When searching for products and services online, appearance matters: 48% of search engine users say they are more likely to click on a search result if it includes an image and 53% are more likely to click if a company name or brand appears multiple times on the search engine results page, according to a survey from Performics.
Still, 88% of surveyed search engine users say they're more likely to click on a result that contains the exact words or phrases they've searched for; 26% are more likely to click on a result that contains a video.
Such searchers say they are most influenced by a search result's description (75%), followed by the title (73%) and URL (60%).
Below, other findings from Performics' 2010 Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Insights Study, conducted by ROI Research Inc.
Search engine users are persistent. If at first they don't succeed, they try a different approach:
- 89% modify their search keyword terms and try again.
- 89% try a different search engine.
- 79% scroll through multiple search results pages if necessary.
- 19% abandon their online search effort—and take it offline.
Overall, 75% of searchers use Google, 19% use Yahoo, and 7% use Bing. Those who are new to using search (36%), or relative beginners (31%), are more likely than advanced searchers (16%) to use Yahoo as their primary search engine.
Google users are the most loyal: 66% say they occasionally or frequently use another search engine, compared with 72% of Yahoo users and 82% of Bing users.
Nearly two-thirds of searchers (63%) say they know the difference between natural and sponsored search results; 80% of searchers age 18-29 are aware of the difference.
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One in five searchers (20%) always or frequently click on sponsored search ads and another 43% occasionally do.
Searchers rely heavily on search results when researching and making purchase decisions:
- 83% find specific manufacturers or product websites.
- 80% gather information via search before making online purchases.
- 78% learn more about a products or services after seeing an ad elsewhere.
- 63% find special discounts and coupons.
Other findings:
- Yahoo users are most likely to look at natural and sponsored results first, before other features of the search engine performance page.
- 43% of Bing searchers frequently or occasionally use the engine's rollover/pop-up previews.
- 43% of all searchers frequently or occasionally or click on sponsored video ads.
About the data: Findings are from the 2010 Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Insights Study, conducted in June 2010 among 500 US consumers from the Greenfield Online panel. Respondents must have used a search engine one or more times in the past week, and be a regular user of Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
