@Ken Frazza – The dataset contains only organic listings – no sponsered listings. So when someone clicks on the #1 result this means the #1 organic listing.

No data was released about the sponsered listings or the clickthrough rates for same, but if memory serves me correctly I seem to recall some research into organic vs. sponsered and the majority of those surveyed showed a far higher ‘trust’ in the organic listings. Don’t quote me!

The point you make about some searchers not knowing the difference between the sponsered and organic listings is very valid. However, it is not in the interests of the major SE’s to try to ‘blend’ in the PPC’s with the organic listings as this would dillute the quality of their main product – those same organic listings. Of course, that’s not to say that this hasn’t been happening over the past few years…

Did the top 3 sponsored links get more clicks then the top 3 web results?
Does the average AOL searcher even know the difference between a Sponsored link and web results?

As someone who has many PPC accounts for myself and some of my customers, any further information would be helpful. I have a lot more questions that I could ask about this.

I am grateful for you and Richard Hearne for providing this info. I was hoping you could shead some more light on this as the more you know the more you want to know.

Thanks,

Ken Frazza

Good point! I noticed that too. When there are AdWords ads on the top, they get top attention from me – and it looks like the eye tracking

If the comparison is to the ads on the side of the page, I can see them getting much less attention in contrast with the organic results.

I’ll pop a note to Brad and maybe he’ll weigh in on this point.

SEO-Portal: Interesting point about the single word queries. You’re right, of course. I’m sure not many people search just for the word “free.”

I think the value of this particular aspect of the data is to see themes, for example that the word “free” appears in lots of searches, that people often include specific geographic info in their searchers (ex. shoemarkers in Budapest.)

To me it’s far more interesting to look at the actual searches and see what people search the most:

http://www.seo-portal.com/aol-data-analysis-iv-where-do-people-search-for/2006/08/15/

I really enjoyed your video. And of course I want to know more. But on the topic of where the eyes go on the page concerning the paid vs. natural listings: the infra-red images from the screen shot you show seem to be mostly focused on the very top left of the page which are where the top three PAID listings are usually found. The screen shot you show only has paid listings on the far right column.

Are there any infra-red images where the top three listings are paid listings?

Thanks,

Peter Dudek
peterdudek@comcast.net

P.S. I’m looking forward to your next video and I’ll be interested to find out who you are and where all this is leading. Please consider me a prime prospect for whatever it is you’ll be selling.

You are on the money with ‘local’ search, and also local portals when it comes to getting traffic.

It gets me HUGE amounts of traffic. (Seriously) I was very surprised at this.

Here’s how:

I used to exclusively go WIDE, but now aim articles and PR at LOCAL communities.

This almost doubles the visitors to my website.

Another hot subject word you mention is the word FREE. It sure works! I used to sell my book on the ‘viral marketing’ secret the reveals how I got a MILLION hits in 27 days to my website.

That book made me money, but I took a risk, and now I give it away for free in return for folks joining my mailing lists.

http://viralalchemy.com

That was a great decision, it attracts a huge number of interested folks to my list, who then buy other products at a leisurely pace while I give them more great information – again for free.

But the big point I have discovered is that the LOCAL articles I write offering the free eBook attract far more traffic than the WIDE articles.

‘Local’ works.

Jonathan Gunson

Your comment is very interesting for me. I am based in Ireland and all I see is regional and local search. Google already geo-targets it’s results so I see defferent results than someone searching in the US.

So when I search for widgets on Google.com (or Google.ie) I am presented with results that are biased toward Irish websites (either hosted in Ireland or using the .ie ccTLD).

Your observation is very true – in the future results might/could become more biased toward the street/town you are searching from. Of course the very concerning downside to this will be the issue of privacy – a balance will have to be struck between user convenience and the tracking possibilities inherent in local search.