Ever wish you could get inside your prospects’ brain and see the world as they do?
Well while that might not be possible, you can see how they view the Internet through the use of eyetracking studies.
These types of studies use super-cool technology to track what people look at when surfing the web. And when you combine the results from all those who have participated in the study you end up with one extremely enlightening “heatmap” that shows you where people focus their attention when online.
SEOMoz recently did an eyetracking survey and the results are particularly revealing for local business owners. The study tracked what people look at when on the first page of Google.
Here’s image #1:
Notice how most people’s eyes are drawn to the “7-Pack” of local businesses (also called Google Map results or local search results) even though they are not the first results on the page?
Now take a look at the second image, which I find even more revealing…
Notice how even with a Google AdWords ad and other results pushing the local listings even further down the screen, people’s eyes gravitate toward the “3-Pack” of local results?
These two images clearly illustrate what a powerful magnet these local listings are for your customers (and while these images are from a desktop/laptop, these Google Maps listings get a lot of attention on Smartphones too).
The businesses that get to the top of the Google Maps rankings, win the lion’s share of prospects’ eyeballs (and business).
The first step to getting there is to simply claim your business listing on Google. There’s a ton of great free information on how to do that, and optimize your local search listing, on VizOnTheNet.com.
So if you’re not at the top of the Google Maps listings for the keywords your prospects are typing into Google to find you, head over to that site, start optimizing your local listings today!
Adam you mentioned how Google AdWords ad and other results push the local listings even further down the screen, and how the people’s eyes gravitate toward the “3-Pack” of local results, but does that translate or correlate into clicks. For me personally you are right my eyes do drift there, however because there is no description, I rarely click on them. I do however pay attention to the reviews.
Doug Bellevile
Doug – that is an excellent question. And one the study doesn’t answer. I know a lot of people are clicking on the local search listings because I’ve seen the impact high rankings have had for a number of local businesses. But as far as quantifying “a lot” in terms of percentages of eyeballs or even percentages of people clicking on local search listings vs. organic results vs. paid ads, I haven’t seen any data on that recently. I’ll dig around and let you know if I find anything.
And sorry for the delayed response, your comment was marked as spam – guess WordPress know all about you!
Great observation, Adam. I definitely think this was the desired effect from Google. Google and everyone else are moving towards location based results. To me, it’s pretty evident in the design. The prominent red dots and star ratings are all designed to draw attention.