Google Eye-Tracking Research

Google has posted an interesting article about their latest eye-tracking research including a video showing exactly how one of their participants scanned a Google results page.

Perhaps the most startling image is the accumulated heatmap data of 34 participants (left) showing that most people scan the first two results but their attention drops off rapidly afterwards.

Google suggests this may be a sign that the results were returned in the most successful order, i.e the users found a satisfactory result and stopped looking any further.

Alternatively users may scan the first few results and if they do not find what they were looking for, they refine their search.

The familiar 'F' pattern seen in the image has been known for some time, but Google makes no mention in this article of the amount of attention users give to sponsored link results.

The only images in this post of search results which include ads, seem to show that users only scan through the sponsored ads once they have looked through the first four organic results.

Search engine optimisation companies and website owners should be aware of the vast difference between the top-ten positions, it seems that moving from position 5 to 4 or position 3 to 2 in the search results could bring enormous increases in traffic. Also, being in the top 4 of the organic results may give a much better return on investment than a PPC campaign.