I’ve heard a lot of SEO’s make the claim that being #1 in the search results isn’t a good thing.

I even spent 2 hours on the phone yesterday trying to convince a potential client that it is better to be #1 on page 1 then #1 on page 4.

The argument put fourth is that you will convert a higher percent of traffic by being on page four then being on page 1. However, the only reason someone would be looking on page 4 is if;

A. They couldn’t find what they were looking for on page 1, 2 or 3.
B. They are not really wanting to buy anything but rather looking for information.
C. They are the competition and are just checking out the competition.

The fact is that many SEO’s can’t rank you on page 1 so it is better to try and sale you on the illusion that page 4 rankings are better than page 1 rankings.

Take a look at the clickthrough as a % of the TOTAL clickthroughs for a search term:

#1: Will receive 42.3%
#2: Will receive 11.92%
#3: Will receive 8.44%
#4: Will receive 6.03%
#5: Will receive 4.86%
#6: Will receive 3.99%
#7: Will receive 3.37%
#8: Will receive 2.98%
#9: Will receive 2.83%
#10: Will receive 2.79%

Before you buy SEO from a company that is trying to sale you on how good it is to be on page 4, take a look at the above numbers and ask yourself how much traffic you will be missing out on by not being number 1 on page 1.