Psychology of Psearch
This is from Search Engine Watch Dot Com. Interesting results of how John Q. Searcher thinks when looking at a search results page.
Inside the Searcher's Mind: It's a Jungle in Here!: "It became clear that the participants had mentally divided a search engine results page into distinct sections. Most of our searchers had clearly delineated sponsored results from organic ones, and 'above the fold' results (those that don't require scrolling down in the browser window) from 'below the fold' results (results that require scrolling).
Although they were aware of each of these sections, that didn't mean they looked at all of them. We found a strong tendency to skip past the sponsored listings and go directly to the organic results. Less that 20 percent of the participants were confused about what was a sponsored link and what was an organic link.
Google users were the least confused about what was sponsored and what wasn't on the results page. The greatest confusion was found amongst MSN users."
Inside the Searcher's Mind: It's a Jungle in Here!: "Above The Fold Organic: This was considered the 'prime real estate.' All 24 participants checked these top two or three organic results. One participant indicated that he usually went first to the sponsored results for commercial searches, but still looked at the top organic listings. If a highly relevant and trusted site appeared in these top listings, it would likely capture a click through from almost 100 percent of the users.
Below The Fold Organic: The number of searchers who would then scroll down to look at the rest of results varied greatly with the quality of the results above the fold. If there was not a clearly relevant and useful site in the top three, 21 of the participants would scroll down to look at the bottom organic results. However, if there was a highly relevant, quality site in the top three listings, only 14 participants would scroll down to check all results before choosing a link to click on.
Sponsored Links: Like below the fold organic results, the number of participants looking at the sponsored links depended on the relevancy of the sites showing in the organic listings. If nothing relevant showed, 12 members of the group would then look at the sponsored links. But only 4 members would look even if they found a relevant site in the organic listings.
Second Page And Beyond: If no relevant listings were found on the first page, only 5 participants went to the second page rather than launching a new search. If relevant sites were found on the first page, only one participant took the time to also check listings on the second (and third) page of results. "
This is from Search Engine Watch Dot Com. Interesting results of how John Q. Searcher thinks when looking at a search results page.
Inside the Searcher's Mind: It's a Jungle in Here!: "It became clear that the participants had mentally divided a search engine results page into distinct sections. Most of our searchers had clearly delineated sponsored results from organic ones, and 'above the fold' results (those that don't require scrolling down in the browser window) from 'below the fold' results (results that require scrolling).
Although they were aware of each of these sections, that didn't mean they looked at all of them. We found a strong tendency to skip past the sponsored listings and go directly to the organic results. Less that 20 percent of the participants were confused about what was a sponsored link and what was an organic link.
Google users were the least confused about what was sponsored and what wasn't on the results page. The greatest confusion was found amongst MSN users."
Inside the Searcher's Mind: It's a Jungle in Here!: "Above The Fold Organic: This was considered the 'prime real estate.' All 24 participants checked these top two or three organic results. One participant indicated that he usually went first to the sponsored results for commercial searches, but still looked at the top organic listings. If a highly relevant and trusted site appeared in these top listings, it would likely capture a click through from almost 100 percent of the users.
Below The Fold Organic: The number of searchers who would then scroll down to look at the rest of results varied greatly with the quality of the results above the fold. If there was not a clearly relevant and useful site in the top three, 21 of the participants would scroll down to look at the bottom organic results. However, if there was a highly relevant, quality site in the top three listings, only 14 participants would scroll down to check all results before choosing a link to click on.
Sponsored Links: Like below the fold organic results, the number of participants looking at the sponsored links depended on the relevancy of the sites showing in the organic listings. If nothing relevant showed, 12 members of the group would then look at the sponsored links. But only 4 members would look even if they found a relevant site in the organic listings.
Second Page And Beyond: If no relevant listings were found on the first page, only 5 participants went to the second page rather than launching a new search. If relevant sites were found on the first page, only one participant took the time to also check listings on the second (and third) page of results. "
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