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Online, the clock is ticking
Last Wednesday, Penn State researchers presented the results
of their research
in a paper titled "An Analysis of Web Documents Retrieved
and Viewed" at the 2003 International Conference on Internet
Computing in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Their findings are very interesting for anyone involved in
search engine marketing.
The researchers analyzed more than 450,000 Web queries submitted
to AlltheWeb.com in a 24-hour period, reviewing users' actions
in chronological order. The length of sessions, number of
pages visited and relevance of results were analyzed.
Several patterns emerged:
- Half of all users entered only one query.
- 54 percent viewed just one page of results in each session
(a session was a query or series of queries submitted by
a user during one interaction with a search engine).
- Only 19 percent went on to the second page in sessions.
- Fewer than 10 percent of users bothered with the third
page of results.
A similar drop-off in numbers occurred when the researchers
considered how many results searchers viewed per query:
- About 55 percent of users checked out one result only.
- More than 80 percent stopped after looking at three results.
These percentages illustrate why a good ranking on major
search engines can make the difference between commercial
success and failure.
Dr. Jim Jansen, assistant professor and one of the researchers
of the study, gives good advice for web site developers: "If
you want to be looked at, it is absolutely critical that the
abstract be crystal clear about the purpose of your Web site.
Eight out of 10 times, the abstract dissuades people from
going to the site."
If you want your web site to succeed, you must make sure
that your web pages are optimized for a top 10 search engine
ranking (for example, with our software tool Internet
Business Promoter).
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