Why is First Page Placement important for your website?

Think of a situation when as an online user like you type in a search query into the search box of either Google or Yahoo! If you closely observe your patterns of search, you will notice that you rarely go beyond the first page of search results. Perhaps the only time you would choose to patiently go through more search results pages is either when you don’t get what you’re looking for or when you want to check where your website is showing up on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This is a user pattern of navigation and online surfing that is not followed only by your but by billions of online users across the globe.

Users have neither the time nor the patience to look beyond the first page of search results. This is why it becomes very important that you do whatever it takes to get your website a first page placement. It is not a good practice to resort to black hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques like using content from Wiki pages, keyword spam, etc to accomplish the above. Web crawlers and spider bots love websites that have well-written content that meets the requirements of online users. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to create a keyword rich website as long as you’re aware and confident of the services and products that you’re trying to sell using the advertising power and reach of the Internet. A first page placement is given to those websites that were able to address the exact needs of their users be it in terms of information or selling good products and services that fit the bill.

Another commonly observed navigation pattern is associated with using the scroll bar. Users usually don’t like scrolling through the search engine results pages and choose to click on results that appear on the first fold of their screens. The first fold of the screen is an advertising hotspot as this is the only section of the SERPs that is clearly visible to users without them having to scroll down looking for additional search results.