41 is a Magic Number

if you’re in the page rank game — ie. you care where you rank on google for certain keyword searches — then 41 is indeed a special figure for you. it represents the percentage of clicks you’ll receive (on the average) from the whole of those looking for something. this number is huge considering all of the choices on a google page — three ads at top, several down the right side, a map in the middle with pushpins and phone numbers. achieving this position won’t be easy — but there is one catch. if you know exactly what people are typing into google in your industry, and you can grab a domain name that matches it, and you’re able to spend some money on a professional website with search engine optimization as part of the scope, then you could be ranking #1 for a keyword search in the very near term. that’s because google continues to place domain name first in its punchlist of how to rank a website. what your domain name communicates is highly relevant. so, how do the numbers drop off behind the leader? #2 garners 12%. #3 garners 8.5%. by the time you get to #11 on the top of the second page, only 2% of clicks remain. there’s no room for accepting lower than the first page of google. in fact — if you’re sitting at #4, then 61.5% of clicks have already been grabbed. can’t be too comfortable with that. i would argue that the only thing that can save you if you’re not a top 3 website (and need the traffic) would be having multiple links in positions 4 through 10.