The Art of SEO, 2nd Edition

Eye Tracking: How Users Scan Results Pages

Research firms Enquiro, Eyetools, and Didit conducted heat-map testing with search engine users (http://www.enquiro.com/research/eyetrackingreport.asp) that produced fascinating results related to what users see and focus on when engaged in search activity. Figure 1-8 depicts a heat map showing a test performed on Google. The graphic indicates that users spent the most amount of time focusing their eyes in the top-left area, where shading is the darkest.

Figure 1-8. Enquiro eye-tracking results

Published in November 2006, this particular study perfectly illustrates how little attention is paid to results lower on the page versus those higher up, and how users’ eyes are drawn to bold keywords, titles, and descriptions in the natural (“organic”) results versus the paid search listings, which receive comparatively little attention.

This research study also showed that different physical positioning of on-screen search results resulted in different user eye-tracking patterns. When viewing a standard Google results page, users tended to create an “F-shaped” pattern with their eye movements, focusing first and longest on the upper-left corner of the screen, then moving down vertically through the first two or three results, across the page to the first paid page result, down another few vertical results, and then across again to the second paid result. ...