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Most Search Engine Users Stop at Page 3

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the keep-going-there-is-more-there dept.

ambient12 writes "The BBC reports on a study saying that, despite the depth of content internet search providers offer, most people stop at page 3 or earlier." From the article: "It also found that a third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands. The study surveyed 2,369 people from a US online consumer panel. It also found 62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002. Some 90% of consumers clicked on a link in these pages, up from 81% in 2002. "

5 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Where this doesn't necessarily work by WebHostingGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For pure information I would agree I hardly go past the first few pages. However, if I am looking for a product then I do go past three. The reason is that there are so many filtered doorways and spam link pages or other non-relevant pages mentioning the product that they crud up the search. Even Froogle doesn't hit it right the first time all the time.

    --
    Quality Hosting e3 Servers
  2. I go to 1000 by winmine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sometimes I feel the need to see the 1001st result, but google won't let me. :(

  3. Re:Duh by reynaert · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Frankly, I'm amazed so many people looked beyond the first page.

  4. Re:Duh by Mandrel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In my experience, most results after the first 2 or 3 pages are utterly worthless, and usually contain a bunch of foreign language mailing list posts, and repeats of earlier results mirrored on different sites.

    Not always my experience. As a compulsive maximizer, I can't help looking through 10s of pages of search results, often to the very last page. I often find the best links near the end, particularly for commercial stuff where the top results are more a reflection of market presence and SEO rather than real relevance and value.

  5. Re:It wasn't always that way by Alomex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This has nothing to do with Google. There have been similar studies dating back to 1995. At best about 30% of users go to the next page, and of those 30% go to the page after that and so on. This means that the the fourth page is seen by less than 3% of users.

    What I would expect is that with Google the number of people who go to the second page is even lower than before, perhaps 10-20%, which means less than 0.1-1% of users reach the fourth page.