The Hermeneutics of Searching

Where does your company show up on the search results for your most important search terms? Web searchers don’t tend to go past the first page or even the first half of the first page in some cases. Therefore, placement is critical.

A great deal of data has been released about how searchers process search pages. The current rule of thumb is that 50% of searchers look at the second page of search results and 25% at the third page. And, almost no one looks at any other pages. As a general rule this is pretty true, but there are actually two kinds of searchers: Linear and Hermeneutic Searchers. The latter of these types is rarely noticed and discussed.

The Linear Searcher

The traditional model of searching is that someone conceives a desire, goes to the search engine, types in the term associated with their desire, processes the results, and clicks the result that meets their needs the best. They pay attention to the earlier results more because they are easier to review. By page four, they are bored, or they have already found what they're looking for.

The Hermeneutic Searcher

Hermeneutic searching happens when the searcher begins with incomplete information. This type of searcher begins the process similar to the Linear Searcher, viz. by conceiving a desire, typing a term, and processing the results. The difference is that they do not have confidence in their search term. This means that the Hermeneutic Searcher does not know if s/he typed the right term.

This searcher has more steps to go through before they can truly process the results. They are, in essence, optimizing their search by starting with a certain idea of the keywords they believe will generate their desired results. Because of this uncertainty, they are unsure of whether the results are accurate. So, they try a search, and then browse a few of the search results to see if they are in the ballpark of what they want. This can usually be accomplished 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 or feel 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.

Understanding The Searcher

The key to understanding user behavior is to understand how the searcher approaches the process. The process associated with the Hermeneutic Searcher is more realistic than the Linear Searcher's traditional model of searching. In most cases, searchers are not sure what key phrase will bring about the most applicable results, so some investigation is required.

The key for businesses is to optimize their site for keywords and phrases that generate the most attention from qualified prospects. The hermeneutic searching process then means that clusters of terms will better serve those searchers that need a little more clarification.