Google top 3 positions more crucial than ever before
A quick post to point out some very revealing and interesting data from ‘Think Eyetracking‘. After fitting 30 participants with what I assume to be the crazy Clockwork Orange-style headkit, the searchers viewed a Google SERP for the term ‘Oasis’.
Anyone who works in SEO or SEM… Your job just got harder.
Basically, when compared to the results for the same search term from 2005, Think Eyetracking have found that the way we use Google SERPs has changed drastically in the last 3 years. Whereas 3 years ago eyeball-tracking showed searchers viewing the entire first page, today searchers are looking at the top 3 results only.
Some very interesting stats generated from this experiment:
- The top 3 Google results get 79% of all clicks
- 86% of the participants would alter the search query if they didn’t find what they wanted… and assumes they would continue doing this until the desired result entered the top 3
- 97% of the participants used Google as their primary SE
- 87% said they wouldn’t bother using another SE (!)
Read Think Eyetracking’s full post here: http://thinkeyetracking.com/wordpress/?p=4
September 5th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Interesting but also totally unsurprising and affirming. Confirms not only my suspicions, but my own habits too.
I use the top three results for most general searches, especially now “the Omnibar” and Ubiquity are pulling results into smaller and smaller spaces.
If the topic is more arcane and the results differ wildly then I’ll hunt and peck a little more.
I tend to change my terms quite a bit and, actually, although the machine is training me to some extent, this is a totally sensible search strategy.
I’ve not always got a coherant finished goal in mind and searching helps refine my thoughts, it’s like the machine/Google is searching me while I search it.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Hi,
No weird Clockwork Orange kit. Check out the video at http://www.thinkeyetracking.com/resources.html
“An eyetracking interview session (wmv, 20.2MB): An example of one of our eyetracking interview sessions.”
The kit is non-intrusive and it is no different than using a regular computer.
Cheers, Lizzie.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Cheers Lizzie, thanks for the video. Your method definitely looks less intrusive than this version: http://experiencedynamics.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/eye_tracking_1.gif which I understood to be the only way to track a user’s eye movements.
I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from Think Eyetracking in the near future, and with results like those in the post above, your research is more than welcome!
@MRose: Agreed the research confirms a behaviour that we’re all used to doing (although I for one deliberately try to scan the entire first page!) but it also raises an issue with Google. Are they victims of their own success, or are they going to be too successful?
With their ongoing push for relevance to the user and the release of the ‘omnibar’ in Chrome, how are they going to bring eyeballs to their paid ads - the same ads that are slowly but surely increasing in cost in order to be seen in the ever-decreasing ‘golden triangle’?
You heard it here first: Google to release a new method for adwords: Paid inclusion into Chrome’s omnibar. When typing in a query, the bar will return the basic top organic listing, 2 suggestions, and a paid ad (that is identified as such). Why else would they release a browser that ultimately circumvents their beloved search engine?