New Google Eye Tracking Study Shows The Downfall Of The Golden Triangle

A new Google eye tracking study published by Mediative shows how the evolution of the Google search results from 2005 to today has resulted in searchers looking outside of the golden triangle.

The golden triangle was coined back in 2005 based on a study on how searchers looked at the Google search results page back then. They focused on a specific triangular location on the page. The new study released this week shows that behavior has changed and searchers are looking outside of the box.

Here are pictures of some of the heatmaps the study shows:

Here are some key findings from the study:

• People are viewing more search results listings during a single session and spending less time 2 viewing each one.
• Now, searchers spend just over 1.17 seconds viewing each listing. In 2005, it was just under 2 seconds.
• Businesses that are positioned lower on the SERP (especially positions 2-4) see more click activity than they did several years ago, making this real 2 estate much more valuable.
• The #1 Organic Listing still captures the most click activity (32.8%), regardless of what new elements are presented.
• Top organic results are no longer always in the top-left corner so 2 users look elsewhere to find them.
• Mobile devices have habitually conditioned searchers to scan vertically more than horizontally. Searchers are looking for the fastest path to the desired content.

You can download the full report over here.

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About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's can be followed on social media at @rustybrick, +BarrySchwartz and Facebook. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)