haven't we met before?

[lucy24]

Was almost going to hijack the "default behavior" thread, but... naah. Separate oddity.

No idea how common this is. Now and then I get two or three sets right after each other in logs, and then I notice.

Person lands on a page, having searched for {something}. They're invariably logged-in to g###, or they've done one of the other eighteen things that results in their search terms being blocked. All you know is they landed on, say, no. 5 in their results.

Few minutes later, the same person lands on the same page after doing a different search. You know it's different because it's a different cd number.

Sometimes there's even a third go-round.

What gives? Are there a lot of searchers with even shorter memories than mine, so they honestly don't remember that they'd already looked at this page and returned to searching? Or are they thinking that if g### keeps pushing this particular page, there must be something they overlooked? Or am I overthinking? Get a list of results, click on one after another without even looking at the snippet until you realize "Oh, wait, I've been here before."

I know the pattern from the other side: "Look, I didn't like the first set of results. That's why I tried a different search." Usually this leads to twice as many results from the site I didn't like the first time around. Go figure.

{insert "wtf?" icon here}

<ot>
Google's arithmeticians outdid themselves the other day. I was searching for random bits of text from a public-domain book, and kept getting looonng lists of results, mainly TIA and Google Books as you'd expect. Every single time, they'd tell me there were "about two" results. I guess those would be the two that are not from G### Books.
</ot>

[phranque]

a lot of sites have A global meta description, so duplicate meta descriptions may not be assumed to be the same page.
i would imagine a most people don't pay attention to the url in a snippet except for the bolded parts.

[Rosalind]

i would imagine a most people don't pay attention to the url in a snippet except for the bolded parts.

Most people don't understand the internet at all. It's easy for WebmasterWorld members to forget how many people aren't familiar with the things we think of as basic.

[PCInk]

Most people don't understand the internet at all.

I think that is a good point.

The colour of the link should indicate if you have viewed the page before, if you know why it is a different colour. Most people don't know why it is a different colour since most websites don't follow that standard anymore.

Another aspect to consider is the user changing their search term. This can result in a different snippet to be shown and with Google, sometimes a different title as well. It looks completely different. Some people might see the different colour link and their eye might be attracted to it, making it even more likely that a click may happen.

This could be a reason why people may be coming back to your page.

Either that, or they just really like your site!

[piatkow]

A variant is the person who finds your site and clicks through to a page. Then goes back to the search engine, repeats the identical search in order return to the home page and then clicks through to a different page. In practice I suspect that they are simply typing the search arguement into the address bar.