Penn State University researchers, who analyzed more than 450,000 Web queries submitted to the ALL THE WEB search engine in a 24-hour period, they reviewed users' actions in chronological order.

Dr. Jim Jansen and Amanda Spink, both assistant professors in Penn State's information sciences and technology (IST), analyzed more than 450,000 web queries submitted to the AlltheWeb.com search engine in a 24-hour period, and made some very startling findings.

Studies included the length of sessions, number of pages visited, and relevance of search results. Their findings were presented in a paper titled "An Analysis of Web Documents Retrieved and Viewed" at the 2003 International Conference on Internet Computing in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here is the important highlights of their findings:

• Half of all users entered only one search query.
• 54 percent viewed just one page of search results per visit to the search engine.
• Searchers typically visit only the top three search results.
• About 55 percent of users checked out one result only.
• Only 19 percent went on to the second page.
• Fewer than 10 percent bothered with the third page of results.
• More than 80 percent stopped after looking at three results.
• Eight out of 10 times, the abstract dissuades searchers from going to a site.
• Upon clicking through to a site, one in five searchers stay 60 seconds or less.
• One out of every two search results isn't relevant to what the searcher was looking for.

Conclusion

Getting your web pages indexed by the search engines not enough. They must be listed within the first 3 pages of search results, otherwise eight out of ten searchers will never find it. While most website design companies will upload you to the search engines, it is important that the same company that designs your site, also handles the optimization of your site on the search engines. Here's why, much of how you rank on the engines is determined by the copy and the keywords used on the site. It hardly makes sense to have a professional ad agency of web design firm build you a site and then hire another company to begin ripping and rebuilding the site to rank better. Adstar Advertising Inc. can do both. All of our sites are uploaded to the search engines, however it makes sense to have an agreement with us that include search engine optimization. This is a separate agreement, but as the research suggest, it is important and of great value.

Have a Productive Day,

Robert Zink
Adstar Advertising Inc
www.seattleadvertising.com