How important is it for your link to appear on the first page of Google organic search results? It’s even more important than ever before, according to a recent study. And appearing in the top half of first-page results has become even more critical.

Advanced Web Ranking released a study showing fresh data on the clickthrough rate from Google organic search results. The data was taken from Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries reports from large accounts in July 2014.

On average, just over 71 percent of searches resulted in a page one Google organic click. (In other words, 7 of 10 searchers clicked on a link that appeared on the first page after doing a search.)

Appearing in the top half of search results gives you a much greater advantage. On the first page alone, the first five results account for just over 67 percent of all clicks.

The results from six to ten account for less than 4 percent of clicks on the front page. As for pages two and three, they get less than 6 percent of the clicks.

That’s a very general take on the process—various factors can push the percentages up or down a bit—but it tells you what you need to know: The vast majority of clicks in organic search come from the front page, and the vast majority of those come from the top five results.

As we’ve been saying for a while, the best way to show up in those top five results to is to follow solid, legitimate SEO tactics such as providing strong, relevant original content and organically growing inbound links from legitimate, strongly related websites.

Your Ring Ring Marketing representative will be happy to help you tweak your strategies to get your site represented in that high-performing real estate on Google.