In September 2014, Mediative released its latest eye-tracking research entitled "The Evolution of Google's Search Engine Results Pages and Their Effects on User Behaviour".
This large study had participants conduct various searches using Google on a desktop. For example, participants were asked "Imagine you're moving from Toronto to Vancouver. Use Google to find a moving company in Toronto." Participants were all presented with the same Google SERP, no matter the search query.
Mediative wanted to know where people look and click on the SERP the most, what role the location of the listing on the SERP plays in winning views and clicks, and how click activity on listings has changed with the introduction of Google features such as the carousel, the knowledge graph etc.
Mediative discovered that, just as Google's SERP has evolved over the past decade, so too has the way in which search engine users scan the page before making a click.
Back in 2005 when a similar eye-tracking study was conducted for the first time by Mediative (formerly Enquiro), it was discovered that people searched in a distinctive "triangle" pattern, starting in the top left of the search results page where they expected the first organic listing to be located, and reading across horizontally before moving their eyes down to the second organic listing, and reading horizontally, but not quite as far. This area of concentrated gaze activity became known as Google's "Golden Triangle". The study concluded that if a business's listing was not in the Golden Triangle, its odds of being seen by a searcher were dramatically reduced.
Heat map from 2005 showing the area known as Google's "Golden Triangle".
But now, in 2014, the top organic results are no longer always in the top-left corner where searchers expect them to be, so they scan other areas of the SERP, trying to seek out the top organic listing, but being distracted by other elements along the way. The #1 organic listing is shifting further down the page, and while this listing still captures the most click activity (32.8%) regardless of what new elements are presented, the shifting location has opened up the top of the page with more potential areas for businesses to achieve visibility.
Where scanning was once more horizontal, the adoption of mobile devices over the past 9 years has habitually conditioned searchers to now scan more vertically—they are looking for the fastest path to the desired content, and, compared to 9 years ago, they are viewing more search results listings during a single session and spending less time viewing each one.
Searchers on Google now scan far more vertically than several years ago.
One of the biggest changes from SERPS 9 years ago to today is that Google is now trying to keep people on the result page for as long as they can.
An example is in the case of the knowledge graph. In Mediative's study. when searchers were looking for "weather in New Orleans", the results page that was presented to them showed exactly what they needed to know. Participants were asked to click on the result that they felt best met their needs, even if, if reality, they wouldn't have clicked through (in order to end that task). When a knowledge graph result exactly met the intent of the searcher, the study found 80% of people looked at that result, and 44% clicked on it. Google provided searchers with a relevant enough answer to keep them on the SERP. The top organic listing captured 36.5% of pages clicks—compared to 82% when the knowledge graph did not provide the searcher with the answer they were looking for.
It's a similar case with the carousel results; when a searcher clicks on a listing, instead of going through to the listing's website, another SERP is presented specifically about the business, as Google tries to increase paid ad impressions/clicks on the Google search results page.
How can businesses stay on top of these changes and ensure they still get listed?
There are four main things to keep in mind:
1. The basic fundamentals of SEO are as important as ever
Create unique, fresh content, which speaks to the needs of your customers as this will always trump chasing the algorithm. There are also on-page and off-page SEO tactics that you can employ that can increase your chances of being listed in areas of the SERP other than your website's organic listing such as front-loading keywords in page titles and meta descriptions, getting listed on directories and ratings and reviews site, having social pages etc. It's important to note that SEO strategy is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach.
2. Consider using schema mark-up wherever possible
In Mediative's 2014 Google SERP research, it was discovered that blog posts that had been marked up using schema to show the picture and name of the author got a significant amount of engagement, even when quite far down the first page—these listings garnered an average of 15.5% of total page clicks.
Note: As of August 2014, Google removed authorship markup entirely. However, the results are still a good example of how schema mark-up can be used to make your business listing stand out more on the SERP, potentially capturing more view and clicks, and therefore more website traffic.
In the study, participants were asked to "Imagine that you're starting a business and you need to find a company to host your website. Use Google to find information about website hosting companies". The SERP presented is shown below:
Almost 45% of clicks went to 2 blog posts titled "Five Best Web Hosting Companies" and "10 Best Web Hosting Companies".
In general, the top clicked posts were those that had titles including phrases such as:
- "Best…"
- "Reviews of…"
- "Top 5…"
- "How-to…"
According to Google, "On-page markup helps search engines understand the information on webpages and provide richer results…Google doesn't use markup for ranking purposes at this time-but rich snippets can make your web pages appear more prominently in search results, so you may see an increase in traffic."
Schema markup is probably the most under-utilized tool for SEO, presenting a huge opportunity for companies that do utilize the Google approved tool. Searchmetrics reported that only 0.3% of websites use schema markup, yet over a third of Google's results contain rich snippets (additional text, images and links below the individual search results). BruceClay.com reports rich snippets can increase CTRs of listings between 15-50% and that websites using schema markup tend to rank higher in search results.
Schema mark-up can be used to add star ratings, number of reviews, pricing (all shown in the listing below) and more to a search results page listing.
3. Know the intent of your users
Understanding what searchers are trying to discover when they conduct a search can help determine how much effort you should try and put into appearing in the number one organic listing, which can be an extremely difficult task without unlimited budget and resources—and, even if you do make it the number one organic listing, traffic is not guaranteed as discovered in this reaserch. If you're competing with big name brands, or ratings and review sites, and THAT is what your customers want, they you are going to struggle to compete.
The importance of your business being the first listing vs. on the first page therefore, is highly dependent on the searcher's intent, plus the strength of your brand. The key is to always keep user intent top-of-mind, and this can be established by talking to real people, rather than guessing. What are they looking for when they are searching for your site? Structure your content around what people really want and need, list your site on the directories that people actually visit or reference, create videos (if that's what your audience wants)—know what your actual customers are looking for, and then provide it.
There are going to be situations when a business can't get to number one on the organic listings. As previously mentioned, the study shows that this is still the key place to be, and the top organic listing captures more clicks that any other single listing. But if your chances of getting to that number one spot are slim, you need to focus on other areas of the SERP, such as positions #4 or higher, which will be easier to obtain ranking for—businesses that are positioned lower on the SERP (especially positions 2-4) see more click activity than they did several years ago, making this real estate much more valuable. As Gord Hotchkiss writes about, searchers tend to "chunk" information on the SERP and scan each chuck in the same way they used to search the entire SERP—in a triangle pattern. Getting listed at the top of a "chunk" can therefore be effective for many businesses. This idea of "chunking" and scanning can be seen in the heat map below.
To add to that, Mediative's research showed that everything located above the top 4 organic listings (so, carousel results, knowledge graph, paid listings, local listings etc.) combined captured 84% of clicks. If you can't get your business listing to #1, but can get listed somewhere higher than #4, you have a good chance of being seen, and clicked on by searchers. Ultimately, people expect Google to continue to do its job, and respond to search queries with the most relevant results at the top. The study points out that only 1% of participants were willing to click through to Page 2 to see more results. If you're not listed on page 1 of Google for relevant searches, you may as well not exist online.
4. A combination of SEO and paid search can maximize your visibility in SERP areas that have the biggest impact on both branding and traffic
Even though organic listings are where many businesses are striving to be listed (and where the majority of clicks take place), it's important not to forget about paid listings as a component of your digital strategy. Click-through rates for top sponsored listings (positions 1 and 2) have changed very little in the past decade. Where the huge change has taken place is in the ability of sponsored ads on the right rail to attract attention and clicks. Activity on this section of the page is almost non-existent. This can be put down to a couple of factors including searchers conditioned behaviour as mentioned before, to scan more vertically, thanks to our increased mobile usage, and the fact that over the years we have learned that those results may not typically be very relevant, or as good as the organic results, so we tend not to even take the time to view them.
Mediative's research also found that there are branding effects of paid search, even if not directly driving traffic. We asked participants to "Imagine you are traveling to New Orleans and are looking for somewhere to meet a friend for dinner in the French Quarter area. Use Google to find a restaurant." Participants were presented with a SERP showing 2 paid ads—the first was for opentable.com, and the second for the restaurant Remoulade, remoulade.com.
The top sponsored listing, opentable.com, was viewed by 84% of participants, and captured 26% of clicks. The second listing, remoulade.com, only captured 2% of clicks but was looked at by 73% of participants. By being seen by almost 3/4 of participants, the paid listing can increase brand affinity, and therefore purchase (or choice) consideration in other areas! For example, if the searcher comes back and searches again another time, or clicks to opentable.com and then sees Remoulade listed, it may benefit from a higher brand affinity from having already been seen in the paid listings. Mediative conducted a Brand Lift study featuring Honda that found the more real estate that brands own on the SERP, the higher the CTR, and the higher the brand affinity, brand recognition, purchase consideration etc. Using paid search for more of a branding play is essentially free brand advertising—while you should be prepared to get the clicks and pay for them of course, it likely that your business listing will be seen by a large number of people without capturing the same number of clicks. Impression data can also be easily tracked with Google paid ads so you know exactly how many times your ad was shown, and can therefore estimate how many people actually looked at it from a branding point of view.
Rebecca Maynes is a Marketing Communications Strategist with Mediative, and was a major contributor on this study. The full study, including click-through rates for all areas of the SERP, can be downloaded at www.mediative.com/SERP.
Rebecca - thanks so much for putting this together. What an epically awesome study and looks like a great company to work for as well.
For example, participants were asked "Imagine you're moving from Toronto to Vancouver. Use Google to find a moving company in Toronto."
Sweet. I like that you were not just like "Google 'toronto movers'" etc.
Honestly, even with the changing landscape of today's SERPs, these still look pretty much the same as they did in the standard "10 pack" results we saw pre-2010.
The scary part for me is all those eyes that are focusing on the Knowledge Graph. I'd love to see Google.com's time on site statistics in a line graph over the course of the last 5 years.
Thanks to you and your company again for putting this together and thanks to Moz for helping me find it :)
This new eye tracking study is everywhere, and I think it's pretty convincing evidence that position number isn't the main KPI anymore. I wonder whether things have changed for the searches involving a "skimmed" answer from Google (ex: a 'how to' search where the gist of the answer is scraped by Google and presented in the SERP)
I am not sure I agree with regards the main KPI. For me it is still getting that high position, the schema markup and other bits from google is just a way to reduce the dominance of that top 1-3 positions.
You are correct, page position is not the sole KPI. It's a combination of many factors, including various filters like geography, keyword/category combinations, locale, freshness, referrals... and many more signals. It comes back to relevance.
Very helpful!awesome article.
It would seem that more and more the only ad positions worth having are top 3 or being shown in the PLA's up top.
Very insightful post. I've been advising many of my clients about the other factors that can affect organic CTR when you are on the first page. You can be in position 3 or 4 and do well competing for clicks if rich snippets are used..
Rebecca this is instantly awesome post I have read this week. We all know that Google is eating as much organic clicks as possible in the Google search results pages but obviously data and exact figures always gives a much more amazing feeling.
I agree with the fact that websites should start using schema markups as much as they can on their results pages so that they can attract as many results from the search engine possible. Also I love the idea of using blog titles as my personal blog study says that title that contain How-tos usually get much higher CTR as compare to the post that contain title that are a little more boring.
Great stuff!
Great Post indeed. Took every points on my note, I am sure it will help a lot to me. Thanks Rebecca Maynes.
Point 2 seems to have two separate and potentially unrelated conclusions. First, #2 states that the schema markup showing picture and author name influence user behavior. Then it states that the most clicked-on results have "Top 10" or "Best" etc. These are not necessarily the same thing. It's proven that engaging titles drive traffic. But how do we know there's a correlation between the schema showing the author info and the time spent looking at the result?
If I saw this page, I'd skip the paid results, then skip the first organic result as soon as I see it's Wikipedia since I know in this case Wikipedia is not going to be useful, and then I'd spend time on the next results. One, I see lifehacker.com which is a big name, and two, I see that results #2 and #3 are lists that probably compare different services which is super helpful to me. My heat graph would look exactly like this chart and have nothing to do with the fact that the authors' pictures are shown in the result.
The study is revealing. We see the evolution of the thinking of users significantly. The study to state that today could be the SERP in 2015.
Thanks Rebecca.
Very good article, I have been looking for more information on this topic and in this blog I have been able to find the most relevant information. thank you very much
This is an interesting update, but I think it is an overstatement to say that users are "trying to seek out the top organic listing.
great tips rebecca , like it!
Some interesting insights here, thank you for sharing.
I am not sure that the results of "below fold" and "above fold" were recorded and this would have been helpful to see. Was the screen resolution of the old and new studies comparable? I guess in 10 years we moved on with screen sizes but this might impact on the way we see a web page on one screen and / or do we have to scroll?
A
Hi,
I had a question that maybe someone can help me with. My company is Connect London Recruitment and when it is searched in google, other company details come up that are not associated with us. How can I change this? my company website is www.connect-london.com.
HI there - this is to do with your SEO. I've had a quick look at your site and I'll quickly mention keywords - you will notice when you search for "connect london" your site ranks highly because you are using the keyword heavily throughout your site as it is part of your name, however, when "London recruitment" or "london staffing" is searched, you are not visible because you have not optimized your site for these keywords. Keywords are just one part of SEO - you can download free cheat sheets on all aspects of SEO from Mediative's site: https://pages.mediative.com/cheat-sheet-main.html
Thanks!
The paid section is earning unnegligible attention from searchers, from my own search experience and what the study shows, that paid section is as important as the natural lists section, especially if you are looking for some business opportunities, buying or selling.
This is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for this! The fact that so many companies under-utilize schema markup is mind blowing. We're working on it currently (so I guess we fall under that category as well!) and it seems promising so far... but what is the likelihood ours will actually appear in that golden triangle/red zone? Probably not too high. But you do what you can, right? ;)
Solid post, great research & well written - Thank you very much for sharing your findings Rebecca.
Thanks Rebecca for this amazing post. It is really great to see how users interact with todays Google SERP's.
Can you provide more screen shots around how users interact with different type of Google Ads formats. Like shopping ads, right, top, bottom, ads with or without extensions etc. Also if we could analyze the behavior across different countries like US, Canada, UK etc that would be great.
Hi there - I am in the process of puling together all the data specifically related to the types of ad formats and will hopefully have something to release in a couple of weeks. We only have data for Canada for this study unfortunately.
Yeah! Knowledge graph is killer feature but real problem is that most of SEO customers can't get there. Just because they:
I expect soon rise of articles "How to get in knowledge graph" but this will be very hard due previous three (or even more) requirements.
Good point Peter, and this has been my primary focus this past year. I think point #3 deep pockets is the biggest issue. Anyone can get some semblance of a Knowledge Box and with enough time (read: money) we can make it happen.
I am still looking for a guinea pig peru if anyone is interested hit me up via my Moz profile :)
Fantastic post Rebecca, I was kinda excited for the 2005 study, surprised how much users interactions have changed.
Although not directly related with the Serps a while ago I found the following - Java Mouse follower listener
never found a use for it my self but fantastic for helping you work out what users are doing once they reach your page.
thanks again for the post really enjoyed it.
Thanks for this Rebecca.
Isn't the "vertical" aspect (illustration 2) due to the fact that we now know that we don't need to click on the full link or a specific word as seen in the 2005 illustration? or perhaps sites have done a great job at shortening and optimizing their pages titles...
Awesome post Rebecca. I was aware of the triangle/f-shape pattern, but never realized that eye tracking for mobile was more vertical and also now the pattern of viewing serps changed.
Great book on the subject is Eyetracking Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen & Kara Pernice (a bit dated, but most of it still holds true).
This is great. However, I am surprised by the lack of PLAs in this study, given that they have become such a major component of Google's paid search. Would love to see some follow up with details on Google Shopping.
Hi there - as mentioned above, I am in the process of puling together all the data specifically related to the types of ad formats and will hopefully have something to release in a couple of weeks.
This is an interesting update, but I think it is an overstatement to say that users are "trying to seek out the top organic listing." Many users do not make the distinction between paid and organic search listings, they just see everything as one set of search results from Google (or whatever search engine they are using). Studies have shown that even when labeling paid lists as an "Ad" many users don't see or understand the distinction.
Interesting, as we did not find this to be the case at all. The data we gathered shows that searchers in the majority of cases focus on the paid ads first (as they scan down the page) but the amount of engagement is much lower than the organic listing. Of course, it depends on the SERP that is presented and what other elements are on the page, and this is what our study sought to find out.
What's great about utilizing paid along with organic is that it increases your visibility. You can appear twice on the SERP. This tells the searcher that your site must be relevant.
Love this, great post Rebecca, thank you for the tips!
Google's trying to keep searchers on the SERPs is a little scary for people who want to get visitors to their sites, but I'd think that Google couldn't go too far in that direction as they still want to sell ads, and making money on those ads requires that searchers click off the SERP.
Agreed! Something I noticed during the write-up of this study was that Google was placing sponsored ads above the knowledge graph, pushing the organic listings even further down the page. But those ads were not around for long. Not sure what Google was doing there.
Thanks, it was really helpful. :)
when the hell did google released heatmap of it's search pages ?
Hi there - these are not Google's heatmaps - they are Mediative's heatmaps, and are from the research study that we conducted.
Thanks
One of the biggest changes from SERPS 9 years ago to today is that Google is now trying to keep people on the result page for as long as they can.
As one of the world's oldest internet marketers this is VERY true.
Your job as an internet marketer is capturing an audience and holding its attention long enough to perform a favorable outcome. Now that Google is a BIG corporate juggernaut it is no different than you or I as far as holding an audiences attention. In fact you might want to say that we are in direct competition with Google. Say it isn't so?!?
Back in the day it wasn't always so. Oh, the joy of having share holders.
Eye tracking used to show an "F" Shape. But that was way before Google turned EVIL
This heatmap thing is very useful, now it gonna be such a hard time for hotels company SEOs to get some attention from the surfers if the hotel is not well place IRL. Or maybe multiply the BL to the Google Local Page ?