Heat Map Study - New Review Stars, Do they Get the Clicks?

[Linda Buquet]

Casey Meraz recently did a heat map study to analyze if Google review steal the clicks. Check it out below to discover what his testing showed.

To me it looks like Author image rules and author image PLUS stars takes the cake.

Google Local Review Stars | Lawyer SEO Marketing by @CaseyMeraz

Google just rolled out a bright yellow five star system of showing review ratings. We wondered how they pulled clicks from the other elements of Google?s interface when someone searched for attorney services.
My Prediction:

My initial prediction was that the star results with the Author Rich Snippets would detract from the #1 ranking and end up with more clicks altogether.

So, we performed a test to get some insight on this new product, and how it performs.

There are 3 different SERPs that were tested, so head over to check out the images.

What do you think?

 

[Laustin1878]

Pretty interesting results and nice to see that the #1 spot doesn't always take the cake...at least in local anyway. I've been looking for additional support for markup to show a fellow friend who is a developer. He doesn't believe in it.

I've always loved heat maps but haven't been able to use them to my desire. It's factual data that usually cannot be skewed. You just need the right site, one that is not adverse to making changes on a regular basis (translates to deeper pockets or a web developer on staff) to see how well the changes are received.

Thank you for sharing Linda.

 

[Russ]

Interesting but I submit that if they were not really looking for a personal injury attorney the results from this test are anecdotal at best and don't really prove anything except where people who are participating in a study like to click.

What I'd like to know is what gets the most clicks from people actually in need of a personal injury attorney, or people who actually need to find a roofer to fix a leak before the impending storm.

This study leaves out the emotional investment behind the search intent and that has a major impact on where people click.