You probably know - or at least have heard - that getting a high rank on google can be important to your business.

But have you ever thought of exactly what that means? Take a look at the images and data below to get a brief overview of why a first or second place listing can pay off for your business.

Google Eye Tracking Map and Click Through Data

The heat map below tracks where people look when first visiting google search. Red is "hot" or "looks more." Blue is "cool" or "looks less."

Google Eye Tracking Map

People first look to the #1 and #2 Google listing and PPC Ads:

1) Note the red area - This is where people tend to look FIRST and for the longest amount of time. Notice that if you are #1 and #2 on Google you get the FIRST look.

2) The same dynamic applies to PPC ads. The first several ads get direction attention. The lower ones? Not so much.

3) Also note how steep the drop-off in attention is. As you get lower down on the page, a person is less and less likely to even LOOK at your listing...

People click on the #1 and #2 Ads at Dramatically Higher Level:

#1 doesn't just get a few more clicks than lower ranked websites, it gets a huge number of additional clicks.

Notice:

1) #1 gets nearly 250% of the clicks of a #2 ranking.
2) #1 gets nearly 425% of #3
3) #1 gets nearly 1300% of the clicks that #10 gets.

Do I have your attention? Top ranked websites get a much larger share of the traffic than lower-ranked sites. If your website has (ahem) a purpose and it actually does something such as collect leads, make sales or otherwise generate revenue, then you need to get as much traffic as you can. Getting to #1 or #2 (or both!) will get you the results you deserve.