• The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Site Search
• Searching for Better On-Site Search Usability
• Searching for Better On-Site Search Usability
• Search Engine Marketing Gets Personal Part One

I'd like to see results from personalized searches, especially the data from those who set their preferences to return more than 10 results. If personalized search users have a greater % of clicks on pages that rank higher than 10 compared to those that continue to page 2 of the SERPs, it could mean that the engines are actually skewing relevancy by limiting the number of results.

Posted by: Christa Watson on August 19, 2008

I agree with you 100%. 25 search results per query does make sense as blended search is intergrated within the search results...hopefully someday the engines will listen to you and make the change! :o)

Posted by: Nick Stamoulis on August 19, 2008

Makes a lot of sense to me. I still like the text results as they are the most relevant. I was looking for some Ray-Ban sunglasses the other day and found a YT video I didnt want to see and images that were not helpful.

Posted by: Jaan kanellis on August 19, 2008

When I go to Google search and, for instance, type in "real estate agent", almost exclusively all the sites that are returned has the search term in the domain name. Then, unusually, I go on page 2 and there are the real estate agents. You can about do this with about every industry. Eventually, all the domain names and the hyphenated domain names will expire and the guys who bought in early enough will be at the top of the listings, leaving the corporates on page 2.

Posted by: John Sylvester on August 20, 2008

er... am I missing something here? Search engines DO return more than 10 results - it's a very simple case of either using the 'advanced search' function to expand the number of results displayed on the first page or (wait for it....) CLICKING on the 'next page' link!

Phew, that's high tech!!

Posted by: Nick London on August 20, 2008

Maybe I am stupid, but I do not understand what problem you discuss. Search engines give more than 10 results, they give option for users to display pages with more than 10 results; for example, I see 100 results from Google. It's how I set it up.
The problem is - I think - that users do not pay attention to more than 10 results; this is not search engines fault; but the user behavior. Could we influence them? This could be a discussion.

Posted by: Gabi on August 20, 2008

I really think it depends on what the searcher is doing.

If I am trying to find something specific (what is the capital of Estonia, where can I get the schedule for Bus #5, what is the phone number for the great chinese restaurant on the corner), if the search engine can deliver one right result to me, then I am happy.

But if I am doing research or gathering information, I might look at 25 different Web sites from a combination of several searches. I rarely go beyond 5 pages of search results, but I usually don't limit myself to one page either.

Posted by: Annie on August 20, 2008

@ Christa I'm not a fan of personalized results. Makes me fee like I'm missing something. But knowing those stats would be fun.

@ Jaan that's exactly why I'm not a fan of blended results. Blended but segmented is good, but all thrown in together, no thanks.

@ Nick, @ Gabi... that's just the issue. People DON'T change their settings, or click to the next page. So it's a usability issue. Give people what they want and don't make them hunt (click or change settings) for it.

Posted by: Stoney deGeyter on August 20, 2008

Starting from your post, here is a beginning of a discussion: Top 10 in disgrace! Could we influence user behavior? at http://www.seogan.com/top-10-in-disgrace.

Posted by: Gabi on August 20, 2008

Great Post!
Keep it up
I also have Search Engine Marketing Education Blog. Can you suggest me some tips for that.

Posted by: Lalit Wason on August 21, 2008

I think users don't hit the next button for one of three reasons: they realize their search term was
1) too vague
2) bringing up too many corporate sites

or

3) they found the result that met their needs on the first page.

I am unusual in being one of the few users who hit the next button, even if I find a relevant result on the first page. This is because I have found that every now and then there is a gem of a site buried beneath page after page of corporate advertisements. However, for every page after the third, there is a steadily diminishing return.

Posted by: Jane on August 23, 2008

I have to disagree on this point. Having 25 results on one page will only cause the user to lose focus on the ones that he found relevant. It is human tendancy to scan through results before deciding which to click and i believe search engines do take this into considerations.

Posted by: Singapore Internet Marketing on August 27, 2008

well I definitely can't agree with you there. If what you say is true, then why not limit the results to 5? While the search engines do need to focus on usability, in this case, usability is about delivering enough results for the user to find not just one, but several sites that meet their query. It's research. You don't get all your answers from a single book on a topic and therefore the engines should provide more options in terms of results. This is even more important with blended results. More options provide a broader base of information which is always good.

Posted by: Stoney deGeyter on August 27, 2008

Hi Stoney,

A good article thanks.

One question I would like to raise: Who benefits the most by Google showing only 10 results (out of e.g. 10,000,000) on the first page ??? Those 10 fortunate sites get pretty much all of the organic keyword targeted traffic going. But what if you're not one of the lucky few and you desparately want some of that Google search action? Then you've got no choice but to throw your shirt into the adwords ring and bid up the frankly exhorbitant fees per click that Google now has the power to charge.

Posted by: Stan Hoben on September 1, 2008

excellent point, Stan!

Posted by: Stoney deGeyter on September 2, 2008