If You're Not Above the Fold, You Don't Exist

If you take a look at this heatmap, you'll see something very interesting. People don't scroll unless they have to. If they find what they're looking for in the first 4 or 5 results, they won't even look to see what's "below the fold". I only bring this up because we're due for one of those studies that comes out every year telling how certain vendors have the most dealers ranked on the first page of Google.

This type of information is worthless for two reason:

As the heatmap shows, the tendency for people to click on rankings below #5 drops dramatically.
Rating vendors based upon the number of websites on the first page of Google for certain keywords is like rating the quality of an automobile based upon how many can be seen on a busy road. While the Ford Focus is a good car and many can be seen on any busy street at any given time, few would say that it's a better car than a Mercedes S600 just because there are more of them on the road. The same holds true for website vendors; those with the most websites will naturally have the most ranked on page 1 regardless of how good their SEO is.

Just wanted to put that out there before the next "study" is released. If you're not getting in the top 5 for your keywords, you're not getting the full benefits of proper SEO.

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Comment by Vicki O'Neill on March 27, 2012 at 8:38am: Well said, JD! For the explanation you've provided, it's critical to have goals outlined prior to developing PPC and/or organic plans. Determining what a dealer wants to accomplish for their brand (dealership name) vs. particular make/model will help identify what $ should be spent on organic vs PPC. Core business, for the most part, should be organic (content on site, blog posts, etc. support this) and niche or new markets/products, for the most part, should be PPC. They must complement, not conflict. And having a plan for transitioning from PPC to organic (if it aligns with goals) should be considered in the strategy development process as well.

Comment by JD Rucker on March 26, 2012 at 8:25pm: @Kevin - Google has said that PPC has zero effect on organic search and I tend to believe them. I've actually seen 2 occasions in the last 5 years where PPC may have had a negative effect on the SEO because it reduced the clicks from their first position organic for a couple of keywords. It wasn't a direct result, but nothing had changed and in both cases the organic rankings went up a couple of months after the PPC stopped for those particular keywords (both localized model-based searches as I recall). Still, Matt Cutts has said that there is no correlation between PPC and organic rankings. I haven't heard Bing's view but I would imagine it amounts to the same, which we might think is counterintuitive considering that they're money is made off advertising but I believe that they both decided to keep it separate to allow for "pureness" and "credibility" within their searches. If word spread that you could "buy off" Google to get better organic ratings their credibility would be called into question and they could end up losing money as a result.

Comment by Vicki O'Neill on March 26, 2012 at 4:41pm: A huge opportunity for any dealer (or company!) that wants mobile exposure. And a great example of how SEM compliments SEO. Thanks for the post!

Comment by JD Rucker on March 26, 2012 at 4:27pm: Thanks a ton, Vicki, and you're absolutely right about the long tail and Places. There is real opportunity that is completely untapped in some markets.

Comment by Vicki O'Neill on March 26, 2012 at 3:53pm: Good point, JD! It use to be the first page, now it's above the fold. On mobile, using "cincinnati ford" it's one AdWord and only one place page before any scrolling occurs. So what's trending? Long tail keywords and Google Places. You won't capture everyone but you'll capture your relevant, target audience. And users are more likely to scroll on a mobile device past the first couple of results - we like choices - but more likely to click on the places map than scroll through listings.