Search Engine Trends and Usage in Australia

Social media sites are set to take over search engines as the most visited type of website in Australia according to the latest hitwise statistics.

Hitwise have released some interesting statistics for search engine trends and usage in Australia (see the detailed facts and figures on Hitwise Research Director Alan Long’s blog) and for anyone who isn’t up to date with current trends, this post will shed some new light on how to gear your SEM for the new year.

Social media sites are set to overtake traffic from search engines.

Search Engines (such as Google and Yahoo) attributing 12.8% of all sites visited, social media sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) closely follow with 11.8%. It is estimated that social media will soon overtake search engines as the most popular websites to visit – especially so over the Christmas break.

Facebook and MySpace must be licking their lips at the prospect of being the most visited sites in Australia and therefore an increased potential advertising revenue. Much like the television stations of traditional media, more people watching equals a larger audience for advertisers and therefore more advertising potential in terms of raw numbers and targeted demographic reach.

Another interesting fact to note is that Australians uses search engines more (12.8%) than the Brits (UK-12.6%), the kiwis (New Zealand 12.2%) and the yanks (U.S.-10%).

Google Dominates Search Engines-Bing the mover

Google- 87.1% ( – )
Bing- 4.7% ( + 0.6%)
Yahoo- 2.3% ( – )

The amount of advertising dollars spent on launching Bing and creating brand awareness has been apparently significant enough to warrant an increase in market share. However, it is not nearly as big as what the big coffers at Microsoft would have hoping for. It is expected that Bing will increase their market share slightly over the Christmas period and into the new year.

Users Love Brands

One of the largest changes in users’ search behaviors is the rapid increase in brand name and brand related searches. In 2006, brand related searches accounted for 8.75% and in 2009 it accounts for 14.22% of all searches. This is an important development for search marketers as it shows the benefit of using brand related keywords more so now than ever before.

Searchers More Refined Than Ever Before

Whether it has to do with demographics shifting, or users becoming better practiced in the art of searching, users are using more words to search than ever before. 1-2 word searches have decreased and 3-5 word searches have increased from their 2008 figures. When 3-5 Word Searches now account for 52.8% of all queries and it is becoming increasingly important that long tail keywords are a part of any AdWords campaign.