics. With any data set, some industries will see a deviation from our models.
Not all industries keywords fit this lovely standard as every vertical is different, but
as a high level piece, it can aid in your business case.

2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net

CTR Research Study | Page 6Key Takeaways
Click through rates are near impossible to nail down. Every model that has been created in the past year will
inevitably become invalid because of industry-wide SERP changes.
The issue with most CTR models is the lack of a large enough data set to make an actionable conclusion. So,
why do we still care? Because it’s still important for projecting potential marketing opportunities and forecasting
returns. The greater the data that is retrieved, the better we can define a business case. In the end, it provides adata driven approach to organic search efforts.

Next Steps

We intend to update the CTR study periodically using the same, exact data set and parameters (as far aspossible) so we can share with the industry on how the numbers evolve.

Caveats

It’s important to keep in mind that every company is different. The conclusions we’ve drawn are likely not true forevery industry, business size, country, language, or marketplace. Do the research on your own GWT data tounderstand your own CTR.
Most seoClarity clients are Enterprises with recognized brand names. There is certainly a brand impact on theCTR’s due to brand recognition that there is no way to exclude that from here.
We based this study on a Google Webmaster Tools data set because it is the closest that we can get to real dataon organic impressions and clicks.

This research study was produced in September 2014 by seoClarity. All rights reserved.
2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net

2800 S. River Road, Suite 290 Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 www.seoClarity.net
Twitter: @seoClarity Phone: 773-831-4500 Email: sales@seoClarity.net