No. And a newly released study by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it.com and eye tracking firm Eyetools confirms this.
This joint eye tracking study shares some very interesting insight into the behaviour of a consumer on a search engine; Google in particular. The study measured the eye-movement of 50 people and calculated what they did and didn't read on the search results page.
The study of eye moment on the Internet is not new. In May 2000, the Poynter Institute released one of the first eyetracking studies of its kind. That study focused on how individuals read news on the Internet and provided a lot of insight into the design of websites.
This latest study found that 100% of the participants looked at a "Golden Triangle" that extended from the top of the results page, including the top of the first result, down the left hand side of visible results just before the "fold" (where the page breaks on the user's computer screen).
This study confirms what SEO firms have believed for years: listings ranked below the 7th place stand a "less-than-50% chance of being seen" let alone getting clicked. As such, being listed on the first results page is incredibly important to obtain search engine traffic.
The study also saw that a number one position in the organic listings received a 28% click through rate. This is the number of impressions versus the number of clicks a listing gets. The number two position received a 12% click through rate and the percentage keeps dropping. Sponsored results on the top of the page also appeared to get noticed more compared to the listings on the right.
While this study is based on Google, many search engines share a similar layout. I.E. Organic results on the left, sponsored on the right. It further reiterates the importance for online businesses to have a long-term plan that will achieve high rankings in the organic sections of search engines.
For more information on the study, www.enquiro.com/eye-tracking-pr.
