Microsoft released a new eye tracking study that looked at the effects of
using various snippet lengths in organic search results. The study used
three different snippet lengths (short, medium, long) for users performing
two types of search: informational (find a specific piece of information)
and navigational (find a specific site).
The study found that there was NO effect on people’s search
strategies due to the length of the snippet shown. However, the study did
uncover some other interesting behaviors.
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Users looked at a
minimum of 4 listings regardless of where the “best” listing ranked on
the first page
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Users looked at more
listings as the “best” listing moved down the first page, indicating
that the user knew that they had not found the information/site they
should be looking for (regardless of snippet length)
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The success rate of
the task decreased dramatically as the “best” listing moved down the
page (position 1 = 78%, position 2 = 83%, position 8 = 11%)
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For informational
search, participants were much less likely to view lower ranking
listings than for navigational search
-
On average, users
highly agreed with the statement “I expect the information I’m looking
for to be in the top five results”
-
For informational
tasks, as snippet length increased the number of listings reviewed
decreased. For navigational tasks, the number of listings increased
-
For navigational
tasks, users spent longer on tasks where the long snippets were shown.
For informational tasks this actually decreased significantly
-
For informational
tasks, accuracy was improved by providing longer snippets. For
navigational tasks, the accuracy actually dropped as snippet length
increased
In
summary, users performed navigational tasks best when the snippets were
short and on informational tasks when the snippets were long. This may be
because for navigational tasks, the URL plays an important role in
determining which listing is the “best”. By increasing the length of
the snippet the URL becomes lost in the sea of text. The study poses the
question of what would happen if the URL was placed above the snippet, below
the listing title.
You can download your own copy of the report
here. |
enquiro research
Marina
Garrison