In this study there were several heatmap experiments conducted. The first was testing the relevance of a listing based on the text description. Users were served two search results pages – one that had very relevant titles and descriptions, and another that was not as relevant. The goal was to answer these questions: How important is relevance? And can a listing be sabotaged by irrelevant text? Scanning is cut down tremendously on the relevant page as users are able to find what they are looking for quickly compared to the irrelevant page, where many users go past the 5th organic listing. Based on the data collected, the bulk of the clicks fall onto the title and not the description. A strong title is essential to success and will almost always trump a good description.
Experiment two centered on the impact of relevance and position; what matters more, relevance or position? Relevance or position did not have a significant impact on the scan pattern with one exception, when the ad is in the top position. Users spend more time on the page when they see a relevant ad in the top position. Generic ads receive little to no attention. As a rule of thumb, relevance is the key, but a relevant ad in the top position is truly a home run.
Experiment three tested the position length of a URL to see if this would affect viewing and attention. Interestingly, the short URL received twice as many clicks, while the long URL was scanned more, but the entire listing received less attention. Overall, URL length had a distinct impact on how users interact with a listing. The more time a user spent with the listing (not the URL), the more they clicked on that listing. Users spent 40% of their time looking at the URL even though it did not contain any relevant information. Interestingly, a longer URL has a tremendous impact…on the competitive listing below it. While looking at a long URL, a user seems to be scanning the next listing. The listing following a long URL was clicked 2.5 more times than a listing following a short URL.
These heatmap examples do not include examples of Google’s Universal Search, Live Search, or Ask3D. However, Enquiro released a follow-up report called Search Engines 2010, which provides detailed heatmaps for all of the new Search Engine interfaces.
Article by Joshua Palau
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