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68% of search engine users click on the 1st page of result

	2008	2006	2004	2002
Only a few	27%	23%	24%	16%
The first page	41%	39%	36%	32%
The first 2 pages	17%	19%	20%	23%
The first 3 pages	7%	9%	8%	10%
More than 3 pages	8%	10%	12%	19%
Source: iProspect

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Among consumers in the study group who had been exposed to both search and display ads, 43% made in-store purchases, compared with 26% of those who had viewed only search ads, and 6% of those who had only seen display ads.

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comScore Networks confirmed the importance of search in influencing offline buying. The results show that 25% of searchers purchased an item directly related to their query, and that of those buyers, 37% completed their purchase online. An even greater 63% completed a purchase offline following their search activity. The study reflects the searching behavior of 83 mln Americans who conducted more than 552 mln searches in the categories analyzed using one or more of the 24 leading search engines.

Online and offline search conversion in retail
Category Searched	Conversion	Offline	Online
Average, All Categories	25%	63%	37%
Apparel & Accessories	43%	65%	35%
Toys & Hobbies	42%	88%	12%
Music/Movies/Videos	28%	83%	17%
Consumer Electronics	18%	84%	16%
Video Games & Consoles	17%	93%	7%
Jewelry & Watches	15%	75%	25%
Source: comScore

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Search users ’stop at page three’

It also found 62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002.

Some 90% of consumers clicked on a link in these pages, up from 81% in 2002.

And 41% of consumers changed engines or their search term if they did not find what they were searching for on the first page. Go to the source

Search users ’stop at page three’

At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up, found the survey by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect.

It also found that a third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands. Go to the source

Conversion on pay-per-click ads is at 3.4%

Conversion rates for paid search was just 9% higher than unpaid search, WebSideStory said. Keywords bought on a pay-per-click basis had a median conversion rate of 3.4%, compared with 3.13% for unpaid results to search queries.

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In Q2 2006, search generated 58% more referrals than portals in aggregate, up from 20% in Q1 2006. Search also generated 48% more referrals than third-party automotive sites, in aggregate, Compete says. Search dominated the number of referrals to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) branded sites with more than 10 mln user sessions in the second Q of 2006. Google is just as effective in driving sales leads as online auto channels, delivering 6.8 mln referrals to OEM sites in Q2 2006, more than any other individual Search Engine, Portal, or Third Party Auto Site.

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One Engine is Not Enough! Study by InfoSpace Reveals Vastly Different Results from Top Search Engines

The study, titled, Different Engines, Different Results, was conducted by researchers from The Pennsylvania State University and Queensland University of Technology in April 2007. Key findings highlight the value of metasearch and include:

– Only 0.6 percent of 776,435 first-page search results were the same across the top four Web search engines

– Between 38 and 46 percent of all searches fail to elicit a click on a first-page search result, don’t meet users needs and drive users to try additional engines.

– Web searchers on average use three search engines a month

– Search result rankings differ significantly across major search engines; only 3.6 percent of the number-one ranked, non-sponsored search results were the same across all search engines in a given query

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