Search Again or Click On the Second Page of Search Results?

Consumer Search Insights.

If you use a search engine but don't find what you are looking for, which are you more likely to do?

People are more likely to search again with a new keyword than they are to click onto the second page of search results.

Vote All (1189) 
search again with a different word 55.7% (+3.2 / -3.3)
go to the second page of the results 44.3% (+3.3 / -3.2)

The split is fairly consistent among men and women.

Vote Men (651)  Women (538) 
search again with a different word 55.4% (+4.0 / -4.1) 56.1% (+5.0 / -5.1)
go to the second page of the results 44.6% (+4.1 / -4.0) 43.9% (+5.1 / -5.0)

There isn't an obvious pattern among age either.

Vote 18-24 year-olds (284)  25-34 year-olds (309)  35-44 year-olds (144)  45-54 year-olds (195)  55-64 year-olds (150)  65+ year-olds (107) 
search again with a different word 52.1% (+5.7 / -5.8) 56.7% (+5.7 / -5.9) 51.7% (+8.0 / -8.1) 57.5% (+6.7 / -7.0) 61.4% (+7.7 / -8.4) 54.2% (+9.4 / -9.8)
go to the second page of the results 47.9% (+5.8 / -5.7) 43.3% (+5.9 / -5.7) 48.3% (+8.1 / -8.0) 42.5% (+7.0 / -6.7) 38.6% (+8.4 / -7.7) 45.8% (+9.8 / -9.4)

People in the west & midwest are more likely to change keywords, whereas people in the north east & south are roughly equally likely to change keywords or go to page 2 of the search results.

Vote The US Midwest (244)  The US Northeast (320)  The US South (363)  The US West (262) 
search again with a different word 58.6% (+6.6 / -6.9) 52.2% (+6.3 / -6.4) 51.7% (+6.0 / -6.1) 61.8% (+6.2 / -6.6)
go to the second page of the results 41.4% (+6.9 / -6.6) 47.8% (+6.4 / -6.3) 48.3% (+6.1 / -6.0) 38.2% (+6.6 / -6.2)

Suburban people are more likely to change keywords than to click on to page 2.

Vote Urban areas (590)  Rural areas (109)  Suburban areas (468) 
search again with a different word 51.8% (+4.6 / -4.6) 48.0% (+9.3 / -9.1) 61.1% (+4.8 / -5.0)
go to the second page of the results 48.2% (+4.6 / -4.6) 52.0% (+9.1 / -9.3) 38.9% (+5.0 / -4.8)

There isn't much of an income correlation either.

Vote People earning $0-24K (123)  People earning $25-49K (638)  People earning $50-74K (319)  People earning $75-99K (88)  People earning $100-149K (22) 
search again with a different word 57.9% (+9.3 / -9.9) 55.9% (+4.4 / -4.5) 58.8% (+5.8 / -6.1) 54.5% (+9.3 / -9.6) 50.0% (+21.4 / -21.4)
go to the second page of the results 42.1% (+9.9 / -9.3) 44.1% (+4.5 / -4.4) 41.2% (+6.1 / -5.8) 45.5% (+9.6 / -9.3) 50.0% (+21.4 / -21.4)

It would also be interesting to run this question again & include the option of trying another search engine as an answer.

Published: April 15, 2012 by Aaron Wall in internet

Comments

tedives@yahoo.com
April 17, 2012 - 7:18pm

Aaron - very interesting question on that piece of the survey. Google appears to keep any data on "abandoned" searches very close to the vest. I did find two studies that looked pretty good, check out the section about halfway down in my posting here, the section called "How many Searches are “abandoned”?
http://www.coconutheadphones.com/estimating-organic-search-opportunity-p...

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