It could be low click through due to lame titles, or perhaps you have targeted keywords that nobody really searches. But there’s an elephant in the room which nobody talks about.
The Incredible Shrinking Organic Search Results
Google’s Adwords ads and other non-organic results now take up about 19% of the search results space. So even if you rank number 1 organically, there will still be some paid results above you. This is a problem if your customers are the type of people who click on the first thing they see without really reading it. It is also a problem on most mobile devices like iPhones when the search results show three ads and ZERO organic results unless the viewer scrolls down.
You can beat your competitors in organic search, but your top keyword positon can’t displace Google’s own ads (and News, and the Answers box).
That’s why it is best to have a well-rounded search marketing strategy that includes both: the best possible optimization for organic search, and a well planned Adwords campaign.