Any business class from high school on up teaches one of the most fundamental lifelong principles in business that has stood the test of time.  The survival of a business increases its odds of both success and longevity with one important piece in place.  

Location, location location!

For businesses to thrive, having the right location is key.  Especially in brick and mortar scenarios.  Sure, destination shopping can do well but for the longest time, business owners have known that location is a key component to a thriving business.

The same holds true for your online positioning as well.     How powerful is the proper location for your business online?  Is there a measurable difference in ranking on the first page versus the second?   Or even better yet, does the first position on the first page differ much from the second position?

Overwhelmingly the answer is yes!  In an ongoing study of over 102,000 keywords and 11,000 websites, the answer to this question is almost shocking.  If we take all search data under these two study parameters it lays out like this.  

The CTR (click through rate), for a desktop first position keyword is 33% and for mobile about 25%.  The CTR for the second position on desktop drops down to 24% and 20% for mobile.  That's a 27% decrease in desktop results between position one and two!  Its a 16% decrease for mobile.  Still very significant. 

Take into consideration again what that means.  33% of users click on the first position!  Keep in mind this is in the Organic Ranking Positions, not the paid.   

So now let's look at the last position on the first page ABOVE THE FOLD, which is ranking position five.  Desktop CTR drops to 4% as does mobile.  That's an 87% drop in the chance of getting a user to click through to your website when positioned in the first versus the fifth position.  

Obviously, the difference between the first position on the first page and anything on the second page is really big.  Additionally, we can pretty much consider anything beyond page two in ranking to be invisible.  

The big moral to this story is that your websites position in search results really matters.  Getting the most keywords associated with your site in the first position is the goal.  Occupying the top five positions in the SERPS is also critical as roughly 64% of all click through's occur in the top five positions!  

Keeping these stats in mind help carve out what your strategy should be when working with your digital agency.  Get as many market-related keywords ranking in the top five positions as possible thus carving out a better location online for your business.