Written by Fernando Maciá
Study on eye tracking on the Google search results page
A study conducted through the Eye Tracking tool shows that people tend to view the first three search results on the left side of the Google results page for a longer period of time.
Appearing in the top 30 results is good, appearing in the top 10 results even better, appearing in the top 5 even better, but according to this study the top 3 is the perfect position for search engine optimization.
The company Eye Tools, creator of the famous Eye Tracking tool that tracks the eye movement of people viewing a certain web page, has conducted a study on the Google Search Engine. This study consisted in studying the eye movement of several individuals in front of a computer screen where they had to see the Google results page for certain searches.
The more detailed results were as follows:
Left Side of Google (Organic or Natural Results)
Position 1 in Google – 100%
Position 2 – 100%.
Position 3 – 100%.
Position 4 – 85%.
Position 5 – 60%.
Position 6 – 50% – 50% of the total
Position 7 – 50% – 50% of the total
Position 8 – 30%.
Position 9 – 30% – 30% of the total
Position 10 – 20%.
Right side of Google (sponsored results or google adwords)
Position 1 – 50% – 50% of the total
Position 2 – 40%.
Position 3 – 30% – 30% of the total
Position 4 – 20%.
Position 5 – 10%.
Conclusions
- Being in the first 3 places of Google on the left side assures us that the internuata who is looking for the information has seen our respective link.
- The importance of search engine optimization as a useful tool to generate qualified web traffic is confirmed.
- Organic or natural results still have a much higher visibility ratio than sponsored results (google adwords).
