Google desktop favicon search results study
0Reported today on Search Engine Land
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Google desktop favicon search results study
In 2019, Google introduced a new format in mobile search results which included a small "favicon" icon from the website, to the left of the snippet. This week, Google announced that a similar format was being launched in desktop results.
Yard carried out a user study on mobile results in September that concluded that some users think that favicon results are ads. When the desktop results launched we carried out a similar study to identify the effect of the changes.
Methodology
We asked a set of 250 users to look at 12 images of desktop search results and answer the question "Does this image contain any adverts?" with a "yes" or "no." These results were compared to results of the old format, without favicons, for the same search queries.
Search query: Car insurance
There were 4 paid ads at the top of the search results. In the old format, 73% of users identified that there was advertising on the page. In the new "favicon" format, this changes slightly to 71%.
Search query: Online programming courses
"Online programming courses" was the query used as an example by Google so it seemed right to test it thoroughly. We looked at three versions – with a single ad at the top, with no ads and with a single ad at the bottom.
Single ad at the top
Users identified that there was advertising on the page 67% of the time with the new favicon format, an increase from 63% on the old format.
Single ad at the bottom
There was no change for the result where the ad was at the bottom of the page. This suggests that the new "Ad" marker might be clearer to users, given it's more visible at the top of the page than at the bottom.
No ads
The most significant change f