by Alan Rabinowitz
This post will offer data on search engines and search engine user behavior. Most of this information is compiled from reputable third-party research firms.
Organic Ranking Visibility
(shown in a percentage of participants looking at a listing in this location)
Data is for Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).
92% of searchers will click a result within the first three pages, of these searchers:
- 62% of all users will click on a result on the first page.
- 17% search the first two pages.
- 8% search the first three pages.
Position 1 – 100%
Position 2 – 100%
Position 3 – 100%
Position 4 – 85%
Position 5 – 60%
Position 6 – 50%
Position 7 – 50%
Position 8 – 30%
Position 9 – 30%
Position 10 – 20%
source: enquiro and Jupiter Research
Paid Search Visibility
(shown in a percentage of participants looking at the ad in this location)
Data is for Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).
Paid Ad Position 1 – 50%
Paid Ad Position 2 – 40%
Paid Ad Position 3 – 30%
Paid Ad Position 4 – 20%
Paid Ad Position 5 – 10%
Paid Ad Position 6 – 10%
Paid Ad Position 7 – 10%
Paid Ad Position 8 – 10%
source: enquiro
Search Engine Volume
Percentage of all online searches performed.
Google 72.07%
Yahoo 17.79%
Bing 4.10%
Ask 3.15%source hitwise
Organic vs Paid Clicks
(Reports the percentage of users clicking on a natural or paid ad on the SERPS)
Compiled by Search Engine
Google:
Paid – 23.3%
Natural Search – 76.7%Yahoo:
Paid – 30.6%
Natural Search – 69.4%MSN:
Paid – 45.5%
Natural Search -54.5%
source Enquiro & Marketing Sherpa
Other Search Data
39% of searchers believe that the websites that are returned in the top of the search results are the top brands in their industry.
49% of searchers continuing an unsuccessful search will change search engines or change the term when they don’t find what they are looking for on the first page of results.
82% of searchers will restart an unsuccessful search using the same search engine and the searcher will add more terms to try and find the right results.
The need to have to rankings on search engine results pages has increased in importance for search engine marketers.