6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

We analyzed 1,801 Google user behavior sessions to better understand how people interact with modern Google SERPs.

Here Are Some of Our Key Findings:

1. Google searchers use one of Google’s autocomplete suggestions 23% of the time. People that search for informational and local searches tended to click on an autocomplete suggestion more often than those searching with commercial queries.

2. 50% of Google users click on their results within 9 seconds of searching. And the average amount of time it takes a Google searcher to click on something is 14.6 seconds.

3. Only 9% of Google searchers make it to the bottom of the first page of the search results.

4. 15% of users modify their initial search terms. This suggests that Google tends to serve up highly-relevant results. Or that Google users are adept at choosing the right keyword on their first attempt.

5. Only 17% of users bounced back to the search results after clicking on a result. Only 5% of users bounce more than once for the same query.

6. The majority (59%) of Google users visit a single page during their search session. Only 6% need to visit four or more pages in order to get an answer to their query.

7. 65% of searchers click on a traditional “10 blue link” search result during their search session.

8. Although this varied widely depending on the query, 19% of searchers click on a Google Ad during their search.

9. For local queries, 42% of searchers click on results inside of the Google Maps Pack.

10. 19% of users searching for a product click on a Google Shopping result.

11. On average, only 3% of searchers interact with a “People Also Ask” box. Although this behavior varies widely depending on the query. For example, 13.6% of people searching for supplements clicked on a PAA box.

12. Only .44% of searchers go to the second page of Google’s search results.

13. The average search session takes 76 seconds to complete. And half of all search sessions are finished within 53 seconds.

Methodology: How We Did This Study

For this research we asked 454 US-based human users to perform a set of tasks using Google search.

In order to get a broad set of different queries, we asked our subjects to execute the following search tasks:

• Commercial (Physical Product): Find a car phone holder for a Ford F-150 truck under $20.
• Commercial (Service): Find an airline credit card that offers at least 20,000 miles to new card holders in the first year.
• Commercial #2 (Service): Find a small business credit card with no annual fee and an interest rate of less than 25%.
• Local: Find a car accident lawyer in your local area.
• Informational: Find the best video to show you how to cut your own hair.
• Informational: Find the best way to buy groceries online in your local area without any added delivery fee.
• Transactional: Find supplements that may help with lower back pain.

We then recorded each subject’s screen during their session.

Searchers Use Google Autocomplete Suggestions 23% of the Time

According to our research, a fair number of Google searchers use this feature. Specifically, we found that about a quarter of all searches resulted in a user choosing one of Google’s autocomplete suggestions.

Key Takeaway: It appears that Google autocomplete has a significant impact on search behavior. Especially for transactional and commercial queries.

Half of Google Users Click Within 9 Seconds of Their Search

Next, we wanted to investigate “time to first click”. We discovered that 50% of people that search for something in Google click within 9 seconds.

Key Takeaway: Google searchers spend significant amounts of time sizing up the results before making their first click. The mean “time to first click” for a search is 14.6 seconds.

9% of Users Scroll to the Bottom of the First Page

Next, we wanted to see how many Google searchers actually scrolled down to the bottom of the first page results. We discovered that only 9% of people ended up at the very bottom of the results.

Key Takeaway: Relatively few (9%) of Google users make it to the bottom of the SERPs.

Only 15% of Google Users Modify Their Initial Search Term

We discovered that 85% of Google users find an answer to their query with their initial search term.

Key Takeaway: Only 15% of searchers ultimately modify the keyword that they initially searched with.

17% Google Searchers Bounce Back to the SERPs

We found that 83% of users didn’t bounce from the result they chose to click on. And that only 5% of users bounced multiple times during a single search session.

Key Takeaway: 17% of people that click on a Google result bounce back to the SERPs in order to choose a different result.

65% of Google Searchers Click on The Organic Results

Despite the various SERP features, we found that 65% of searchers clicked on at least one “10 blue link” organic result during their search session.

Key Takeaway: 65% of Google users click on an organic result during their search session.

19% of Users Click on a Google Ad During Their Search

We found that 19% of Google users click on a Google ad. This number may be a bit higher than expected due to the nature of the queries in this study.

Key Takeaway: 19% of Google users click on a Google Ad, however, this number varies widely depending on the type of search.

42% of Local Searchers Click on the Google Map Pack

We found that 42% of people searching for local terms ultimately click on a result in the Google Map Pack.

Key Takeaway: 42% of people searching for a local business click on a Google Map Pack result.

19% of Product Searches Result in a Google Shopping Click

So it should come as no surprise to find that 19% of people that search for a product end up clicking on a Google Shopping result.

Key Takeaway: 19% of people searching for a product click on the Google Shopping results at least once during their search session.

Only 3% of Google Users Interact With a People Also Ask Box

We found that very few (only 3%) of searches in Google result in a click on a People Also Ask box.

Key Takeaway: While People Also Ask boxes appear in a high number of SERPs, they’re not interacted with that often for most queries.

0.44% of Users Visit Google’s Second Page Results

Not surprisingly, we discovered that very few users (.44%) make their way to Google’s second page.

Key Takeaway: Only 0.44% of Google users visit the second page to find an answer to their query.

The Average Google Search Session Lasts 76 Seconds

According to our data, the average person ends their search session after 76 seconds.

Key Takeaway: Most Google searches are completed successfully in a relatively short time frame (76 seconds on average).

Conclusion

The Google SERPs are rapidly changing. More ads. More SERP features. And even entirely new search experiences. Which is why we wanted to get a glimpse into how users interact with modern day search results.