by Sheri Fink

Created on: February 11, 2007   Last Updated: June 13, 2009

Several recent studies examined the links users followed on the search engine results page. A study conducted in 2005 found that 42% of users clicked the top result, and 8% of users clicked the second result. This confirms previous studies that the number one natural search result gets many more clicks than all other results.

In this study, the researchers did a second test where they swapped the order of the top two search results. This change was unknown to the users in the test. The result was the same. Even though the search results were different, users still clicked on the top entry 34% of the time and on the second result 12% of the time.

The natural search, also known as organic search, study confirms the importance of being listed on the first result page. If your website doesn't appear on the first result page (which typically only holds 10 websites as results), people are unlikely to see your site.

A previous study by the Georgia Institute of Technology found that 75% of web searchers never look further than the first results page. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen found that: "Users almost never look beyond the second page of search results."

There are several things that you can do to help get your site on the first search engine result page.

Keywords
Begin by selecting the right keywords for each page of your website. General keywords will be ineffective because they are widely used on the web. For example, if you have a site that sells gourmet cat food, "cat" would be too general of a keyword for your site.

Your best bet would be to choose highly targeted keywords that are related to your business and that attract online shoppers who are interested in what you're selling. Examples could be "X brand cat food" or "gourmet cat food."

If you're not sure what keywords to use, you can search on Google, Yahoo!, and/or MSN for keywords you think might be effective. See what companies are showing up on the first page of results and check out the keywords they're using. You don't necessarily want to copy them, just get a feel for other keyword options. This will also show you some of your competition for your best keywords.

Content
Your second step is to create a content-rich website that can be optimized for many different keywords. For example, you may want to include helpful articles on your site that feature your keywords. In the gourmet cat food website example, one article could be about how to select the best cat food for your pet (optimized for "choose cat

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