Usability has always been one of my favorite subjects, so when Enquiro published a new study showing how users interact with search engines, it was a must-read. The study turned out to be such a fascinating report, I had to share it.

Gord Hotchiss, President of Enquiro, and his team of able research assistants ran 24 demographically diverse participants through a series of tests to observe and record their behavior as they interacted with search engines. While everyone will agree that 24 is not a statistically significant sample size, I think the results of the project show interesting findings that are worth considering.

As I read the study, a number of his findings in user behavior correlated with other studies I’ve read. For example, Gord mentions that almost 60% of his users started with one search engine (usually Google) and then would switch to a different engine if the results weren’t satisfying. This finding is consistent with data from ComScore Media Metrix that talks about user fickleness toward search engines. CNET writer Stephanie Olsen did a great job summarizing that data in her article on search wars . The message to the search engines is “Stay on your toes guys and show us relevant results or we’re out of here.”

The Enquiro team found that there was no consistent search method. Everyone in the study did it a little different. People doing research used engines differently than people on a buying mission. Women searchers differed from men in their searching techniques. Gord tells us “an organic listing in the number 8 position on Google might not have been seen by almost half the men in the group, but would have been seen by the majority of the women.” Let’s hear it for women’s powers of observation!

One finding of the study that is near and dear to every search engine marketer’s heart is, “If no relevant results were found on the first results page, only 5 participants (20.8%) went to the second page.”

This is consistent with numerous studies documenting that users don’t go very far in the results pages for answers. Probably the most famous research to document this behavior was the study by Amanda Spink and Bernard Jansen where they found 58% of users did not access any results past the first page. I had the pleasure of talking with Amanda a few years ago when I was first moving to Dallas and she was moving out of it. She’s a fun lady with a flair for writing provocative titles to research papers on search engines. Expect to hear more from her in the future.

A finding that warmed my longtime SEO innards was that there was a “sweet spot” for being found on a search engine’s results page and that place was in the “above the fold organic results,” that is to say, in the portion of the free listings that can be viewed without scrolling. Considering how cluttered some search engines results pages are getting this is good news! According to Gord, “All 24 participants checked these 2 or 3 top organic rankings.”

I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising to find the “prime real estate” in the middle section of the page, this is consistent with eye tracking studies that show the center column to be the first place user look on a web page. Of course, one might wonder why users tended to skip over the category and product search lists? Gord’s team asked users about why none of them bothered to look at the news and shopping feeds that appear at the top of the organic results. Users said they didn’t know what they were.

I had a déjà vu moment when I read that because this is almost identical to a comment that was made to me by a usability tester in an in-house usability test. My tester said they skipped over the product search section because they were unfamiliar with it and it “looked confusing”. They jumped straight to what they recognized as “safe” – that being the organic list of results.

Another finding I found myself agreeing emphatically with was that top sponsored positions had “a 40% advantage in click throughs over sponsored links on the right side of the screen”. It makes sense when you think about it – the spot is so in your face – users can’t miss it. The fact that this spot produced a great click through was a well known PPC insider secret and many of us who do PPC management had devised elaborate methods to get our clients in those top spots. We’ve been hearing evil rumors that Google may be phasing this spot out in the future. It was still there today when I checked, so maybe Google is planning on keeping it awhile.

A finding that could be affected by Google’s recent ad overhaul was that users of Google were more likely to resist to looking at sponsored ads than on other engines. Part of the answer explaining this has to do with Google ads looking more like ads than on other sites – hey, they were in little colored boxes off to the right that practically screamed “Ad!” You couldn’t possibly mistake them for content or organic results. Since Google has dropped the little colored boxes and gone with plain text for the ads, one can’t help but wonder if users will be less resistant to ads now.

The Enquiro study includes a summary section toward the end of the report. Here they identified items that captured the searchers’ attention enough to make them click and listed important items to include on a landing page. I won’t give away the store by telling you everything, but I will tell you, as you may expect, the title and description shown in the results page were the most important eye magnets for attracting user’s attention.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the report findings was that search is a circular and complex process, not a linear process as we sometimes like to simplify it into. Instead, search is a multi-step process with multiple interactions with sites and search engine results pages. Gord’s team found that “a typical online research interaction can involve 5 to 6 different queries and interactions with 15 to 20 different sites.” That’s a lot of sites and a lot of back and forth between sites and search engines.

The takeaway point from this study is that search is definitely more complicated than at first glance. I guess that’s what makes search marketing so absorbing. For every thing you learn about it, there are ten more questions yet unanswered. Sounds like we need a sequel to this report – eh, Gord?

Check out the study yourself by downloading it off the Enquiro web site. It’s a fascinating report and it’s only 30 pages including lots of pictures. Happy reading!