SEO 6: Statistical Highlights
Below, you’ll find some SEO research results and insights. We invite you to draw your own conclusions. Some
of the numbers might be pretty obvious in any case, however.
Further corroborating the general consensus about search behavior, a November 2005 discussion on www.webmasterworld.com quotes the following statistics:
- 16 % of Internet users only look at the first few search results
- 32 % will read through to the bottom of the first page - but not beyond.
- Only 23 % of Internet searchers go beyond the second page ; that number drops even further for third-page searches.
- Only 10.3 % of web users will actually read through the first three results pages.
- Just 8.7 % tend to open more than three pages.
And Web Marketing and SEO expert Mike Moran (www.mikemoran.com) quotes extensive research to the effect that in average, searchers spend no more than 7 (!) seconds looking at a search result page. It goes without saying that during those 7 short seconds only very high-ranking results will be given more than a fleeting glance.
Powwwerpages' own research has yielded much less discouraging results. An August 2007 study goes deeper and suggests that searchers' patience drastically increases when given the choice between very similar search results. In such a case, a user will spend much more time before deciding.
Conversely, the more different the results, the more clear-cut are the choices. And in such cases, searchers will decide much faster. At that point, our study suggests, they tend to spend closer to 18 - 22 seconds per page (not a mere 7) though, admittedly, even this isn't a lot of time !
Either way, the above leads to conclude that the average web searcher will scan the results, form his opinion quickly if possible, and then click on the links he likes without bothering to look further.
All this tells us: it’s hard to get a second chance.
Further research highlights: only about 60 % of Internet searchers scroll below "the fold" (the part of the page
that is below the bottom of the screen when first shown), according to Greg Edwards, the CTO of Eyetools (www.eyetools.com).
Users returning to a search, Greg said, do tend to look further down the search results page for more results, but even then the "above the fold results" will still get looked at (and clicked) with significantly higher frequency. Exact percentages are unavailable.
Other research arrives at even more sobering results by claiming that many web searchers often consider only the top few listings on Page 1. We don't think this is very likely (unless a searcher is in a big hurry), although it would support Mike Moran's 7 % hypothesis above. If this is correct, it would suggest that even a Page 1, Number 7 or 8 ranking may not always be sufficient - certainly food for thought, and reason for even more crowding on Page 1.
True, Jarvis Mak, at Nielsen/NetRatings (www.nielsen-netratings.com), notes that as users perform more and more searches within the same session, they are more likely to look at a second page of search results, perhaps even a third page (the reason probably being that - not having immediately found satisfactory search results - they will give deeper and more extensive searches a chance). But that's as far as they'll usually go.
It therefore seems to us that the buck stops on search result page 3 ...
However, there is good news. |
