According to a study conducted by Ignite Visibility, meta descriptions, brand name and title have the largest influence over whether users will click through on a search result or not. Over 65 percent of survey respondents said that more ads would make them want to utilize the Google search engine less. Most of the respondents felt that Google is improving its search results by including featured snippets and other SERP features.
The survey included over 500 participants aged 25 to 60.
62.9% of respondents who were asked what factor most influenced their decision to click on a result said it was description, 24.2% felt it was the brand name, and 13% said it was the title. 55.1% of the folks who participated in the study said that they only clicked on a brand that they recognized within the search results.
58.5% of the participants preferred the present state (the study was done in December of 2019) of Google search results over how they were in January 2019. 55.5% also felt that the exclusion of featured snippets and other SERP features improves Google’s search results.
66.7% said that Google inserting more ads into search results would cause them to want to use the search engine less. It’s interesting to compare that the findings from a December 2018 study where 75% of respondents thought ads make it easier to find the information they’re looking for.
About 67% disagreed with companies being able to run ads based on other companies’ branded searches. This seems to go along with other findings from the study that the most of the users only click on results from brands that they know.