Google says: If you are not in the Top 3 of a SERP, you are wrong for the user

It appears that Google is taking a page from the infamous owl of the old Tootsie Roll Pop commercial. Just like the curious boy approached the perspicacious owl and asked “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie Roll Pop?”, eager webmaster look at Google and want to ask “What SERP ranking do I need for the most traffic?’”

The answer both the boy and us webmasters receive is 3.

Now the obvious answer should be #1, but here is an interesting quote:

“Expectations are higher now,” said Udi Manber, who oversees Google’s entire search-quality group. “When search first started, if you searched for something and you found it, it was a miracle. Now, if you don’t get exactly what you want in the first three results, something is wrong.”

Source: New York Times Article – Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

You can read into that statement and assume that a vast majority of internet surfers click on those top three results. So as we all jockey to get to the front of the line it appears that if you are not gold, silver or bronze you are up a creek without a paddle. I know that I scan through results looking for my highlight search terms, and if I do not see what I like early on I am scrolling down to click to the next page.

Ah, maybe there is some hope yet. Could one argue that being in the top three spots on SERP 2 [11-12-13] is better than the 6-7-8 spots SERP 1? You would be at the top of the page and not having to fend off paid links, plus you would not be sandwiched between the Top 3 results and the omnipresent Google Next Page navigation.

So how can one keep from being looked over?

1. Write post titles that pique the reader’s curiosity
2. Make sure your content is keyword dense and pertinent
3. Work to get your Page Rank up so your link is higher in the results

What do you think? Would being the top link on page 2 be better than 5-9 on page 1? Do you really read thoroughly through all ‘descriptions’ of links?