The Click-Happy Searcher

dutter · #1 (**permalink**) 03-01-2006, 10:40 AM

(Posting for Jason Lee Miller, whose new gold Rolex seems to be turning his wrist a brilliant shade of green.)

Research is showing that the bulk of Internet users make snap judgments about websites and what links to click. Surfing is instinctual, not calculated. In fact the only ones doing any calculations are marketing researchers who say that a website has an astonishing 50 milliseconds to make an impression, and if no impression is made, the mouse trigger finger gets itchy and starts clicking at will.

"We don't really consider our online interaction, we just click," said Enquiro President and CEO Gord Hotchkiss, moderating a searcher behavior question and answer session at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City.

The panel assembled was an all-star market research team consisting of Alan Rimm-Kaufman of Rimm-Kaufman Group; Diane Rinaldo of Yahoo! Search Marketing; and Greg Sterling of the Kelsey Group.

The group intimated that measuring click-behavior was tricky business because there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. The ease of the back button, or tabbed browsing in some cases, plus the growth of high-speed connections has caused a Boomhauer-type click-happy experience:

"Yeah man, I tell ya what, man. That dang ol' Internet, man. You just go on there and point and click. Talk about W-W-dot-W-com. An' lotsa nekkid chicks on there, man. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. It's real easy, man," says Boomhauer.

One of the panelists caused a chuckle in the crowd when he said, "you could run an ad that said 'bad prices, bad products' and people would keep clicking."

The challenge this type of clicking behavior presents is that it becomes difficult to find order in chaos. Getting inside the searchers head to find their intent is a murky business.

Hotchkiss did echo the "Men are from Google, Women are From Yahoo!" sentiment by stating that the way we interact with search engines is a male-type interaction—men find what they're looking for and leave. Women, who respond better to MSN than Google according to Hotchkiss, more often seek out communities like Women.com.

But the main point, especially considering the short length of time a web-marketer has of making an impression, is finding a way to get the customer in a mindset that you are getting them closer to their intent and not farther away.

espectations · #2 (**permalink**) 03-01-2006, 08:08 PM

This type of report makes one wonder about ppc text based advertising.....

Do people really intend to buy or are they just surfing around clicking on everything because they have nothing better to do.

Duncan Pollock · #3 (**permalink**) 03-01-2006, 11:22 PM

I suppose some click happy searchers will take a look at the PPC ad, only to leave the landing page almost before it loads.
However, my sense is that PPC clickers are attracted by the wording of the ad. It suggests THE answer to what they want to find, which the SERP titles and descriptions don't necessarily do quite so well or as quickly.
Most success stories from website owners will, I'm sure, include at least some use of PPC ads. If nothing else, an ad ensures appearance on page one of the SERPs, which is a whole lot more than SEO on its own is always going to do, if at all.
I'm not at all convinced that searchers clickers realize this, but I'm fairly certain that most knowledgable webmasters do.

Duncan

espectations · #4 (**permalink**) 03-02-2006, 01:17 AM

Hi Duncan, yes I agree but I also wonder what the difference then would be between a very well written title that appears in the SERPS or the text ads on the right hand side of the page.......

Duncan Pollock · #5 (**permalink**) 03-02-2006, 05:23 PM

My obvious answer is, ha, ha, six of one and half a dozen of the other.
But I think many of us who use AdWords feel that we've at least more control. The text that triggers a click is of our own making, whereas the SERP title and description are more of Google's choosing than ours and therefore may not be as successful in generating clicks.
The jury seems to be still out as to the percentages when comparing SERP vs Ad clicks, if only because the organic results can vary quite widely, being dependent as they are on the actual search phrase and, needless to say, the ongoing switcheroos in the search engine algos. Overall, though, I'm tempted to repeat my guess of six of one ...
I can't/won't say that all this also applies to Yahoo and MSN, but I'll be somewhat surprised if it doesn't.

Duncan

PS. If you get the impression that I'm a great believer in the value of PPC, you're rootin' tootin'. I know I'm fortunate enough to usually see my site turn up when people punch in keywords that can be largely expected/predicted, but the PPC idea allows me to extend my reach. Moreover, if and when I appear both organically and PPCwise on the same page -- and I'm glad to say that this happens quite often -- I cannot help thinking that it adds to my credibility as far as searchers ar concerned (as in "Hell, the guy's showing up wherever you look! He's gotta be worth a click to find out more.").