Google is for Experts, Yahoo is for Novices and 78% of Searchers Want to Learn More After Seeing an Ad

The “2010 Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Insights Study” from Performics, conducted by ROI Research, includes its fair share of intriguing morsels of information about searchers in the U.S., including the finding that Google is for “experts,” and Yahoo is for “novices.”

According to Performics, 75 percent of all users searched with Google in September, 18 percent with Yahoo and 7 percent with Bing.

Searchers were broken down into five segments: Expert, Proficient, Competent, Advanced Beginner and Novice. The company found that 76 percent of Expert users search with Google, 16 percent search with Yahoo and 8 percent go with Bing.

For Proficient users, 79 percent go with Google, 16 percent with Yahoo and 5 percent with Bing. For Competent users, 74 percent go with Google, 18 percent with Yahoo and 8 percent with Bing.

For Advanced Beginner users, 63 percent go with Google, 31 percent go with Yahoo and 6 percent go with Bing. For Novice users, 57 percent search with Google, 36 percent with Yahoo and 7 percent with Bing.

Searchers across the board are “tenacious,” according to Performics, which found that if the first try doesn’t succeed, 89 percent will modify their search and try again, 89 percent will try another search engine and 79 percent will go through multiple search results pages if necessary.

Eighty-three percent of respondents said they use search engines to find a specific manufacturer or product websites, 80 percent use them to gather information before making a purchase online, 78 percent use them to learn more about a product or service after seeing an ad elsewhere and 78 percent use them to find the best price for a product or service.

Meanwhile, 76 percent search to gather information before making an in-store or catalog purchase, 74 percent search to find a location for the purchase of a product offline and 63 percent search to find coupons, specials, sales, etc.

Performics also found that 88 percent of searchers are likely to click on a result if it includes the exact words searched for, while 53 percent are likely to click on a result if it includes an image. Forty-eight percent said they were likely to click on a result if it includes a brand multiple times on the results page, and 26 percent said they were likely to click if it includes a video.

Natural results took the cake from sponsored results, as expected. While 37 percent of respondents said they would “always” click on a natural result, only 5 percent said the same about a sponsored result. Forty-two percent said they would “frequently” click on a natural result, compared with 15 percent for sponsored results. For “occasionally,” “rarely” and “never,” sponsored results got bigger responses than natural results.

Performics also notes that nearly two-thirds of respondents knew the difference between natural and sponsored search results.

Another interesting finding is that 46 percent of searchers will occasionally click on real-time results, while 43 percent will at least occasionally view or click on sponsored video ads.

Sources:</strong

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=136907

http://www.performics.com/news-room/press-releases/Search-Engine-Usage-Study-92-Percent/1422