How Many Pages Does An Average User Uses In A Search Engine? Options

[Chester]

I have this question:

How many pages does a regular internet user use for a search, i mean if you are looking for "shoes" at google it gives you 10 result by default, Do you look beyond the 10 first results? Does any one knows that percentage?

[Randy]

I rather doubt there is any average that's going to hold remotely true across all searches Chester. Every search is different, each SERP is different, which is probably going to have a large bearing. I suspect how general or specific the original search term being used is also going to have a significant impact.

Dunno if anybody's ever done a true study on the issue though. I suppose the search engines probably have a pretty good idea, but don't recall any of them ever releasing that data.

[whatNwhen]

It will vary upon the requirement......as when it comes to research and information...people can go beyond page 2or3 or even 4....but when it comes to buying.....user generally doesn't go beyond..page 1 or 2 and most of the time if the amount involved is less...you will find that Paid listings holds edge.....

[Jill]

It also depends on how good of a searcher they are, and whether they understand that they may want to refine their original search.

[nethy]

One more thing to remember is that a click on a 3rd page listing is substantially different from a click on the first screen.
In the latter, the searcher probably made a desicion in under 10 seconds (probably under 4-5). Maybe most anything will do. Maybe, they are willing normally bounce between site & SERP a few times.

On the deep pages, a searcher has probably been looking at the SERP for a while. Perhaps tried refining the search already. Perhaps the've already been to a few sites. Upshot is, its adifferent sort of a state that they arrive at the snippet & eventually at the site, though it may be the same person in a different state. That is a crucial difference.

[-=seth=-]

i read a statistic somewhere which said that the top 2 sites on the 1st page of google get 60% of all the traffic between them
i think for the most part people want instant results and are not interested in researching and digging deeper

[nethy]

i read a statistic somewhere which said that the top 2 sites on the 1st page of google get 60% of all the traffic between them
i think for the most part people want instant results and are not interested in researching and digging deeper

This is really a speculation but, I'd say that really depends on the SERP. Remember that that 60% you're talking about includes the many, many people who really already have something in mind when they do the search (eg 'HR Forum', 'wired magazine', 'youtube'). They'll click on whatever reseult that is (the can tell from the snippet since they know what site they want).
If their query was a good one, that will be in the top few results a lot of the time.

Remember that these are not 'searches' in the sense that the user is asking a question & you are offering an answer with with your site. They are requesting something specific & Google gives it to them. Site owners & marketers are not involved as much in these types of queries.

For this reason IMO, the 'averages' don't mean too much for the highly commercialisable phrases (eg: pretty shoes for my sister's wedding).