{"id":94,"date":"2018-08-17T08:39:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T08:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/08\/17\/is-it-important-for-seo-to-rank-first-in-2018\/"},"modified":"2020-02-03T09:40:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T09:40:22","slug":"is-it-important-for-seo-to-rank-first-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/08\/17\/is-it-important-for-seo-to-rank-first-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it important for SEO to rank first in 2018?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When starting with SEO one of the top goals for businesses is to rank first on the search results.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the equivalent of success and lots of SEO<\/a> professionals have been working hard to deliver a good ranking to their clients. As SEO<\/a> is changing though, is it still relevant to aim for a #1 ranking on SERPs?<\/span><\/p>\n

And if it\u2019s not a priority anymore, what should you do instead?<\/span><\/p>\n

Defining success in SEO<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Every company would like to show up as the first result in a search engine. And it\u2019s not just for the sake of vanity, as the top ranking increases your chances of improved awareness, traffic, authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are more than 40,000 search queries processed<\/a> by Google every second, which means that there are more than 3.5 billion searches every single day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We were reporting back in 2013<\/a> how the top listing in Google\u2019s top position receives 33% of the total traffic. The second position received 17.6% of the traffic, while the fifth result only received 6.1% of the traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n

This meant that back in the day, the initial goal was to show up on the first page of SERPs and then to work harder to reach the top. It\u2019s not always easy to achieve it and the authority of your site certainly plays a big role, but it was still considered the ultimate goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

SEO<\/a> has evolved quite a lot since 2013, which means that even the definition of a successful SEO<\/a> strategy has changed. It\u2019s not enough anymore to aim for a top ranking. At least, not in the organic search results.<\/span><\/p>\n

How SEO is changing<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

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The big difference with SEO<\/a> ranking through the years is that search engines are becoming smarter. Users are happier with the ease of finding what they\u2019re looking for and businesses have to adapt in the way SEO works.<\/span><\/p>\n

There may still be companies that aim for the top ranking in SERPs, but is this still the definition of SEO success? If we want to combine success with ROI, then is it enough to rank first?<\/span><\/p>\n

There are growing discussions<\/a> on the organic drop of CTRs even on popular terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is due to the changing nature of SEO and how users search for a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve probably noticed on your own that search has evolved and you won\u2019t necessarily reach the first organic search result to find the answer you\u2019re looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s focus on adding additional boxes and ads at the top of the SERPs reduced the chances for people to notice the organic results.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Think of it, nowadays you may be distracted by:<\/span><\/p>\n