by Forrester Research recently published its Annual Report on how consumers find websites when they’re exploring new products and/or services.
Organic search remains the clear winner with 54% share, an increase of 4% year-over-year. Following is the summary of Forrester’s Study comparing 2011 –vs- 2012:
Method | 2012 | 2011 |
| Organic search (Google and Bing) | 54% | 50% |
| Social networking | 32% | 25% |
| Links from other websites | 28% | 31% |
| Email marketing | 26% | 15% |
| Email from friend or family | 25% | 26% |
| Newspaper or magazine | 18% | 19% |
| Paid search ads | 18% | 8% |
| Television | 15% | 14% |
| Recommendation from friend/family | 15% | 14% |
| Other | 16% | 18% |
The findings reinforce the importance of SEO and Social as the key pillars, however it is interesting to see how the generational differences are masked by the global numbers.
Generational Issues
Natural, organic search is the #1 method of finding a website across ALL the demographics of the survey sample (3,300 North American respondents).
The world trusts search engines, therefore earning and maintaining prominent rankings is a key indicator and influencer when consumers are looking for relevant considerations for products, services and information.
Nothing highlights this more than the following statistic – Google alone powers more than 100 Billion Searches each month!
Likewise, it’s clear that Social Media is becoming increasingly more utilized and trusted by the day. Further, social signals are also very important to how the Engines maintain relevancy and freshness in the Index. Although, the Study highlights for older consumers Social Media is only used by 18% of them, and 22% of boomers (57-67). But this increases sharply as we go down in age with 43% of Generation Y (24-32), and 50% of Generation Z (18-23) using Social Media every day to find new websites.
Accordingly, every site owner must know their target market demographics well in order to customize their marketing and invest appropriately in the right channels.
Here’s a great Infographic that MDG Advertising created that further breaks down the trends in online marketing today, and the growing influence that search and social have (separately) and (combined):
Takeaway
Organic Search is king – with 54% of consumers using Search to find websites for products and services – additionally, Search remains incredibly strong for lead generation & local.
Social Media is more likely to be used by younger consumers and is very strong for brand awareness & interactivity.
Together, an always-on Social and Search program will complement each other, and ensure that your business remains competitive. Let us know if you’d like us to evaluate how your social program is working together with your SEO initiatives: https://www.rankpay.com/contact
