Understanding Searchers: Will They Find You?

"Search is the hottest topic in marketing. Period," states the website for the upcoming The first part of the study showed that search patterns are complex and circular. People search in a wide variety of ways, with gender, age, education and Internet experience all playing roles in search behavior. These results are very similar to an The second part of Enquiro's study revealed four types of searchers: scanners and clickers, who usually make choices by scanning and clicking only the top few listings (sound like anyone you know?); 2 step scanners, who scan the top results to see if anything pops out and if not, they scan the rest of the organic results and read the descriptions; deliberate researchers, who are more thorough, reading titles and descriptions carefully and sometimes continuing to the second results page; and 1, 2, 3 searchers, who read listings in order from first to last, focusing on organic results and reading carefully before making a decision.

Patterns differed between researchers and buyers. "Users are much more likely to use a search engine during the research phase of the

Convincing Searchers to Choose Your Website

- Start with design.
While the results of these studies are interesting, Hotchkiss is quick to point out that studies should not be taken as fact. "We fully intend this to be a first step," he says in regards to Enquiro's study, hoping more will follow.

"Knowledge is power, but understanding is the root of knowledge. And that's a commodity that's in short supply in the search game." Brittany Thompson is an administrator for