While searching for information, people are often satisficers rather than maximizers: they settle for information that is good enough to answer their question, but isn’t necessarily the best or most complete answer.

This satisficing tendency manifests in a variety of information-seeking behaviors, including in how people process search-engine results pages (SERPs). In particular, on SERPs, we sometimes see users fixating on a single result and nothing else on the page.

We call this gaze pattern love at first sight; it was first documented by Kara Pernice back in 2005 in the first edition of our How People Read Online report. That result that gets the user’s attention is often first on the page (but not always).

The love-at-first-sight pattern occurs when the user looks at only one result on the SERP. This skeleton page shows a typical instance of this pattern, the orange color representing the user’s fixations.

For example, an eyetracking-study participant explored events she could attend in Atlanta for an upcoming trip. She typed in events in atlanta on September 14 and scanned the very first result, which was an event calendar that Google had integrated on the SERP. She gazed at the calendar, then clicked on it and started browsing right away.

This example of a love-at-first-sight pattern comes from a study participant who was looking for events in atlanta on september 14. The purple dots represent her fixations (looks) on the page, which were all concentrated on the Events panel that was the first item on the SERP.

The love-at-first-sight pattern is not rare, yet it is not very frequent either. When analyzing data from our Search Meta-Analysis Project, we found that in 20% of the 377 search instances, people looked at only one result on the SERP. However, this number has increased a little over the past decade: In 2006, we found that people only looked at one result in 17% of analyzed search instances. The difference is statistically significant, p < 0.001.

Out of 377 analyzed queries, 41% involved fixations on 2–6 SERP elements. In only 20% of the queries people looked at only one element.

Factors that Enable the Love-at-First-Sight Pattern

People usually engage in love at first sight when the result they look at on the SERP is good enough. Based on their experience with search engines, they make an educated guess as to where to look in order to find what the search engine thinks it’s the best answer for their query. Their circumstances and task define “good enough” and whether they can afford looking for a complete answer or they should rely on what the search engine picked as best answer for their query.

There are several reasons why engaging in this pattern is a reasonable strategy for users.

Trust in the Search Engine

First, people trust that the search engine’s pick for the best answer will be pretty close to the true best answer. It’s become a common belief that search engines are good at finding the best answer to a query and presenting it at the top of SERPs. This belief, known as Google gullibility, forms the basis of the love-at-first-sight pattern: people have confidence in the results on SERPs, especially when they are shown at the top.

This effect exists across cultures. In our Beijing study, a participant tried to find a recipe. She said, “[I’ll first search in Baidu (the largest search engine in China)], and I will typically choose the first or second search result because I feel that the top ones should be the most popular or have the highest rating.”

Attractive SERP Features

Second, the search engine’s pick for the best answer is often relatively easy to locate. These answers are usually hosted by interactive SERP features. SERP features like the featured snippet always look distinct compared to organic search results and guide the eyes. Sometimes, these features give users the information they want right away, so people have learned to direct their attention to these SERP features.

An American participant tried to figure out what documents she would need to cross the border from the US to Canada. The featured snippet of the first result — an article from USA Today — listed the required documents and resolved her question immediately. She left the page satisfied (a phenomenon called good abandonment).

The featured snippet on Google’s SERP showed a summarized answer to the participant’s query and attracted her attention. The participant didn’t look at any other content on the page. Her gaze plot is an example of love at first sight.

In Beijing, one participant wanted to find out the top architecture majors and their admission requirements. The third search result drew her attention because it included a table listing universities with architecture majors, as well as their standardized-score requirements. This result met her task needs perfectly, so she checked it out immediately. She said: “The table was good, with both the universities and the score requirements. […] Among all the sites, [the snippet] was the most helpful.”

This screenshot from our eyetracking study shows that the featured snippet with the table attracted the participant’s attention immediately.

Low Motivation or Lack of Available Time

Third, often people don’t need the best possible answer to a query and they think that the search engine’s pick for that best answer will be enough.

Imagine that you were in a long grocery checkout line and you realized that you forgot to buy salt. You might rush back to the shelf and grab one bottle — without comparing different brands.

Same with users on the web. When people are not very motivated or don’t have enough time to explore multiple options, they may rely on what the search engine picks as the best answer to their query.

In our Raleigh study, we asked participants to read an extremely long article on census.gov to find out the American median household income in 2017. Most of them performed an exhaustive review but failed to find the answer. Some decided to check the result somewhere else. Tired of all the reading they had done, they just looked at the top featured snippet provided by Google without even reading the full content. A participant picked the wrong answer, which was the median household income in Raleigh.

A participant with low motivation gave a wrong answer (the median household income in Raleigh instead of the US) after scanning Google’s featured snippet — she simply relied on Google’s best bet for her query and did not have the energy or impetus to question it.

The First Result Meets the Needs

Love at first sight also happens when the first result the user sees is just exactly what she needs. In other words, the search engine’s pick for the best answer is indeed the best answer for user’s query. This situation happens more frequently when users knows precisely what they want.

A typical scenario is a navigational query — a query intended to locate a certain website. For example, when a participant was asked to check credit-card options on Bank of America’s website, she typed Bankofamerica.com in Google. She solely looked at the first search result, the official site of Bank of America, which was the site she intended to visit.

A study participant looked only at the sublinks of the first search result, which was exactly the site that she was looking for.

The first search result can be the perfect answer even for queries that are not navigational. For example, another study participant was looking for Reddit posts about the best strollers. She typed best strollers 2019 reddit and the first result was Perfect stroller to buy: NewParents – Reddit. She scanned the title and clicked it immediately.

The first search result, a Reddit thread discussing strollers, matched the needs of the participant perfectly. She clicked the link right away.

Love at First Sight vs. Good Abandonment

Richer SERP features contributed to the love-at-first-sight gaze pattern. A related phenomenon is good abandonment, which occurs when the information presented on the SERPs satisfies the user’s need and she doesn’t have to click on a result or reformulate the query.

While in both these instances the search engine’s pick for the best answer is considered satisfactory by the user, these two phenomena are, in fact, orthogonal. First of all, love at first sight is an eye-gaze pattern, while good abandonment is a general user behavior. Love at first sight can happen with good abandonment or without: the user may or may not click on the result that she happens to look at. And good abandonment may or may not happen with love at first sight — for example, people could look at one or at several elements on the SERP, find their answer there, and decide not to click on anything.

Make Your Content Attract Attention at the First Glance

What should site designers and content providers do to make their content attract attention from the beginning?

They should understand their users’ needs and questions and tailor their content so that it addresses those questions precisely. In this way, they can increase the chance that their content will be picked as a best answer by the search engine and featured in a SERP feature. People trust these features and they often look at them.

On the other hand, users are not always satisficers. You are not doomed if your site is not the very first search result on a SERP. When users are performing research activities, they are more likely to browse more search results to make the decision. High-quality, relevant content is always key.