Any SEO provider and webmaster knows that the value of ranking first in search results is extremely valuable, but a new study by Bing is putting some hard numbers on it: Over 50 percent of Bing users click the first result, and more than 75 percent click there if the first result includes Bing’s deep links.
In a blog post, Dr. Ronny Kohavi of Bing’s Research & Development team, shares the data about the habits of Bing users when they view search results.
Bing says that only about 4-6 percent click the third search result. Only about 2-3 percent of Bing users click on the fourth result down to less than one percent click-through rate on the eighth search result.
The trend tends to change when a user hits the browser back button, prompting Bing to display more results on the first page. About 9 months ago, Bing started to display 8 results on first page on an initial search, and then once the browser back button is used, the number increases to 12 results. Once the user accesses more search results, lower positions are clicked on at a rate of 5 to 8 times higher than the first results page.
Bottom Line: Bing Continues to innovate and create search results that are useful to users in an effort to compete with Google. SEOs cannot afford to ignore Yahoo/Bing, which still comprise 25-30% of today’s search volume. Clients who are new to SEO may find the wins in rankings earlier on Bing/Yahoo, which tends to be a little more forgiving on technical on page issues like duplicate page titles.
Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California based Local SEO Services, Website Development and Online Marketing Firm.