When peo­ple have a need, they often turn to search engines first. While peo­ple con­tin­ue to click on the top search result more often than not, they are also look­ing at more search result list­ings, but for less time than in past years. So how can brands quick­ly gain more atten­tion from users?

Google’s search results pages are con­stant­ly evolv­ing, espe­cial­ly over the past few years. The intro­duc­tion of new ele­ments such as the Knowl­edge Graph, quick answers, the local carousel, and an abun­dance of oth­er search fea­tures, as well huge growth in search­es con­duct­ed on smart­phones and tablets, have changed the way searchers view and click on organ­ic search results.

How have Google’s numer­ous changes impact­ed user behav­ior? To find out, Media­tive con­duct­ed an eye-track­ing study, Deep Dive Into the Ele­ments of Google’s SERP: Organ­ic List­ings to test a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent ele­ments. The dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing com­pa­ny watched how 53 par­tic­i­pants con­duct­ed a vari­ety of search tasks and mea­sured how peo­ple viewed and clicked.

While the study size is on the small side, it offers some inter­est­ing insights about how peo­ple view and click results that you should keep in mind as you’re plan­ning search strate­gies.

1. You Have Just Over 1 Second To Entice Users To Click

Good news: Peo­ple scan more of the search results page now in a sin­gle ses­sion than they did a few years ago – and they click more often on results in posi­tions two through four more than they did in years past.

Bad news: Peo­ple are spend­ing less time view­ing those list­ings – 1.17 sec­onds, where­as in a pri­or 2005 study users spent just under 2 sec­onds, Media­tive report­ed.

Take­away: Rebec­ca Maynes, mar­ket­ing strate­gist at Media­tive, put it best in the report:

“Google search is used at some point in almost every pur­chase deci­sion process. … You have just over 1 sec­ond to cap­ture your cus­tomer’s atten­tion, so your con­tent bet­ter be rel­e­vant.”

2. A #1 Google Ranking Isn’t Essential For Brands

Sev­er­al stud­ies agree that a top organ­ic result in Google means more peo­ple will click on your list­ing and dri­ve the most traf­fic to your web­site, though those stud­ies don’t agree on the exact per­cent­age. Those stud­ies have report­ed the fig­ure is 53 per­cent, 36 per­cent, 33 per­cent, and 18 per­cent of clicks.

Media­tive found that 32.8 per­cent of users clicked on the first list­ing (and 62.6 per­cent of clicks went to the top four organ­ic list­ings).

While the exact per­cent­age of peo­ple who click on the top result is up for debate, the point is the more vis­i­bil­i­ty your brand is to Google searchers, the more traf­fic you’re like­ly to get.

Although, it seems brands have a bit of an unfair advan­tage. Even well-rec­og­nized brands that don’t rank num­ber one can still cap­ture clicks from Google searchers.

Media­tive found that near­ly 60 per­cent of users clicked on the search results for eBay (ranked third), Ama­zon (ranked fifth), and Sta­ples (ranked sixth), and users spent near­ly 20 per­cent of their time look­ing at those three list­ings.

Take­away: Use brand aware­ness to your advan­tage. Rel­e­vant key­words, com­bined with opti­mized titles and meta descrip­tions and schema markup will draw more eyes to your list­ing and dri­ve more traf­fic to your web­site.

3. Results With Ratings & Reviews Entice More Users To Click

When par­tic­i­pants in Media­tive’s study were instruct­ed to search for a new restau­rant, peo­ple over­whelm­ing­ly chose to click on sites fea­tur­ing reviews and rat­ings. Nine­ty-one per­cent of peo­ple clicked on links to pop­u­lar review sites.

Addi­tion­al­ly, peo­ple more often clicked on sites that used schema markup to include elments like star rat­ings and thumb­nail images.

Take­away: Incor­po­rate ele­ments like star rat­ings and reviews if it’s appro­pri­ate for your brand and indus­try. Also, con­sid­er­ing how many peo­ple are click­ing on review sites, you bet­ter make sure your brand is reviewed well. Do you have a plan in place to opti­mize feed­back on third-par­ty sites?

4. Paid Search Ads That Meet Searcher Intent Work

If your brand does­n’t rank num­ber one in the organ­ic results, paid search results can give you addi­tion­al real estate in the search results and increase brand aware­ness. The top ad attract­ed 9.9 per­cent of clicks, while the sec­ond ad attract­ed 4.8 per­cent of clicks.

Media­tive found that the best per­form­ing paid ads were for:

• Brand­ed search­es: Cap­tured 16 per­cent of time spent on the page; 38.5 per­cent of clicks.
• Non-brand­ed search­es that exact­ly matched the searcher’s intent: 2x more time spent on the page and 8x the num­ber of clicks.
• Paid ads com­bined with an organ­ic list­ing for non-brand­ed search: A paid and organ­ic result work­ing in com­bi­na­tion cap­tured 35 per­cent of time spent on the page and 68 per­cent of clicks.

Take­away: There is val­ue in adver­tis­ing on your own brand terms, even if you rank num­ber one for them already. Media­tive says that brands with a top organ­ic list­ing com­bined with a paid search ad will improve brand asso­ci­a­tion, brand recall, and pur­chase con­sid­er­a­tion.

As the behav­ior of Google users evolves, so too must your search strate­gies. Will you rethink your organ­ic or paid strate­gies in light of the find­ings from this study?