Carousel Results in Local is the biggest change to Google’s local SERP’s since the introduction of map listings in organic search results. I had no idea what to think about the changes myself and how searchers would react to such a big shift from the normal map pins. So, I decided to have 10 people from the age of 18-66 load the search result page for “Chicago restaurants” which now looks like the image below, and record their actions, computer screen, and face.
The Test
1. Open the link to the search results page on google
2. Look at the results
3. Chose the best result for the search phrase
Super easy. I didn’t want to let details get in the way of people doing what they normal do on Google.
Some Interesting Results
- Only 2 out of the 10 people in the study clicked on one of the carousel results.
- 4 out of 10 people clicked on Yelp (which was ranked 3rd organically).
- Some of the comments on noticing the carousel listings were: “ohhhh that’s cool.”, “I like the pictures!”, “What do the numbers means?”
- The 2 that clicked on carousel results mentioned the review count before clicking on the listings.
- 3 people didn’t even notice/acknowledge the carousel results at all.
A Click Through Chart Per User
Name
Barbara
Dan
Amanda
Craig
Aidan
Happy
Salman
Venita
Carli
Paul
Clicked Result
Carousel
Yelp
Carousel rd
Zagat
Yelp
Zagat
Opentable
Yelp
Yelp
Opentable
Comments After The Test Was Conducted About New Carousel Features
Barbra – “I thought it was a good addition but gave it an okay as I would find it overwhelming to search through a hundred restaurants….I would like to hone down my results by searching by: type of food (seafood) distance from my location, price, and highest rated by reviews….”
Dan – “I did notice it, but I instinctively went to the results below. I feel like I’d need more prodding to use the black bar of results.”
Amanda – “i love it! once i figured out what it was…i’m a visual person so it gives you a lot of information with just a glance…i like it! ”
Craig – “The visual component almost makes you salivate. It’s a nice result compared to text only. It immediately made me think of the type of food I might want to check out, as opposed to just names.”
Aidan – “I didn’t even really notice it to tell you the truth. I would have to see it again”
Happy – “I would rather that search results are associated with a website like zagat that have a level of credibility and a name brand in rating restaurants. The carousel may have been populated via many ways; I am not sure what methodology has gone into populating it. If the carousel results had their source website name on it, i would have clicked on the results.”
Salman – “Often times, a simple google search doesn’t provide a visual component to their web search. This carousel allows for quick viewing of a wide array of search results so that the viewer can find what they’re looking for in a more time-efficient manner. This way, fewer links need to be opened in order to find what the viewer is searching for, while at the same time, the viewer ends up absorbing even more media in that shorter amount of time. On the whole, I think that the carousel is a great upgrade. ”
Venita – “I noticed that a carousel of images had been added to the top of the page and that is very helpful. since I am a visual person and I love modern then the carousel will help me to eliminate the places that I would not like to visit. I LOVE the new layout.”
Carli – “It was slightly different and interesting, but I clearly went for the old school method of search results over the fancy new one. =)”
Paul – “It’s totally cool – but the only thing I’m suspicious about as a user is what’s driving the results — I don’t see any way to “fine tune” my search by cusine, price, etc”
Some of the More Interesting Videos of People Viewing Carousel Results
I recommend watching the videos below to get an idea of how people look at search results. Barbra’s video especially had some great feedback into the mind of an average non technical searcher.
P.S. – I wasn’t aware that the link to the search result was auto loaded so it took some in the study a few seconds to figure that out.
Mike Ramsey is the founder of Nifty. He is the author of Winning At Local Search and a former partner at LocalU, which provides beginner to advanced conferences in the realm of local search marketing. Mike founded Nifty in 2009 which has been recognized by Inc. as one of the fastest-growing companies in America.