A new study from Path Interactive revealed that organic search results on Google still attract the main attention of users. At the same time, younger people rely more on ready-made answers and knowledge panels, but rarely follow links to them. Experts called this phenomenon “no-click results” and this trend is worrying many site owners.
The study surveyed 1400 users from different countries (72% from the United States) to find out how they interact with different components of the Google SERP. The age of respondents ranged from 13 to 70+ years, most of them called themselves “somewhat technically savvy.”
According to the survey results, users, which is quite expected, prefer organic results. This was stated by 72% of respondents, while 47% indicated that they never or very rarely click on advertisements. Another 19% said that they follow advertising and organic links equally often.
Older users tend to view more results and not be limited to TOP issue. At the same time, which is somewhat paradoxical, they experience less negativity with respect to advertising.
If there are blocks with answers in the output, then younger users are more inclined to show “no-click” behavior. Meanwhile, older users are more often looking for other information from organic links, not limited to ready-made answers. At the same time, 72.5% of all respondents consider such blocks to be trustworthy – in whole or in part.
As for the knowledge web dashboard, the results were similar. The vast majority (92.1%) of users look at these results. Of these, 55% also view other links, and 37% complete their search on this (another scenario of “no-click” behavior).
The situation is similar with respect to extended results. Only here, only 14% of users stop searching on this. Another 43% of respondents use enhanced results instead of other information on the page, while 33% ignore them and focus on more traditional organic links.
When asked if they have any complaints about Google, 25% of respondents answered negatively. The remaining 75% chose several answers:
- Too much advertising (24.1%)
- Priority information from large corporations (which complicates competition and the appearance in the search results for small businesses) (20.8%)
- Too many own blocks or information (prefer the usual “blue links”) (17.3%)
- Don’t like the future consequences of interacting with Google content (7.5%)
- Poor quality results, inaccurate or biased (5.5%)
In general, the research results provide additional arguments for critics who argue that blocks with answers, knowledge bars, and structured content hinder site visits. On the other hand, the study still does not provide a complete picture of user behavior, which becomes more diverse as the SERP develops.
