The document summarizes the findings of a research study conducted by Op8fy on organic click-through rates (CTRs). Some key findings include: - The average CTR for the top result on the first page is 37%, with 60% of all clicks going to the top 3 results. CTR drops significantly for results on the second page. - CTR is strongly correlated with cost-per-click (CPC), with cheaper keywords having over double the CTR of expensive keywords on the first page. - CTR also correlates with keyword popularity, with long-tail keywords having higher CTRs than more popular head terms.

1. From
Click-­‐Through-­‐Rate
to
Conversion
Rate:
Conversion
Tac8cs
for
SEO
and
SEM
Thursday,
August
11,
2011
Speakers:
Tim
Ash,
SiteTuners,
Erez
Barak,
Op8fy
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

2. Erez
Barak,
Op8fy
» Erez
Barak
is
Vice
President
of
Products
and
Co-­‐
Founder
at
Op;fy;
» Frequent
speaker
at
industry
events.
» Prior
to
Op;fy,
Erez
was
a
director
of
product
marke;ng
in
HP s
SoFware
business
unit.
» He
was
recently
named
among
the
Top
25
Innovators
in
2010
by
SeaPle
Business
Magazine.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

3. Op8fy’s
Organic
CTR
» Organic
CTR
Research
» Defini;on
» History
» Research
ques;ons
» High
level
results
» How
does
CTR
relate
to
CPC?
» How
does
CTR
relate
to
KW
popularity?
» Key
Takeaways
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

4. Organic
Click
Through
Rate
(CTR)
-­‐
Defini8on
» From
Wikipedia
–
» CTR
is
most
commonly
defined
as
“number
of
clicks”
divided
by
“number
of
impressions”
and
generally
not
in
terms
of
the
“number
of
persons”
who
clicked
divided
by
the
“number
of
impressions”
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

5. Organic
Click
Through
Rate
(CTR)
-­‐
History
» In
2006,
CTR
data
from
an
AOL
study
was
'leaked'
to
the
world.
» Those
curves
have
been
used
thoroughly
in
the
SEO
industry
as
a
cornerstone
for
ROI
calculators
and
theore;cal
debates
and
as
a
means
to
jus;fy
SEO
efforts.
» No
substan;ve
studies
since
2006
about
CTR.
» Given
recent
changes
in
the
way
search
engines
render
the
SERPs
(Search
Engine
Results
Page)
and
the
increasing
importance
of
social
in
search,
we
thought
it
was
;me
for
a
new
CTR
curve
and
to
answer
a
few
basic
ques;ons.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

6. Organic
Click
Through
Rate
(CTR)
–
Research
» Method
» 250
sites
were
randomly
chosen
as
the
sample
set
for
this
research.
» 10,000
keywords
and
over
1.2
million
clicks
were
analyzed.
» Keywords
were
filtered
by
the
search
volume,
cost
and
rank
criteria.
» All
ranks
on
the
first
and
second
result
pages
were
analyzed.
» Research
Ques;ons:
» What
is
the
new
CTR
curve
for
organic
results?
» Is
there
a
correla;on
between
organic
click
through
rate
and
CPC
value
for
the
same
keyword?
» What
is
the
effect
of
search
volume
on
click
through
rates?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

7. Organic
Click
Through
Rate
(CTR)
–
Results
» These
results
clearly
show
that
with
an
average
37%
click
through
rate,
the
benefit
of
ranking
number
one
is
very
valuable
» 60%
of
the
clicks
going
to
the
top
three,
ranking
at
the
top
of
the
first
page
is
more
valuable
than
ever
» Ranking
first
on
the
second
page
has
some
benefits;
there’s
a
slight
bump
for
posi;on
eleven
(the
first
result
for
page
two)
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

8. Organic
Click
Through
Rate
(CTR)
–
Results
» Average
CTR
on
page
one
is
8.9%,
far
higher
than
the
1.5%
CTR
average
on
the
second
page
» Your
SEO
efforts
should
be
focused
on
moving
keywords
to
the
first
page
and
not
necessarily
to
the
first
posi;on.
It
also
means,
that
ranking
below
page
two
has
almost
no
business
value.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

9. How
does
CTR
relate
to
CPC?
Cheap
Expensive
CPC
<=
$0.25
>
$1.50
Examples
“health
;ps
for
women”
“photo
prints”
“best
canvas
prin;ng”
“best
auto
insurance”
“trek
mountain
bike”
“acura
suv”
» CPC
is
the
approximate
cost-­‐per-­‐click
you
might
pay
if
you
were
to
bid
on
the
keyword.
The
CPC
is
averaged
over
all
the
ad
posi;ons.
» Cheap
Terms:
» All
terms
that
with
a
CPC
less
or
equal
to
$0.25
» Expensive
Terms:
» All
terms
with
a
CPC
over
$1.50
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

10. How
does
CTR
relate
to
CPC?
» Cheap
CPC
terms
will
likely
yield
over
double
the
CTR
on
the
first
page
than
expensive
CPC
terms.
» Your
poten;al
organic
traffic
is
nearly
three
;mes
greater
on
a
lower
CPC
term.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

11. How
does
CTR
relate
to
keyword
popularity?
Long
Tail
Head
Monthly
Searches
<
100
>
1,000
Examples
“superhero
giFs”
“xmas
giFs”
“nissan
car
review”
“audi
a5”
“golf
gear
review”
“bmx”
» Monthly
searches
are
the
approximate
12-­‐month
average
number
of
user
queries
for
the
keyword
in
the
US.
» Long
tail
Terms:
All
terms
with
less
than
100
monthly
searches
(we
did
not
include
terms
with
no
monthly
searches)
» Head
Terms:
All
terms
with
more
than
1,000
monthly
searches
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

12. How
does
CTR
relate
to
keyword
popularity?
» If
you
are
op;mizing
for
head
terms,
you
will
not
see
huge
benefits
un;l
you
get
to
the
top
few
posi;ons.
» If
you
are
op;mizing
for
a
long
tail
term,
you
can
see
decent
CTR
almost
anywhere
on
the
first
page.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

13. Key
takeaways
» Invest
in
geVng
more
terms
to
page
one
first,
then
worry
about
advancing
to
first
posi;on.
» Choose
your
target
keywords
wisely
and
make
sure
you
look
at
the
CPC
value
as
well
as
the
search
volume.
» If
you’re
interested
in
more
than
just
visits
and
Pageviews,
measure
success
with
the
right
metrics.
If
your
goal
is
leads,
sales
or
signed
customers,
make
sure
you
have
the
mechanism
to
track
and
measure
those
metrics
all
the
way
from
source
to
comple;on.
» GeVng
a
lot
of
long
tail
keywords
to
page
one
might
be
easier
and
more
valuable
than
getng
a
few
head
terms
to
page
one
» Stay
on
top
of
SEO
best
prac8ces
and
updates.
The
changing
face
of
SERPs
is
not
a
short-­‐term
fad;
as
long
as
there
are
search
engines,
SERPs
will
con;nue
to
change.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

14. What
do
I
need
to
track
in
Real
Time
?
» SEO
Indicators
» Keyword
Ranks
» Rank
Trends
over
;me
» Ranking
in
mul;ple
engines
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

15. What
do
I
need
to
track
in
Real
Time?
» Business
Indicators
» Pageviews
» Visitors
» Conversion
» Revenue
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

16. Tim
Ash,
SiteTuners
» Tim
Ash
is
the
CEO
of
SiteTuners,
a
conversion
rate
op;miza;on
firm.
He
is
the
author
of
the
bestselling
book
Landing
Page
Op2miza2on
and
the
founder
and
chair
of
the
interna;onal
Conversion
Conference
event
series.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

21. Hassle & Cost
Need & Value

23. Before

24. After
+ 17%
Copyright © 2011, SiteTuners.com - All Rights Reserved.

25. Before

26. After
+ 51%
+ $48,000,000
Copyright © 2011, SiteTuners.com - All Rights Reserved.

37. + 40%

38. + 58%

46. Contact
Informa8on
tim@sitetuners.com
(619) 990-9062 mobile
(619) 223-8020 work PST
twitter @tim_ash
www.linkedin.com/in/timash
facebook.com/tim.ash1
skype tim_ash1
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.

47. About
Op8fy
Op;fy
is
the
leading
provider
of
marke;ng
soFware
and
services
for
the
real
;me
web.
Op;fy’s
hosted,
easy-­‐to-­‐use
suite
of
applica;ons
enables
businesses
to
drive
more
traffic
and
leads
with
SEO
and
social
media,
convert
visitors
to
customers,
and
measure
and
share
results.
Start
Your
Free
Trial
Today
at
www.op;fy.net/sign-­‐up
Follow
Us
on:
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©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.