How long does a websurfer search?

Any studies done on this?

[mediaspinner]

I'm curious if any studies have been done to determine how long someone stays on Google, or on any search site, given certain keywords... I've changed my strategy from trying to get in the 'top 20' results to 'getting on the top 20 sites' related links pages...

Anyhow, I am curious if anyone knows how long someone keeps going thru results on a search before giving up, or trying new keywords, or another search engine... my guess would be 3 pages of results, but does anyone have stats on this?

[skirril]

Thats a very interesting question.

However, i can only answer for myself. Usually, I'll never look at more than the first 3-4 pages of results, if I dont find it here, I adapt my keywords.

Sk.

[mediaspinner]

I think it's an interesting question... if 98% of the people give up after 60 items (just an example)... it renders search engines kinda moot, it would seem.

But, I don't know. It'd be nice to be able to track and log the search response link number somehow... I guess keywords searched for works sorta. Kinda. But I don't want to know who's finding me ok... I want to know who's not finding me, and why :)

[Grumpus]

Heh, I've always had SOME people coming in at tersm that bring me in at over 100. Last month, I had a lot of pretty good phrases come in in the top 20 and I got lots of hits. Now, those same phrases have been bumped back to 400+ in the ranks. (And don't tell me the dance isn't done, it's done enough so I know that it'll only get worse, not better if it changes at all). Sure, I lost 1 point in page rank because none of my internal links to my homepage count anymore, but some really obscure stuff on my site still comes up once in a while (obviously, it only happens if you search for something really obscure).

In the end - there are some people (I suspect they are either potential competitors, or really die-hard fanatics of a topic) who will search 20 or 30 pages deep into a search. Yet I also suspect that 90% of the folks will leave - as I tend to do - after the first page (20 or 10 results depending upon the engine and the settings).
Nope, never seen stats on this, but you're right, it'd be cool to see. I can just say this - I DO get SOME hits from folks that are up in the "offset=200" or more range. (This month, I'm gonna be getting ALL of my hits that way.)

G.

[fathom]

there is some distinction between informative searching depth (or research) and "I need".

People researching will go alot deeper (but generally this is 30 - 45 ranked positions.

"I need" 70% don't get by the first page without re-defining their search parameters.