Search Engines: Quantity vs. Quality

A Nielsen/NetRatings report highlighted last month on Search Engine Watch showed Google with a 2 to 1 share lead for online searches over its next closest competitor, Yahoo. Google had about a 46 percent share of the search market while Yahoo had just over 23 percent. MSN came in third at around 11 percent.

However, according to a newly released survey from BIGresearch, the volume of searches does not correlate directly with a search engine’s influence on purchase behavior. The survey results showed Yahoo as the overall leader, but the top search engine varied by category. Google was best at influencing the purchase of electronics and telecom services. Yahoo was more likely to influence purchases in four categories: 1) apparel, 2) home improvement, 3) eating out and 4) medicines. MSN grabbed the top spot for cars and trucks, while AOL was the best search engine for influencing the purchase of groceries.

Another report last week from WebSideStory, ranked AOL Search the best for purchase conversion rate (6.17 percent) among the major search engines. This was followed by MSN (6.03 percent), Yahoo (4.07 percent) and Google (3.83 percent). WebSideStory’s senior digital marketing consultant, Ali Behnam, offers an explanation for the results, “AOL, MSN and Yahoo may tend to appeal toward a more buyer friendly demographic. Google, meanwhile, may appeal to more browsers—those with less intent to buy.”

If you do the math from the Nielsen/NetRatings, and assuming total costs for placement are the same on each search engine, Google would still net more business because of their volume. If, however, you could buy Yahoo, MSN and AOL for a comparable cost per exposure, it would make good sense to use them for many categories of products.