How many people actually scroll past the map pack
Most local searches are decided in the top few inches of the page. Here is what the click data actually says.
Brayden Dunn2 min read
There is a comforting myth that being on Google is enough. Show up somewhere, the thinking goes, and customers will find you. The click data says otherwise, and the gap is enormous.
Attention is front-loaded
Track where people actually click and the pattern is the same every time. The top result takes the largest share by far. The second takes much less. The third less again. It keeps falling steeply from there. By the bottom of page one, the leftover results fight over scraps. Page two might as well not exist.
For a local search it is even more concentrated, because of where the map pack sits.
Customers don't pick the best. They pick the first one they find.
The map pack changes the math
For anything local, Google drops the map pack near the top: three businesses, pinned to a map, with reviews and a call button right there. Many searchers never scroll past it. They have a map, three options, ratings, and a phone number without moving the page. They pick one and call.
So the real competition is not page one in general. It is those three map pack slots and the handful of results around them. Everything below is a long way down a page most people never finish.
Why this matters for your business
Buried on page one, or worse on page two, and the data is blunt. You are invisible for that search, even though you technically rank. Customers decide from the top few inches of the screen, and you are not in them.
Better doesn't get the call. Found does.
This is the whole reason local SEO focuses so hard on the map pack and the top organic spots. It is not vanity. It is the difference between being seen and being a result nobody scrolls far enough to reach.
The local search winner gets every call. Period.
A visibility audit shows where you land for the searches your customers really type, so you know whether you are in the zone that gets the call or the part of the page nobody reads.
Frequently asked
- Do people scroll past the map pack on Google?
- Most do not, at least not for a local search. The map pack sits near the top and answers the near-me question directly, so a large share of local clicks land on one of those three businesses before a searcher ever reaches the organic links below. Plenty of people never scroll at all. They pick from what they can see without moving the page. That is exactly why the map pack is such valuable real estate, and why being one of the three pinned businesses changes how many calls a local business gets.
- How much does the first result matter?
- A lot. Across studies of click behavior, the first result earns far more clicks than the second, and the second far more than the third, with a steep drop the rest of the way down. By the bottom of page one, results split whatever attention is left, and almost nobody reaches page two. The takeaway for a local business is simple. The goal is not to be on Google. The goal is to be at the top of the zone that matters for your search, because attention is front-loaded and falls off fast.