Click through rate.

[Barny]

Hi,

I would be very grateful if some of you experts out there could point me in the right direction when it comes to click through rates.

Basically if someone queries a phrase that i am optimised for and my page comes up in the search engine list then has anyone a figure on the percentage of users that will actually click through to my site.

I have an idea but would like to know the general conception

Oh and(Being presumptious that i'm in the top 3)

Thanks to all in advance!!!

[ihelpyou]

hmmm. I could not give an educated guess about that as it seems that your rates would vary greatly depending on the keyphrase and your actual title and description for your listing.

I would also think that the ratio is not that important but what is important is how well the particular site converts it's visitors. Does the site get visitors to do what it wants? Whether it's to fill out a form or buy something would be the important thing.

[Barny]

ihelpyou,

Thanks for your speedy response !

Unfortunately i have a deadline for a proposal and do not have time to clarify the details. I hope you do not mind if we pick this up tomorrow when we can engage in an indepth debate, as i believe it is a very important issue.

A big Thank you !

[ihelpyou]

Why is this important to anyone? The goal of any site is to get into the top 3 results anyway, so I fail to see the point about knowing any ratio of hits? A site has to give itself the best chance to get clicks once it achieves those results. The only way to do that is to have a good description and title that people would want to click on.

The bigger issue and most important is how well does the site convert it's visitors After the click?

I would rather have 10 visitors that converted into 3 sales than 100 visitors that converted into 3 sales.

There is no way to give you a good answer as to the ratio of hits from the top 3 as one would have do some heavy figuring and even then, it would not give an accurate account. The importance is low for this and should not be in any type of proposal. Mind you, this is my own opinion. Others may see this differently, I simply fail to see the importance of this.

[ihelpyou]

Actually the site that may be able to give a decent answer to this might be Overture itself.

Even then, you will find the click ratio will go down over time as more and more surfers will come to know that these are ads. We all know what happened to banner ads as they started out great and slowly took a dive as surfers quit clicking on them.

[MazY]

Originally posted by Barny
Hi,

Basically if someone queries a phrase that i am optimised for and my page comes up in the search engine list then has anyone a figure on the percentage of users that will actually click through to my site.

Can't help you with those figures but I would suggest the following scenarios.

As your question suggests, rankings don't actually mean a single thing if (a) they are not being clicked upon and (b) the user is doing diddly once they get to your site.

My most favoured web stat is page following. That being following people through our sites to see exactly where they are going.

Last night, for example, I noticed that on one of our company sites, people were clicking on "Our Rankings" which shows our rankings but then going no further.

I investigated this. Why would it be? Of course it could be competitors just having a look and in many cases, most likely is. But just in case, I have amended the page to encourage them to click further through the site. I shall see if that makes any difference over the next three to four weeks.

Incidentally, I use 123LogAnalyzer (http://www.123loganalyzer.com) to analyse our company logfiles, if that helps any, purely because of its lightening speed for whizzing through our sometimes very large logs.

I have another client who, despite the number of people are hitting their contact us form, only 1/3 are actually completing it. Why? We shall see but I am guessing at this stage that it is the amount of information being asked for.

So, I'm sort of with Doug on this issue. I don't care how many people actually click through. I am interested solely in (a) how they use the site once they do hit it and (b) how many convert to enquiries.

By careful planning and many a midnight hour spent analysing tedious log files, I am somewhat pleased to say that we have increased our average visitor stay time from 1 minutes 13 seconds to 3 minutes 42 seconds.

In the whacky world of the web, that isn't bad!

[Barny]

ihelpyou,

>The importance is low for this and should not be in any type of proposal.<

The question that I posted was nothing to do with the proposal that I have to prepare.

I find that coming to the forums breaks the monotonous routine of an intense working day, and friendly banter can alleviate the stress levels:hi:

Anyway back to my question -

the reason that i wanted the figures was for a private project that (when i find the time) i am working on.
If for example i am optimising a webpage for a particular phrase (lets just say that i am #1) and 10,000 users type this into a search engine in a 28 day period, my listings gets 357 page views every day.

(10,000 / 28 = 357.1)

So if 357 people are viewing my listing in the search engine, then how many people actually visit my site. When i have this figure i can then project my sites conversion rate then i will have a rough idea on the theoretical revenue the site can generate.

I hope i have explained myself clearly.

By the way this is just theory, do you think i am wasting my time.

Your responses are much appreciated !

[ihelpyou]

Oh yes, I love banter. :)

But I also think I have tried to answer that question. Maybe others can give another one? Obviously, my answer is you may be wasting your time. :)

[Barny]

ihelpyou,

thanks for your honesty !

:D

[MazY]

Originally posted by Barny
If for example i am optimising a webpage for a particular phrase (lets just say that i am #1) and 10,000 users type this into a search engine in a 28 day period, my listings gets 357 page views every day.

(10,000 / 28 = 357.1)

LOL. Good luck. Methinks you are not going to be able to predict this number but have to go live, as it were, and work retrospectively.

Bear in mind of course that I am not renowned for my prowess in the field of mathematics! :D