miercuri, 22 octombrie 2014
Eye Tracking in 2014: How Users View and Interact with Today's Google SERPs
Eye Tracking in 2014: How Users View and Interact with Today's Google SERPs |
| Eye Tracking in 2014: How Users View and Interact with Today's Google SERPs Posted: 21 Oct 2014 05:15 PM PDT Posted by rMaynes1 In September 2014, Mediative released its latest eye-tracking research entitled "The Evolution of Google's Search Engine Results Pages and Their Effects on User Behaviour". This large study had participants conduct various searches using Google on a desktop. For example, participants were asked "Imagine you're moving from Toronto to Vancouver. Use Google to find a moving company in Toronto." Participants were all presented with the same Google SERP, no matter the search query. Mediative wanted to know where people look and click on the SERP the most, what role the location of the listing on the SERP plays in winning views and clicks, and how click activity on listings has changed with the introduction of Google features such as the carousel, the knowledge graph etc.
Mediative discovered that, just as Google's SERP has evolved over the past decade, so too has the way in which search engine users scan the page before making a click. Back in 2005 when a similar eye-tracking study was conducted for the first time by Mediative (formerly Enquiro), it was discovered that people searched in a distinctive "triangle" pattern, starting in the top left of the search results page where they expected the first organic listing to be located, and reading across horizontally before moving their eyes down to the second organic listing, and reading horizontally, but not quite as far. This area of concentrated gaze activity became known as Google's "Golden Triangle". The study concluded that if a business's listing was not in the Golden Triangle, its odds of being seen by a searcher were dramatically reduced. Heat map from 2005 showing the area known as Google's "Golden Triangle". But now, in 2014, the top organic results are no longer always in the top-left corner where searchers expect them to be, so they scan other areas of the SERP, trying to seek out the top organic listing, but being distracted by other elements along the way. The #1 organic listing is shifting further down the page, and while this listing still captures the most click activity (32.8%) regardless of what new elements are presented, the shifting location has opened up the top of the page with more potential areas for businesses to achieve visibility. Where scanning was once more horizontal, the adoption of mobile devices over the past 9 years has habitually conditioned searchers to now scan more vertically—they are looking for the fastest path to the desired content, and, compared to 9 years ago, they are viewing more search results listings during a single session and spending less time viewing each one. Searchers on Google now scan far more vertically than several years ago. One of the biggest changes from SERPS 9 years ago to today is that Google is now trying to keep people on the result page for as long as they can. An example is in the case of the knowledge graph. In Mediative's study. when searchers were looking for "weather in New Orleans", the results page that was presented to them showed exactly what they needed to know. Participants were asked to click on the result that they felt best met their needs, even if, if reality, they wouldn't have clicked through (in order to end that task). When a knowledge graph result exactly met the intent of the searcher, the study found 80% of people looked at that result, and 44% clicked on it. Google provided searchers with a relevant enough answer to keep them on the SERP. The top organic listing captured 36.5% of pages clicks—compared to 82% when the knowledge graph did not provide the searcher with the answer they were looking for. It's a similar case with the carousel results; when a searcher clicks on a listing, instead of going through to the listing's website, another SERP is presented specifically about the business, as Google tries to increase paid ad impressions/clicks on the Google search results page. How can businesses stay on top of these changes and ensure they still get listed?There are four main things to keep in mind: 1. The basic fundamentals of SEO are as important as everCreate unique, fresh content, which speaks to the needs of your customers as this will always trump chasing the algorithm. There are also on-page and off-page SEO tactics that you can employ that can increase your chances of being listed in areas of the SERP other than your website's organic listing such as front-loading keywords in page titles and meta descriptions, getting listed on directories and ratings and reviews site, having social pages etc. It's important to note that SEO strategy is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach. 2. Consider using schema mark-up wherever possibleIn Mediative's 2014 Google SERP research, it was discovered that blog posts that had been marked up using schema to show the picture and name of the author got a significant amount of engagement, even when quite far down the first page—these listings garnered an average of 15.5% of total page clicks. Note: As of August 2014, Google removed authorship markup entirely. However, the results are still a good example of how schema mark-up can be used to make your business listing stand out more on the SERP, potentially capturing more view and clicks, and therefore more website traffic. In the study, participants were asked to "Imagine that you're starting a business and you need to find a company to host your website. Use Google to find information about website hosting companies". The SERP presented is shown below: Almost 45% of clicks went to 2 blog posts titled "Five Best Web Hosting Companies" and "10 Best Web Hosting Companies". In general, the top clicked posts were those that had titles including phrases such as:
According to Google, "On-page markup helps search engines understand the information on webpages and provide richer results…Google doesn't use markup for ranking purposes at this time-but rich snippets can make your web pages appear more prominently in search results, so you may see an increase in traffic." Schema markup is probably the most under-utilized tool for SEO, presenting a huge opportunity for companies that do utilize the Google approved tool. Searchmetrics reported that only 0.3% of websites use schema markup, yet over a third of Google's results contain rich snippets (additional text, images and links below the individual search results). BruceClay.com reports rich snippets can increase CTRs of listings between 15-50% and that websites using schema markup tend to rank higher in search results. Schema mark-up can be used to add star ratings, number of reviews, pricing (all shown in the listing below) and more to a search results page listing. 3. Know the intent of your usersUnderstanding what searchers are trying to discover when they conduct a search can help determine how much effort you should try and put into appearing in the number one organic listing, which can be an extremely difficult task without unlimited budget and resources—and, even if you do make it the number one organic listing, traffic is not guaranteed as discovered in this reaserch. If you're competing with big name brands, or ratings and review sites, and THAT is what your customers want, they you are going to struggle to compete. The importance of your business being the first listing vs. on the first page therefore, is highly dependent on the searcher's intent, plus the strength of your brand. The key is to always keep user intent top-of-mind, and this can be established by talking to real people, rather than guessing. What are they looking for when they are searching for your site? Structure your content around what people really want and need, list your site on the directories that people actually visit or reference, create videos (if that's what your audience wants)—know what your actual customers are looking for, and then provide it. There are going to be situations when a business can't get to number one on the organic listings. As previously mentioned, the study shows that this is still the key place to be, and the top organic listing captures more clicks that any other single listing. But if your chances of getting to that number one spot are slim, you need to focus on other areas of the SERP, such as positions #4 or higher, which will be easier to obtain ranking for—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 estate much more valuable. As Gord Hotchkiss writes about, searchers tend to "chunk" information on the SERP and scan each chuck in the same way they used to search the entire SERP—in a triangle pattern. Getting listed at the top of a "chunk" can therefore be effective for many businesses. This idea of "chunking" and scanning can be seen in the heat map below. To add to that, Mediative's research showed that everything located above the top 4 organic listings (so, carousel results, knowledge graph, paid listings, local listings etc.) combined captured 84% of clicks. If you can't get your business listing to #1, but can get listed somewhere higher than #4, you have a good chance of being seen, and clicked on by searchers. Ultimately, people expect Google to continue to do its job, and respond to search queries with the most relevant results at the top. The study points out that only 1% of participants were willing to click through to Page 2 to see more results. If you're not listed on page 1 of Google for relevant searches, you may as well not exist online. 4. A combination of SEO and paid search can maximize your visibility in SERP areas that have the biggest impact on both branding and trafficEven though organic listings are where many businesses are striving to be listed (and where the majority of clicks take place), it's important not to forget about paid listings as a component of your digital strategy. Click-through rates for top sponsored listings (positions 1 and 2) have changed very little in the past decade. Where the huge change has taken place is in the ability of sponsored ads on the right rail to attract attention and clicks. Activity on this section of the page is almost non-existent. This can be put down to a couple of factors including searchers conditioned behaviour as mentioned before, to scan more vertically, thanks to our increased mobile usage, and the fact that over the years we have learned that those results may not typically be very relevant, or as good as the organic results, so we tend not to even take the time to view them. Mediative's research also found that there are branding effects of paid search, even if not directly driving traffic. We asked participants to "Imagine you are traveling to New Orleans and are looking for somewhere to meet a friend for dinner in the French Quarter area. Use Google to find a restaurant." Participants were presented with a SERP showing 2 paid ads—the first was for opentable.com, and the second for the restaurant Remoulade, remoulade.com. The top sponsored listing, opentable.com, was viewed by 84% of participants, and captured 26% of clicks. The second listing, remoulade.com, only captured 2% of clicks but was looked at by 73% of participants. By being seen by almost 3/4 of participants, the paid listing can increase brand affinity, and therefore purchase (or choice) consideration in other areas! For example, if the searcher comes back and searches again another time, or clicks to opentable.com and then sees Remoulade listed, it may benefit from a higher brand affinity from having already been seen in the paid listings. Mediative conducted a Brand Lift study featuring Honda that found the more real estate that brands own on the SERP, the higher the CTR, and the higher the brand affinity, brand recognition, purchase consideration etc. Using paid search for more of a branding play is essentially free brand advertising—while you should be prepared to get the clicks and pay for them of course, it likely that your business listing will be seen by a large number of people without capturing the same number of clicks. Impression data can also be easily tracked with Google paid ads so you know exactly how many times your ad was shown, and can therefore estimate how many people actually looked at it from a branding point of view. Rebecca Maynes is a Marketing Communications Strategist with Mediative, and was a major contributor on this study. The full study, including click-through rates for all areas of the SERP, can be downloaded at www.mediative.com/SERP. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!       |
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Seth's Blog : Taking the plunge
Taking the plunge
Maybe that's the problem.
Perhaps it's better to commit to wading instead.
Ship, sure. Not the giant life-changing, risk-it-all-venture, but the small.
When you do a small thing, when you finish it, polish it, put it into the world, you've made something. You've committed and you've finished.
And then you can do it again, but louder. And larger.
It's easy to be afraid of taking a plunge, because, after all, plunging is dangerous. And the fear is a safe way to do nothing at all.
Wading, on the other hand, gets under the radar. It gives you a chance to begin.
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marți, 21 octombrie 2014
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
| McDonald's Vows Fresh Thinking After Net Income Declines 30%; Mish Offers Some Advice Posted: 21 Oct 2014 06:34 PM PDT A 30% net income decline for McDonald's is quite startling to most. I wonder why such a decline took so long. In response to that pathetic performance, McDonald's Vows Fresh Thinking. McDonald's Corp. outlined plans for what it called fundamental changes to its business as it reported one of its worst quarterly profit declines in years, driven by problems in nearly every major part of its business.Advice for McDonald's
McDonald's is nearly hopeless. On many occasions while traveling, I have chosen to not eat at all rather than eat at McDonald's. It happened just this past weekend. Don't want McDonald's "special sauce" (I fail to understand why anyone does), and you have to wait an extra 5 minutes (at least) to get it your way. In contrast, Wendy's has some nice salads and a very good chicken sandwich. The one and only thing I like at McDonald's is their breakfast sandwiches. Breakfast sandwiches may not be healthy, but at least they are very tasty. I like the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. If McDonald's would offer breakfast 24 hours a day I would eat there more often. Instead, if you walk in one minute past breakfast time you cannot get breakfast. That has happened to me on many occasions. I say "F* McDonald's" unless I am certain I can get there before their arbitrary breakfast cutoff time which seem to vary by location and day of the week. Lunch and dinner at McDonald's? I'd rather not eat at all! My advice for McDonald's is simple: Forget about "atmosphere", expensive renovations, and the ridiculous notion of the "McDonald's Experience". Other than "fast" (in theory but not necessarily in practice for those who custom order) there is no "McDonald's Experience" except for the occasional "McPlayground" that demographically speaking appeals to fewer and fewer (especially with rising costs of feeding a family). I have a simple suggestion: serve better food, the way customers want it, when they want it. And lower prices would certainly help. Correction I originally stated a decline in revenues of 30%. I meant to say net income. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2014 11:15 AM PDT Here's an interesting video from the recent James Grant Conference. The title of this year's conference is Investing Opportunistically, Separating the Beta from the Alpha. The first five minutes are introductions and attendee notes you may wish to skip over. The opening speech was by Marc Seidner, CFA at GMO, on inflation expectations. Note: you may have to click on the play arrow twice to start the video. Last year at this time a majority thought tightening was inevitable and bonds were attractively priced for those who thought otherwise now, tightening in Europe and Japan is totally priced out and even in the US, inflation expectations are down as noted by forward yield curves. Seidner commented that 100% of strategists were negative on bonds heading into 2014 but I can name a couple exceptions, notably Lacy Hunt at Van Hoisington. Lackluster GDP  Tepid Inflation - UK, US, EU, Japan  Historically, when inflation has been this low, talk was of easing further not tightening. Inflation Expectations  One-Year Inflation Expectations  US Dollar, Euro, Yen, British Pound Forward Curves  "Europe Has Become Japan" Seidner says that if he was washed up on an island and could periodically see one chart to let him know the state of the global economy the above chart would be the one as it shows interest rates, implied path of monetary policy, and the divergence between the US and the rest of the world. "From this perspective of the bond market, Europe has become Japan. ... There is an inconsistency in my mind between a path of forward interest rates that Europe that reflects such slow economic growth that interest rates never get off zero-bound... that there will be enough growth to enable high-debt countries to delever safely is a complete inconsistency," said Seidner. James Grant on Price Discovery and Inflation James Grant takes the podium at about the 25 minute mark with a joke about the title of his publication, Grant's Interest Rate Observer. Grant asked for sympathy for his business model, because "Ladies and gentlemen, we have no interest rates. We used to have them and they were swell. Some of your parents may have lived off them." Grant complained about PHDs with no real world experience running things. He properly noted "Interest rate suppression is price control by another name." "Can prices even be measured?" asked Grant? I think not, and have stated so many times. Grant stands up to the "universal notion that prices ought to rise and if they don't rise something is wrong. I read the most extraordinary thing in the Financial Times the other day. It said that the failure of prices to accelerate meaningfully in this lame recovery was a dark cloud over the world's economy." "Dark cloud? Dark cloud?" asked Grant. The world has come to accept the notion that prices must go up and need to go up, yet Grant cites numerous periods in US history where prices fell and there was no panic and no problems. Notably, prices fell for 25 years in the final quarter of the 19th century reflecting the progress of the age. Grant challenged Fed Chair Janet Yellen to "please explain the difference between progress on one hand and deflation on the other". Two days ago, I wrote Challenge to Keynesians "Prove Rising Prices Provide an Overall Economic Benefit" also in response to an article in the Financial Times. I had not yet seen the above video, and I am pleased to be of the same mind as Grant: There is no economic benefit to rising prices. Grant concluded with the idea "Gold is the anti-debt. It is money that cannot be conjured on a computer screen. It is that money that has no counterpart on the balance sheet of a central bank indicating that it's a liability. It's money pure. It's out of favor. So we at Grant's continue to carry a torch for gold." Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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