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searchenginewatch 2006/10/01

自然搜尋結果 vs 關鍵字廣告 , 網友偏好哪一種?


根據專業搜尋行銷公司 iProspect 所進行的『網友搜尋行為調查』，在多項搜尋行為中都有驚人發 現，高達 99% 的網友使用過搜尋引擎，其中有 56% 的網友更將搜尋視為日常生活一部份。在搜尋引擎的選擇上，網友使用各搜尋引擎的比例分別為： Google(66%) 、 Yahoo(55%) 、 MSN(54%) 、 AOL(49%) 。另外，自然搜尋結果和關鍵字廣告的點擊率比較中，隨著網友的人口統計資料而有所差異，資料顯示 經常使用搜尋的網友 ( 單日搜尋四次以上 ) 偏好點擊自然搜尋結果 (65%) ；而點擊關鍵字廣告只佔 35% 。

 

使用行為

•  57% 網友將搜尋視為日常生活一部份

•  35% 網友一天至少進行一次搜尋； 21% 一天進行四次以上搜尋

•  1% 網友不曾使用過搜尋

忠誠度

•  56% 網友使用單一的搜尋引擎

•  13% 網友會按照搜尋的產品類別，來選擇適當的搜尋引擎

•  網友使用各搜尋引擎的比例： Google(66%) 、 Yahoo(55%) 、 MSN(54%) 、 AOL(49%)

自然搜尋結果和關鍵字廣告的點擊率比較

•  使用 Google 的網友偏好點擊自然搜尋結果 (72%) ；而點擊關鍵字廣告只佔 28% 。

•  使用 MSN 的網友偏好點擊關鍵字廣告 (71%) ；而點擊自然搜尋結果只佔 29% 。

•  經常使用搜尋的網友 ( 單日搜尋四次以上 ) 偏好點擊自然搜尋結果 (65%) ；而點擊關鍵字廣告只佔 35% 。

 

Search Engine User Attitudes

By Chris Sherman , Executive Editor

With so much interest in search, it's amazing how relatively little research has been done into how people interact with search engines, especially from a search marketing perspective. That's finally changing.

Over the past few weeks, search engine marketing firm iProspect has released a series of reports studying search behavior. That survey, Search Engine Users Attitudes, involved 1,649 people surveyed at the end of March 2004 on behalf of iProspect by Survey Sample International.Search marketing firm Enquiro has also been busy. Similar to iPropsect, it has recently released results from a survey of hundreds of people about how they interact with search, as well as a focus group look that will be covered more in tomorrow's SearchDay.

Search Engine User Attitudes

Here are some of the key findings from the Search Engine User Attitudes Survey Results , published as a white paper and available on the iProspect web site.

Usage

56 percent of those surveyed use search engines on a daily basis. That includes 35 percent who do at least one search per day and 21 percent who search four or more times per day. Only one percent of those surveyed say they never use search engines. However, keep in mind that everyone in the survey was an internet user. If non-internet users were involved, that figure would obviously be higher.

Loyalty

A majority of searchers have a favorite search engine. iProspect found that:

Of those who said they use the same search engine, Google was the top choice, 66 percent. Yahoo followed at 55 percent, with MSN just behind at 54 percent. AOL was last at 49 percent. There were no other choices offered to survey participants.

Relevancy: Paid Versus Free

Although many purists are dismissive of paid listings, some searchers prefer them, especially for certain types of queries. Others leaned toward organic listings -- sometimes with surprising results.

For example, for the query "used car," when shown a result page from the user's favorite search engine, organic results were deemed more relevant by 60.5 percent, versus 39.5 percent favoring paid listings, across all search engines.Looking more closely at the preferences of users of particular engines, however, and a dramatic divergence in opinion appears.

Google users especially said they liked organic listings better, with 72 percent favoring them, with 28% preferring sponsored listings. MSN users, by contrast, had virtually the opposite results, saying that paid listings were more relevant (71 percent) vs. organic results (29%).

Why? Pure speculation, but perhaps the look and feel of Google's sponsored listings looking more like "normal" results helped. In other words maybe ads at Google were also very relevant -- but because they don't look like regular results, have shorter descriptions and so on, they are dismissed more frequently.

In other findings, both men (65%) and women (57%) preferred natural results over paid listings, though the 43% of women who said they favored the paid listings suggest that the preference for organic results is not as strong in women as men.

Other demographic breakdowns showed a similar preference for organic over paid search listings, but with important differences within each group: