Casting an eye on Google

One of the main goals of website owners is to achieve a good visibility in Google. Best case is to be positioned on top of the result pages, which was equivalent to position 1 on page 1. Deliberately using the term “was” as for now a new study shows significant insights in the appearance of Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

It was about time for this study as Google implemented so many new SERP elements in the past years that have shifted the priorities, i.e. local listings, images, user ratings, maps, news, knowledge graphs, videos … not to mention the paid results, like Google Shopping or several enhancements with ads. 

The Canadian agency Mediative recently produced a costly eye-tracking study to show the coherence between the ongoing change in the SERPs and its impact on the user’s behavior. This study covers the eye movements of users after typing in a pre-defined query. The longer the eyes stayed on a certain part of the SERPs the “hotter” the areas showed up.

The most impressive finding was the apparent change to a more vertical direction. To get an impression of this enormous shift, let’s reference the last relevant eye-tracking study from 2005.

Eye-tracking 2005, source: mediative.com Eye-tracking 2014, source: mediative.com

For some time now the so-called “golden triangle”, meaning the first three positions in the upper left corner, has now turned into a strung-out rectangle along the left margin.

There are a few reasons for this shift:

• Top organic (meaning: non-paid) results are not 
always in the top-left corner, so users look elsewhere.
• Mobile devices have conditioned users to scan vertically, more than horizontally.
• Users are looking for the fastest path to the desired content.

Another interesting detail Mediative found out was the decrease of the average time users spend looking at each listing (2005: 2 seconds, 2014: 1.17 seconds). In total they scan more, in less time.
The good news for those who work hard to achieve top positions in Google: Businesses that are positioned lower
 on the SERP (especially positions 2-4)
 now see more click activity than they did several years ago:

Source: mediative.com

Mediative’s conclusion: The importance of your business being 
the “first listing” vs. “on the first page” is
 highly dependent on the user’s intent, plus the strength of your brand.

One thing that stayed the same throughout the years: If the SERP solely consists out of textual organic results “the golden triangle” from 2005 still exists.

For all revealing details find a free download of Mediative’s whitepaper.