Human Behavior in Search Results – plural vs. singular matters
I spend a lot of time learning how people search for things on the Internet. Sometimes you can be very surprised at what you think is the obvious answer and what isn’t.
Q. How do people search for oil painting or oil paintings?
Results 1 – 10 of about 12,200,000 for oil painting
Results 1 – 10 of about 5,930,000 for oil paintings.
A. People search for a single painting since they want to solve one problem
Q. How do people search for shoe or shoes?
Results 1 – 10 of about 136,000,000 for shoe
Results 1 – 10 of about 389,000,000 for shoes
A. People search for a shoes because they want many choices
Q. How do people search for car or cars?
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,420,000,000 for car
Results 1 – 10 of about 856,000,000 for cars
A. People search for a car because they want just one
Q. How do people search for dvd or dvds?
Results 1 – 10 of about 2,110,000,000 for dvd
Results 1 – 10 of about 311,000,000 for dvds
A. People search for a dvd because they want just one
In summary, most people are singular in nature and go to Google to solve an individual problem or inquiry. However, unless you check you may be buying ads in the wrong place!
About the Author: Michael Vorel is CEO and founder of Vastplanet Corporation, specializing in e-Commerce Web Development, Internet Marketing and Management Consulting for top brands since 1998. He has expertise in affiliate marketing and affiliate management, Yahoo Store e-commerce web design, social media, video, ppc, seo, sem, email marketing and competitive analysis. Based in Tampa, Florida, he is a member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board, Authorized Yahoo Store Developer and recently helped with the formation of the Performance Marketing Association. He enjoys a coffee, wine, gadgets and enjoying life. You can find him on Twitter at @michaelvorel, @vastplanet and @projectgadget
Luke | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Hi Michael,
I think this is a great post on an interesting topic.
A few comments – firstly, rather than using the number of search results as an indication of how much traffic a term is getting, you can get a much more accurate estimation using the Google Keyword Tool, or other similar tools.
Also, I did a bit of research on this and I found something really interesting. I found that in the case of "car" vs "cars", in America, people are searching for the singular, whereas in the UK and in Australia, people are searching for the plural. I've posted the full findings here: http://www.lukevdp.com/2009/04/18/human-behaviour...
Anyways – great post.
Michael Vorel | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Thank you Luke, I wonder if the use of a car in the UK and Australia would be different than in the US based on your findings. Each market is unique so agree with you on the use of the latest tools to evaluate before acting. I have many more tools since writing the post and evaluate terms across 5 search references for volume and plurality and have noticed significant difference in conversions.