 What You Need to Know About Eye Movement Studies on Search Engines
By Shari L.S. Worthington
President
 Eye movement studies have been around for years. Apple Computer and human-machine interface experts have been hooking people up to electrodes and video cameras since the genesis of the graphical user interface. Today, such studies are often focused on search engines as they have become our top information gathering resource.
A new study from a research group in Europe analyzed how people use search engines for information vs transaction searches. You need to pay attention to this study because the participants are your next generation of customers: 17-24 year olds who use the Internet, on average, six days a week. Most make purchases online, especially books and airline tickets.
Each of the participants was asked to perform a search, in one case looking for information about a home improvement loan, in another case looking to make a transaction to secure a home improvement loan. The results were interesting.
- Respondents spent 10.4 seconds viewing 9.2 results per search page. Organic search results captured the bulk of the activity, 6.6 of the 9.2 results. Of the sponsored search results, 2.6 across the top of the page (above the organic listings) were viewed and 0.6 sponsored on the right hand side of the page were viewed.
- The average viewing time for a search result was 1.1 second. Organic results got a tad bit more attention, 1.3 seconds vs 0.8 seconds for top ads and 0.2 seconds for right side ads.
- Visitors searching for a transaction viewed more results than those looking for information. But they weren’t willing to spend more time viewing individual results. You’ve still got to capture their attention in about 1 second.
- No significant differences were found in viewing habits on one search engine vs another.
Change Your Marketing Tactics
Depending on what they’re looking for, there are important differences in how people handle search results. These behaviors should translate into specific marketing tactics on your end.
- Know Your Keywords: A person with an informational query (the vast bulk of the science and engineering markets) is more inclined to click on a search result that has the keyword in the search result.
- Build Your Brand: A person with a transaction query is more likely to search for a known and trustworthy name in the search results. If you’ve got a known brand, flaunt it. If you don’t, you better start building one now.
- Focus Your Organic Search Efforts: Back when search engines were new, people were more patient. If you could get your organic results into the top 30, you were golden. Times have changed. Now you need to get your organic search results into the top 6.
- Don’t Waste Your Pay Per Click Ads: Sure, you don’t want every Tom, Dick, and Harry clicking on your ad. But you do want some clicks. Don’t waste your time managing ads that appear at the bottom of the right hand column. Virtually no one is looking there. If they are, they’re probably your competitors.
For more information on how to get the most out of your search engine marketing program, see Telesian’s Search Engine Optimization Service and Pay-Per-Click Advertising Program.
Source: de Vos & Jansen Market Research, 2007
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