The director of agency development for Yahoo! Search Marketing refutes assertions that search position doesn't matter, and cites studies and testimonials to back him up.

There has been some discussion recently that there is no relationship between the position of an advertisement in search listings and the chances of that ad being clicked on. However, multiple studies, organic data and client feedback refute this theory.

The very essence of search engines is to provide the most relevant listings at the top of the results page. In paid search, this comprises bid + clickthrough rate (CTR) and relevancy, among other factors. Searchers have been conditioned to expect the most relevant results within the first few listings, and rarely go beyond those before clicking on a link to a website.

eMarketer published a study showing that 37 percent of searchers spend less than 15 seconds doing a quick scan and determining which of the first four returns pops out at them. In that case, a company whose ad appears outside the premium listings at the top of the page will miss its target market nearly two-thirds of the time. And the news gets worse-- if their ad is not being clicked on, then the click more than likely is going to one of their biggest competitors.

Internal studies by Yahoo! on observed clickthrough rates clearly show that moving down in rank could have a significant impact on the percentage of clicks an ad receives.

iProspect, a leader in Search Engine Marketing, also recently conducted an in-depth study of user behavior when it comes to search results. The study found that 62 percent of search engine users don't look past the first page of results, and 23 percent review just the first few entries. If the user doesn't find what he or she is looking for, then 82 percent enter a few more words to better target the search, rather than digging deeper into the results. That's an opportunity missed by any company not featured prominently in the original results.

The study also showed implications for brands based on rank. In fact, 36 percent of search engine users equated high search result placement with company prominence, implying these companies are "leaders in their field." Prominent placement is not only helping CTR, but also helping to achieve branding goals. Furthermore, the overall trend for all these results has actually increased in the past few years!

In addition to research, agencies also support the importance of being ranked in high positions.

• "We find that rank is one of the many factors that relate to clickthrough rates for clients," says Ellen Siminoff, CEO of Efficient Frontier. "Using modeling and forecasting, advertisers can effectively see the increase in traffic for top positions.
• "We find that a higher rank often relates to a higher clickthrough rate for our clients. There are many other factors that help increase CTR, but rank is certainly a big one," says Carat Fusion's Western Director of Search, Bill Mungovan.
• Scott Linzer, director of search marketing, McCann Worldgroup says, "Rank often relates to clickthrough rate for clients. The higher the rank, the higher the clickthrough."

As users become more sophisticated (the average query is now three words, up from two in 2004), search engines and results are also becoming more sophisticated. Users may not click blindly on ads based solely on placement, so search engines now routinely include relevance and CTR within the ranking metric. Simply put, if a search result isn't getting clicked on enough, it will drop in rank (or even out of the search engine altogether). A higher placed search ad is expected to receive a higher clickthrough rate. If it doesn't, it will be ranked lower.

Writing relevant search ads and linking to relevant content is more important than ever. Search engines, ad agencies and SEMs can assist with this. But relevancy doesn't replace the importance of bidding for high placement. Rather, SEMs should make a coordinated effort to elicit the highest possible CTR for their campaign needs by combining relevant text with bids to ensure high placement.

Kevin Wilk is the director, agency development, for Yahoo! Search Marketing. Read full bio.