SEOBing Top Position Gets 9.66% CTR, Lower Total Page 1 CTR than Google [Study]

Bing Top Position Gets 9.66% CTR, Lower Total Page 1 CTR than Google [Study]

A study examines the click-through rate and user behavior for Bing. Bing's top result gets 9.66 percent CTR, with the top page netting 26.32 percent total CTR. While Bing received lower total CTR, the top positions have even more relative value.

A new study examines the CTR and user behavior for Bing. Bing’s top position gets 9.66 percent click-through rate (CTR), with the top page netting 26.32 percent total CTR. While Bing received lower total CTR, the top positions have even more relative value.

Bing Top Position Values

Two months ago we reported on a study from Slingshot SEO that examined the CTR for positions 1 through 10 on Google. Now, a new study from Slingshot examines the CTR for positions 1 through 10 on Bing, and compares the user behaviors on these two major search engines.

bing-ctr

The new study found that Bing has a 26.32 percent total CTR for the home page, with the top position receiving 9.66 percent CTR and position two and three receiving 5.51 percent and 2.74 percent CTR, respectively.

ctr-figs

This can be contrasted with Google statistics of a 52.32 percent total page 1 CTR, and an 18.2 percent, 10.05 percent, and 7.22 percent CTR for positions 1 through 3.

bing-and-google-ctr

Despite showing a lower overall CTR for each position, the relative value of the top positions on Bing is even more significant. 36.7 percent of click-throughs on Bing’s first page will go to the top organic listing, while 20.9 percent will go to the second. Meanwhile, Google’s top entry gets 34.8 percent and its second entry gets 19.2 percent.

Why Is Click-Through Lower on Bing?

While it’s important to know that your top position on Bing is less valuable per search than an equivalent position on Google, it’s just as important to look at the reasons for the differences. As Slingshot SEO puts it, not clicking through organically just means the users are going somewhere else, not necessarily that Bing has failed them.

And where have they gone? According to Slingshot, “Possibilities include ‘related searches’ on the sidebar, re- queries, Page 2, one of the tabs at the top, a paid result, or the images, videos, news, shopping, local listings results within the SERP.”

Additionally, Bing’s demographics are substantially different, with an older age range, more female users, and – it seems – more users who conduct Bing searches only because it’s their default engine. Each month, 117 million searches for the term “google” are made on Bing, compared to 4 million searches for the term “bing” on Google.

Still, optimization for Bing is important; their algorithm now runs the back-end of around 30 percent of searches and touches on demographics not typically reached by Google. And, as with Google, the top positions are significantly more valuable. In fact, the Slingshot study indicated that “a change in rank from 10 to 1 will generate approximately 1650% more traffic and associated sales.”

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