WebProWorld
Okay, no boob jokes. And we’re not going to talk about a certain American Idol hopeful that overstayed her welcome just because a bunch of randy teenagers kept voting for her after naughty (and weird) pics surfaced on the Web. Absolutely not. We are, however going to talk about Kellie Pickler’s blue dress – and what was in it.
Why are we talking about Kellie Pickler? Because Friday’s afternoons are for funny, fluffy softball search stories.
The background:
We’ve talked about why searchers click on your site search results, but what about when they don’t? Because sometimes they won’t. If you know why searchers fail to click on
We’ve explored what catches searchers’ eyes on the search results page. The next step is the click.
What makes searchers click a particular result?
What are searchers thinking when they stare down a list of search results? Actually, the first thing to keep in mind is that searchers don’t stare at search results. They don’t even read them. They scan them. They quickly skim the page hunting for the word they typed into the search box, along with a few other words they’re thinking but didn’t bother typing.
Remember all that caterwauling outside of MacWorld a couple of weeks ago? The ecstatic throngs seizing up and falling to the floor upon sight of the iPhone, bringing back memories of Michael Jackson tours in the Eighties where girls would cry themselves into comas? Yeah, well, if searches for the term “iPhone” are any indication, expect that mass market hysteria to continue.
Hitwise has done an interesting analysis of searches related to iPod and Microsoft’s three-week old competitor Zune. In just under a month, Microsoft has peaked curiosity, but buyers seem reluctant to buy.
Can there be an online placebo effect, or is the health information online just really that good? That could be investigated, but it seems the average online health information seeker wouldn’t go so far as to find out.
When writing so people can find you better on search engines, keep it simple. Use short words, not complicated ones. Precise words are even better. But most importantly, use words people know.
Research performed at Queensland University of Australia in Brisbane, Australia, dumped a cold shower on the long-held perception that people do more searching for sex than they do for business or e-commerce ideas.
Sites in the Hitwise search engines category receive 4.7 percent of their traffic from MySpace, and that could indicate potential futures for social networking sites.
