Nearly two-thirds of search engine users don't go past the first page of results. Where are you?

An iProspect Search Engine User Behaviour Study (April 2006) examined how searchers interact with search engines. Key findings:

• 62% of search engine users click on a search result on the first page. On a Google page, that's typically the first 10 results. If your site's not there, you're potentially being missed by nearly two-thirds of searchers.
• 90% of search engine users click on a result within the first three pages. So if you're not appearing in the first 30 results on Google, that's 90% of searchers who won't get to see you.
• When comparing these behaviours with studies from previous years, iProspect noted a slight but interesting tendency: users have become more likely to click first-page results and less likely to click results appearing after page 3.
• 41% of search engine users will change their search query if they don't find what they're looking for on page 1. 88% will rework their query when they finish with page 3. Over the years, users seem to have come to expect greater relevance of results.

And what happens when an initial search proves unsuccessful? 82% of users will stay with the same search engine and refine their search query — often with 'long tail' terms. That's a great clue for your SEO and SEM planning…