Search behavior
Analysis of a user session at a search engine suggest that is short in time and very superficial in its depth.
Usually, most web searches are initiated with up to three keywords. No more than three queries are performed by one user during the same search session. During those queries, only one term is modified either by remplacement, substraction or addtion
Only the two first results pages (at 10 sites per page) are viewed by web users with the most clicked hyperlinks being located in the top five results of the first results page.
Today search behavior analysis shows 3 growing trends:
- shorter session time (fewer minutes spent searching),
- minimal query modification (by one term within same search session)
- surface skimming in regard to consultation of search results (fewer results pages viewed).
This decrease in interactivity signifies that web visibility is narrowing. Increased efforts will be needed as the limited number of top positions are under greater stress from competition with fewer web users willing to venture past the first page of results.