New Eye Tracking Study of Google SERPs

[engine]

There's a recent study published showing a heat map from the eye tracking of Google's SERPs. The earlier eye tracking study was published well before all the additional furniture appeared on the SERPs.
This new study, although taken with relatively small numbers, shows that people appear to spend half the time on the page finding what they want.

I would have liked to have seen a bigger number in the survey than just 53. But, anyway, here it is.

In any case, the change has huge implications for search marketing. Because people are scanning the top three or four results in the category they want, it’s not nearly as critical for a company to capture the very top search result–the Holy Grail for search marketers since they businesses realized Google’s ability to drive potential customers their way.New Eye Tracking Study of Google SERPs [forbes.com]

[Wilburforce]

I would have liked to have seen a bigger number in the survey than just 53.

The small sample-size is just one of the reasons not to place too much reliance on it.

For example, one might wonder, if "it now takes people on average about eight or nine seconds to find the result they want, down from 14 to 15 seconds in the previous study", whether any controls were used to standardise search terms or results, and whether "find the result they want" means something different from "click on a link", which is not necessarily the same thing.

It would also be nice to know whether there had been any shift in "the result they want" from organics to paid advertising. Possibly it means their subjects now just do a quick scan of the page before clicking on an ad. The lack of lateral movement suggests they didn't read the full page titles, let alone the descriptions.

[rish3]

I find it odd that the screenshots in the article only show SERPS with no ads in the right sidebar.

[engine]

Yup, as I said,it could have been a better survey.

I really would like to see more in depth research into this as it really would help us with organic and advertising .