We're all aware of the importance of SEO, i.e. appearing high in the search engine results page for our targeted keywords. But do we actually know how people use these results? There's been a recent study that's done just that. It's looked at searching from the internet user's perspective. It's US data, but probably equally applicable here.

We've highlighted some of the results and asked what that means for our websites:

Question: How often do people search?
Answer: 40% used a search engine more than 20 times a week. As might be expected, younger people were more likely to search often, with 54% searching more than 20 times, but even among the 60+ age group 26% searched more than 20 times.
Conclusion: Quite a lot, but maybe not as much as you might expect. I search a lot more than this, so I probably belong to the tail end. Still, when you think about it that's more than 100,000 searches in Witney alone every week.

Question: What are users searching for?
Answer:

        People do search to find specific products or brands (83%).

        They search for information after seeing an advertisement somewhere else (78%).

        They search for information about a specific product or brand before purchasing online (80%) and offline (76%).

        78% use search engines to find the best price of a specific products or brand.

        74% use search engines to find where they can purchase a specific product or brand offline.

Conclusion: It's vital to be online with a well structured website, as people will come looking for information. Wherever people hear about a product, most of them will search online before buying, even if they plan to buy offline. Being online also gives you the opportunity to capture sales from a wider audience if you have a good price. However, you shouldn't neglect offline marketing.

Question: How do users choose which results to click on?
Answer:

        88% will click on a result that has the exact phrase they searched for.

        48% will click on company or brand if it appears several times in the results

        53% are more likely to click on a listing if it includes an image.

        26% are more likely to click on a result if it includes a video

Conclusion: Most importantly, do your long tail keyword research, i.e. very specific phrases that relate to what you're selling. If you get these right, you're very likely to get a click. Work on the depth of your content. If several of your pages appear, you're also more likely to get a click. Use images wherever possible. Video is increasingly popular, but can be expensive to produce.

Question: What do users think of paid search results?
Answer: 63% of people said they know the difference between organic and paid search results. In the 18-29 group, it was 80%, but even in the 60+ it was 52%. 79% said they always or frequently click on organic search results, vs only 20% for paid search results.
Conclusion: Spend time and effort getting your website right, so that you do appear in the organic search results. Even if you use Adwords, you still need to appear in the organic search.

Question: What do people do if they don't find what they're looking for?
Answer: 89% said they would alter their search query. 79% said they would go through multiple pages of results.
Conclusion: Searchers are tenacious. They'll keep looking to find something relevant. How do they tell whether something is relevant? By the summary that appears in the search engine results. So, as important as being in the first few pages of results, is having a relevant summary appear.