Latest insights into search behaviour

Hitwise are a leading online traffic measurement company who track website usage through a network of leading ISPs. A recent press release has revealed some interesting statistics on pre-Christmas shopping activity on the Internet in the UK.

Firstly, they report that 28% of people used a single word in their search, compared to 30% who used 2 words, whilst 42% used 3 or more words. These figures suggest that web searchers are making more detailed search requests than ever before, partly due to the need to find specific results and also because more users are becoming ‘search savvy’. This also demonstrates the usefulness of targeting a range of quite specific terms to ensure coverage of the potential search market.

Another finding that Hitwise reported was that of the top 1,000 most successful shopping search terms, 63.7% were brand specific (e.g., ‘ebay’), 27.5% were generic product searches (e.g., ‘mobile phones’) and 8.8% were specific product searches (e.g., ‘nokia 6260′). This shows that if you are selling or promoting goods or services with a strong brand, it is important to target this in your search marketing.

Hitwise, together with ComScore and Neilsen NetRatings are the major companies providing this type of information on web usage. Although their services and costs are clearly targeted at larger businesses, we have found that the press releases and newsletters they produce are certainly worth checking out as they can provide a wealth of useful information about market shares and trends in user behaviour.

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