Search In Focus - Yahoo! user research, 2010

Search in 2010: The Consumer Perspective
Patrick Hourihan, UK Head of Trade Research

There’s no lack of performance data in Search
Traffic to Travel Republic
Average Visit time to Travel Republic
Source: Hitwise click stream data

There’s no lack of performance data in Search
Search terms driving traffic to Travel Republic
Source: Hitwise click stream data

But what is it telling us?
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How did we do it?
The Y! Connections Panel is an opt-in research panel of 10,000 internet users recruited from the Yahoo! Site
Search Insights survey ran from 26th February to 8th March 2010
Weighted to be reflective of the internet population
In total 2,222 respondents completed the survey
Yahoo! Connections Panel

Who’s at fault if a
result doesn’t come back
on the first page?
Just how important is
search in the user
experience?
What are the perceived
benefits of sponsored
search?
Do people remember and
search for ad straplines?

The role of search
5/24/2010

Search is core to the consumer’s web experience
74%
of internet users agree they cannot make the most of the web without search engines
Source: Yahoo! Research, March 2009 | Sample: All, 2222

This is built on a high level of reliability
69%
of internet users agree that search engines are reliable enough to help them find what they want

Brand identity helps define the search relationship
54%
“My favourite search engine is a brandI can identify with”
67% | 124
“My favourite search engineis a brand I can identify with”

But there are alternatives to search
How do you remember useful
or interesting websites you have visited?
61%
Bookmarkon theweb browser
39%
Search again for useful sitesthey know of
29%
Let their browsertoolbar remembersites
7%
E-mail linksto themselves
7%
Copy/pasteinto Worddoc on PC
7%
Write downthe URL onpaper

Brand recall?
5/24/2010
Yahoo! Presentation Template, Confidential

65% blame the web (engine or company)
36%
yourself
31%
the search engine
34%
the website/brand
If you are searching for a website belonging to a companyand you do not find it on the first page of the search results,who do you blame?

And 65% of people will not go beyond the first page…

A quarter will be lost to an alternative destination
40%
keep refining the search terms to find the website I wanted
23%
go to another website that came up in the results
35%
will go to the next page of the search results
If you are searching for a website and you do not find it on the first page of the search results, but you do find links to similar websites, what are you most likely to do next?

Searching without the brand is commonplace
68%
of internet users have searched for a company… but did not remember the company’s name

69% of searchers search for strap lines...
71%
tried and were successful
Q |How did you go about finding the company?
A |Searching for the strap line or phrase from the advertising
22%
tried and were not successful… but did find a similar company
7%
tried and were not successful
Source: Yahoo! Research, March 2009 | Sample: All who have tried to find company but did not remember name, 1544

75%
tried and were successful
87% of searchers also search ‘generic terms’
Q | How did you go about finding the company?
A | Searching for a generic term for the type of company and scrolled through to find the one I was looking for
22%
tried and were not successful… but did find a similar company
3%tried and were not successful
Source: Yahoo! Research, March 2009 | Sample: All who have tried to find company but did not remember name, 1544

Generic search drives conversions
Source: Nielsen presentation: Visualising the full customer journey to assess the key trigger points behind purchase, Jan 09

Perceptions of sponsored search
5/24/2010
Yahoo! Presentation Template, Confidential

High awareness for sponsored search
69%
of internet users are aware that the results at the top and side of the page are paid-for advertising.

..with Yahoo! search users more likely to look at them
Q | Do you typically look at theseresults if they come up whenyou are searching?
A | Yes, I look at them
Source: Yahoo! Research, March 2009 | Sample: Those who look at paid for results, 373

But why use sponsored search?
Reasons for using sponsored search results
34%
they are the most prominent
32%
they are the most relevant results
32%
they reassure me that I am goingto the official company’s site
32%
I know these sites will be ofreasonable quality
Source: Yahoo! Research, March 2009 | Sample: Those who look at paid for results, 373

Yahoo! search users more likely to purchase
Agree | “I have bought products froma website I found by clicking onsponsored search terms”

Final thoughts
Consumer confidence in search engines is underpinned by a high level of trust in its quality - but it’s a competitive market
There’s a number of ways in which brands could potentially suffer if consumers cant find their brands through search
Brand loyalty weakens
Straplines
Generic terms
Sponsored search can provide reassurance to consumers that the destination site is authentic

Patrick
Hourihan
UK Head of Trade Research
hourihan@yahoo-inc.com
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Search In Focus - Yahoo! user research, 2010

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