Why Searchers Don't Go Past the First Page. Or the first half of the first page. We've seen lots of data about how searchers process search pages. The current rule of thumb is that 50% look at the second page of search results, and 25% at the third page. And almost no one looks at any other pages. This is probably true, as far as it goes. I believe, however, that there are two kinds of searchers, one of whom is not usually discussed. The traditional model of searching is that someone conceives a desire, goes the to the search engine, types in their desire, and then processes the results. They pay attention to the earlier results more because they are easier to review. By page 4, they are bored or they have already found what they're looking for. There is a second kind of searcher. This kind of searcher does not know if they have typed the right term. So, they have many other steps before they can process the results. What they are doing is optimizing their search. They start with a certain idea of the keywords that are required to produce the results they want, but they are not sure. So, they try a search, and then they browse a few of the search results to see if the results are in the ballpark of what they want. They can determine this by reading only a few entries. If the results don't look right, then they adjust their keywords and try again. Eventually, the results are of high enough "saturation" that they feel like they have the right terms. That is, when the results look right, they know that they have hit on the right keywords for what they want to know. Only then will they read past the first page or first few results. This hermeneutical process is much more realistic than the traditional linear model of searching. Only by understanding the hermeneutics involved can we truly understand user behavior.