Google "golden triangle" key to optimisation
6 May 2005
Gord Hotchkiss, president and CEO of search research firm Enquiro claims that there is a "golden triangle" on Google that "traps" users' eyeballs.
Mr Hotchkiss told a panel discussion at Search Engine Strategies Toronto that his firm had conducted a study that measured where searchers' eyes go on a search page when query results are returned.
The so-called golden triangle is a triangle-shaped viewing pattern that reaches out from the top left of the search results page and users then generally scan the rest of the page in an F-pattern, looking laterally at the top results and then vertically, with less lateral scanning the further down the list they travel.
According to Mr Hotchkiss, the golden triangle includes the top three organic search results returned, after which user eyeball-scanning reportedly drops off dramatically, Internet News reports.
Enquiro found that the top three results had 100 per cent visibility, the fourth had 85 per cent, the fifth had 60 per cent and the sixth dropped down to 50 per cent. The internet boss said that 72 per cent of users clicked on the first link of interest.
Mr Hotchkiss said the golden triangle dissipates once the user moves to the second results page, with overall page visibility spreading out over a much wider area. However, he added that just 50 per cent of users move to the second page of search results.
The Enquiro head also suggested that searchers have a collection of words in their heads that they subconsciously scan for in the search results. "Understand the semantic map in you're customers' minds when they search," he claimed.
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