Click through rate by search position

[pdstein]

Several months ago some AOL search data became public and some people made the opportunity by analyzing among other things the click through rate by search ranking position.

http://www.earnersforum.com/showthread.php?t=3953

That information, if accurate, would be extremely useful, however I am a bit skeptical because the analysis shows only 54% of searches resulted in clicks.

When I search for something I almost always click at least one link. And I usually click several search results either by opening a site in a new tab/window or by clicking the back button after I've looked at a site so I can check out another site in the search results.

Does anyone else think a total 54% CTR is remarkably low?

[brian.mark]

Take a look at some of the first searches done... these are AOL users, which are generally pretty novice searchers. Most of those first searches are pretty bad, so it didn't actually surprise me seeing that low of a number.

Brian.

[pdstein]

Originally Posted by brian.mark

Take a look at some of the first searches done... these are AOL users, which are generally pretty novice searchers. Most of those first searches are pretty bad, so it didn't actually surprise me seeing that low of a number.

Brian.

Granted AOL users are novice searchers, but how does that explain that users only click on search results 54% of the time?

If anything I would think the CTR would go up for novice searches. For example, novice searchers (and AOL users in particular) often put the domain name of the site they want to go to in the search box. I imagine when an AOL user searches for "google.com" they click on the google listing in the search results nearly 100% of the time. I would also guess that novice searchers are less able to determine if a site is what they're looking for based on the site descriptions in the SERPs and would therefore click on more results than the average user before they find what they're looking for.

If I'm to buy these numbers I need an explanation that is at least plausible.

[brian.mark]

I paid attention to my searching today. I would typically do 2 - 3 searches before finding results that I actually wanted to click on, especially when looking for programming info.

It still doesn't seem that out of line to me.

Brian.

[Gennady]

While the 'noviceness' of AOL searchers is open to debate, would you argue that 54% of AOL users are not novice searchers then? Could you also possibly argue that 46% of AOL searchers perform roughly two queries before they click on a result versus 'professional' Google searchers who always click on a result after their first query?

Personally I feel that there are too many variables here for these numbers to be viable and this 54% data should be taken with a grain of salt.