Searcher Behavior

Explain This: One-Word Searches Up 17% in 2009

Filed in Searcher Behavior, Statistics by Matt McGee on February 12, 2010 • 22 Comments

For years, the conventional wisdom has been that searchers are typing longer queries into the search boxes on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The evidence I’ve seen in the analytics for the four hyperlocal blogs that my wife and I write support that: On our Richland Real Estate blog, for example, seven of the top 10 […]

Searchers Using Longer Queries in 2009

Filed in Searcher Behavior, Statistics by Matt McGee on February 17, 2009 • 21 Comments

Reps from comScore, Nielsen Online, and Hitwise spoke last week in a “SearchScape” session at SMX West, and while they all shared some interesting numbers, it was Bill Tancer of Hitwise who really opened my eyes with data about searcher behavior. The long tail is getting longer; 1- and 2-word queries are on the decline, […]

Local Search Queries on the Rise

Filed in Local Search, Searcher Behavior, Statistics by Matt McGee on December 21, 2008 • 12 Comments

Found this Mike Boland post on the Kelsey Blog 10 days ago, but have been too busy to do anything with it before now. Mike presents a pair of charts that Yahoo Local’s Atif Rafiq presented at SES Chicago earlier this month, both of which show a steady — you could say substantial — rise […]

What does Google do with all that click-thru data?

Filed in Google, Searcher Behavior by Matt McGee on August 27, 2008 • 10 Comments

Have you ever thought about how Google might use all that clickstream data it has? For some reason, this question popped into my head on the flight home from SES San Jose last week. Background: What Click-thru data? If you have a Google account, and if you have the Google toolbar installed (or if you’ve […]

MSN Studies Searcher Behavior

Filed in Searcher Behavior by Matt McGee on January 16, 2007 • 0 Comments

Here are two solid posts this week with analysis of a recent MSFT eye-tracking study of search engine user behavior: Danny at Search Engine Land Gord at Out of My Gord I’m with Danny about a study of 18 people being a bit difficult to really trust, but if you’re willing to make that jump, […]

Organic vs. PPC

Filed in PPC Advertising, Searcher Behavior, SEO by Matt McGee on December 21, 2006 • 0 Comments

This started out as a silly debate because a PPC proponent took some ignorant swipes at the SEO crowd and got a reaction from some SEO quarters. There was no point in posting anything about it because I saw no value in the debate and no reason for small business owners to care. Well, the […]