This visual heat map suggests how web searchers navigate scan the search results shown on Google pages and which areas on the Google web page tend to get the maximum attention.
The areas highlighted in red are noticed by almost Google user but the visibility decreases drastically for search results that show up below the fold (i.e., search results at position 5 or below).
Like the letter “F”, human eyes read the content at the top in a horizontal manner and then travel vertically along the left side of the results.
Most of the Google ads in the right sidebar largely go unnoticed (compared to the top organic search results) while the reverse is true for the horizontal Google ad unit placed at the top of search results - it probably offers the highest conversion rate for advertisers.
Full details of this Google Eyetracking study is available on Eyetools.
Related: How to Draw Heat Maps
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/golden-triangle-suggests-how-people-scan-google-search-pages/1816/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
You forgot to mention that the study is from 2005.
Written by Dan on 11.20.07
Interesting - and in keeping with what we have seen before. But at a glance, that does not seem to be a page incorporating mixed media from Google’s universal results. In other words, if result number eight included a YouTube video screen shot, for example, I wonder if that would have drawn more eye balls.
Written by Neil MacLean on 11.20.07
The other question I wonder about is what percentage of people hit the page down button rather than scrolling if they don’t find what they’re looking for in the first five…
Written by driving course on 11.20.07
If i am in a hurry i check the 1st 5 results and try make do with what is being offered and if its not there I assume i am not going to get it.
Otherwise when things are cool, I usually go up to the 3rd page. Click almost all the links on these 3 pages
Written by Selbourne Designing on 11.21.07
I wonder how much of that is legacy? Let’s face it, for years the internet was little more than list at the top for main navigation and list down the left for secondary navigation. Human beings are like monkeys, or rats, we become lazy by repetition of action. No wonder we look top left to start with as a result. If we followed such research blindly then the web content of the world would be very dull indeed. Think more how we can change people’s behaviour than how we can fall in line with the obvious option. Like sheep. We are but animals.
Written by Stein Olsen on 07.02.08