October 2003 ~ Mechanical Engineering ~ p.12 ~ "Web Searchers Measure Site's Appeal in Seconds" by Jean Thilmany

- According to Pennsylvania State University's researchers, Web users typically visit only the first 3 results shown from an online search, with 1 in 5 searchers spending 60 seconds or less at a Web document found by a search engine.
- A site has to be well designed, easy to load, and relevant to a searcher's needs…If these aren't met, 40% of searchers will move on after spending a maximum of three minutes at the site.
- After analyzing more than 450,000 Web queries submitted to AlltheWeb.com in a 24-hour period, they found that half of all users carried out only one search and that 54% viewed just one site offered by the search engine. Only 19% went on to the second site offered by the engine and fewer than 10% visited the third site.