Okay before I continue let me state that I am going to make certain assumptions about you. And those assumptions are that you are an internet business marketer whose goal is to make money online.

Now if I am totally off base then please forgive my presumptuousness but allow me to add that even if you are not currently entangled in the whole internet marketing thing this article is probably still quite useful.

Okay, enough dawdling, let’s get down to work.

The Very First Step In The Act of Persuasion Is The Search For A Solution

That’s a very powerful statement and well-known principle that savvy marketers understand and capitalize on.

Because when a person is searching for a solution they are more open to suggestion and the possibility of what could be. In other words they are in a more amenable state to be persuaded to do something. This is because when people are in solution-searching mode they have lowered defenses and are more receptive to advice (assuming that advice is useful).

There we have it, with that simple statement we have just covered why a (GPO) Google Page One listing is so coveted. Because when your site or blog is listed on Google Page One you potential buyers are seeking you out and not the other way, which is the approach of traditional advertising.

I mean when you think about it, which is the easier sell, someone in search of a solution who voluntarily clicked on your listing link, or somebody whom you are trying to force feed with your oh-migod-yet-another-sales pitch! 

So now we know why a Google Page One listing is priceless let’s look at some actual figures to see if such a listing is really worth it!

Google The Ultimate King of Search!

In the same way that Microsoft set out to dominate the PC landscape (and succeeded) so has Google definitively succeeded in their quest to dominate the universe of online search!

The following are some very illuminating figures:

•    As of 2008 Google commands 60% – 70% of  the U.S. search market

•    In the United Kingdom (UK) owns almost 90% of the search market

•    Google has 36.55% of the entire volume of web traffic to UK websites

•    In the 1st Quarter of 2008 Google raked in $5.19 billion of which $3.40 billion came from Google’s own listed websites

•    Google pretty much leads all the international search markets save for a few locations here such as China, Japan, Russia (which will probably fall in line soon)

The Volume Of Web Traffic A Google Page One Listing Sends You

Obviously the bump in the amount of web traffic you will get from a Google Page One listing depends on the popularity of the keyword in question. The more popular and searched for the keyword is the greater your gains in web traffic from that page one listing on Google.

All things being equal (and by that vague statement what we mean is that assuming your Google Page One listing has a seductive description that encourages solution-seekers to click on it) then the following percentages describe a general spread of clicks you can expect from being listed on Google Page One with respect to your listing’s actual placement:

•    1st Place Listing:   42% of clicks
•    2nd Place Listing:   12% of clicks
•    3rd Place Listing:   9% of clicks
•    4th Place Listing:   6% of clicks
•    5th Place Listing:   5% of clicks
•    7th Place Listing:   3.5% of clicks
•    8th Place Listing:   3.0% of clicks
•    9th Place Listing:   2.85% of clicks
•    10th Place Listing:  2.99% of clicks

As you can see from the above listed data if you have a Google Page One listing ranked at the 8th placement or below a promotion to the number one spot will increase your traffic for that particular keyword by almost 1,500%!

A bump of 1,500% is a phenomenal increase in web traffic! This data goes a long way in illustrating the enormous effect a number one ranked placement on Google Page One (accompanied with a seductive description) can have on the amount of web traffic your site gets.

You may have also noticed something interesting from the click data listed above and that is that the 10th place listing actually received more clicks than the 9th place listing.

This anomaly falls under what is know as the primacy effect and recency effect which basically describes the phenomenon whereby when presented with a list people tend to remember what was presented first and last while pretty much forgetting all about the middle.

Something quite similar takes place in list differentiation. People tend to take in the topmost listings then scan the rest of the list to the end where the gaze once again would linger longer over the last listing (all the while pretty much ignoring the middle listings) before going back to the first listing.

Article about Google Pgae One listings and web traffic written by Ba Kiwanuka