Almost half of all internet users now use search engines on a typical day

By Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project

The percentage of internet users who use search engines on a typical day has been steadily rising from about one-third of all users in 2002, to a new high of just under one half (49%).

With this increase, the number of those using a search engine on a typical day is pulling ever closer to the 60% of internet users who use email, arguably the internet’s all-time killer app, on a typical day (1). Underscoring the dramatic increase over time, the percentage of internet users who search on a typical day grew 69% from January 2002, when the Pew Internet & American Life Project first tracked this activity, to May 2008, when the current data were collected. During the same six-year time period, the use of email on a typical day rose from 52% to 60%, for a growth rate of just 15%.

These new figures propel search further out of the pack, well ahead of other popular internet activities, such as checking the news, which 39% of internet users do on a typical day, or checking the weather, which 30% do on a typical day.

$75,000+	66%
$50,000 - 74,999	56%
$30,000 - 49,999	32%
<$30,000	36%

Broadband use: Those who use broadband connections at home are significantly more likely than those who use dial-up to have ever tried using search engines at all, by 94% to 80%. They are dramatically more likely to search on a typical day, and this difference persists when other factors, such as age and education, are held constant. These are the percentages according to type of internet connections for those who search on a typical day:

Age: Younger internet users have been consistently more likely to search on a typical day over the last five years of survey research. Here are the percentages of searchers in different age groups who search on a typical day:

Gender: While just about equal numbers of men (91%) and women (88%) report having ever used search engines at all, men are significantly more likely than women to search on a typical day.

Data collected since 2002 show that men who use the internet have consistently been more likely than women to integrate search into their daily lives. The percentage of online men who search on a typical day has risen steadily from 33% in 2002 to 53% currently. The percentage of women has also risen, increasing from 25% in 2002 to 45%.

Data from past surveys also suggest that men have been more engaged with search in general (3). Online men say they have searched more frequently; they have expressed greater confidence in their search abilities (although women have reported being equally successful in getting satisfying search results). Men have also been more aware than women of some of the controversial issues surrounding search, e.g., the existence of paid v. unpaid search results, and the differences between the two.

WHY ARE MORE INTERNET USERS NOW INTEGRATING SEARCH INTO THEIR ONLINE ACTIVITY?

While the number of internet users who search on a typical day has been steadily rising, this is the second time since the Pew Internet Project began tracking search engine use that we have seen a demonstrable leap in the numbers. The first came in late 2005, when percentage of users searching on a typical day rose from about 30% (in June 2004) to about 40% (in September 2005). We speculated at that time about a few possible reasons behind the increase, pointing out that it was a time of much media coverage and buzz about search engine companies, including the Google IPO (4). Now, the percentage of users searching on a typical day has risen again, from about 40% to 49%. What has changed in the search world that might account for this increase?

One likely reason is that users can now expect to find a high-performing, site-specific search engine on just about every content-rich website that is worth its salt. With a growing mass of web content from blogs, news sites, image and video archives, personal websites, and more, internet users have an option to turn not only to the major search engines, but also to search engines on individual sites, as vehicles to reach the information they are looking for.

Another reason may be related to the fact that fully 55% of American homes have a highspeed internet connection (5). Of all the demographic variables we analyzed, the presence of a home broadband connection had the strongest relationship with a user’s propensity to use a search engine on a typical day. Previous studies have shown that when a user upgrades to home broadband, she is more likely to turn to the internet first when she has a question – and now she is increasingly likely to visit a search engine to find the answer.

Finally, it may be that general search engine sites have become so useful and well tuned that people turn to them for an increasingly broad range of questions.

About the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project explores the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The Pew Research Center is a nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The Center and its projects are nonpartisan and take no position on policy issues. Support is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Visit them at http://www.pewinternet.org

1. The most recent numbers for those who use email on a typical day comes from a PIP survey conducted December 2007.

2. Twenty percent of respondents refused to answer or answered “don’t know” to the income question.

3. “Search Engine Users: Internet searchers are confident, satisfied and trusting – but they are also unaware and naïve” ” (Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 2005) Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/146/report_display.asp

4. “Search engine use shoots up in the past year” (Pew Internet & American Life Project, November 2005) Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/167/report_display.asp.

5. “Home Broadband 2008” ” (Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 2, 2008) Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/257/report_display.asp

Three ways to build a meta tag page and how other publishers are using them

A meta tag page is a page that lists all the content a site has about a particular tag or keyword. The difference between a tag page and a topic page, is that a tag page doesn’t necessarily get elevated to the navigation level.

The literal translation of a meta tag page is "a page about other pages".

As a quick example, here is a meta tag page for George Clooney on People.com. Whenever there is an article with his name in it, the article gets added to this page. And whenever you see his name on the website, it links to this page. This is the portal for all things George Clooney on People.com: articles, photos, quizzes, biography, news, magazine covers he’s been on, etc. The only way this page could get more dedicated is if the advertisement for People Magazine had his face on it.

Now that you understand what a meta tag page is, you should know that there are three ways to create one, and various ways to use them:

Meta Tag Page By Hand: In this most undesirable instance, you create the meta tag page from scratch. You choose a tag or keyword, and then you manually add related articles and products to the page. You also manually add links to articles that will point to this page.

In the instance of George Clooney, you’d be manually linking his name to this page in every article, and you’d be manually adding the new articles to this page; nothing is auto-generated for you.

Meta Tag Page with Manual Tagging: In this instance, your content management system has "tagging" built in (such as Wordpress). When you write an article, you can assign tags to the article, which will show up on the article page and link to an auto-generated meta tag page. You might still manually link terms within in the article to this automatically-generated page.

In the instance of George Clooney, you’d be adding the tag "George Clooney" to the article that would link to a page set up to automatically list content that uses the tag "George Clooney".

Meta Tag Page with Automatic Tagging: In this instance, you have given your content management system a list of terms that it should automatically create meta tag pages for. Also, any time you use the term in an article, it will automatically link to its respected meta tag page.

In the instance of George Clooney, whenever People.com would publish an article using his name, a link would automatically be created within the article content during publishing and would point to the George Clooney meta tag page. If a new celebrity popped up, you could add her name to the list, and a meta tag page would be created the first time you used her name.

Different types of meta tag pages

HuffingtonPost.com uses the Manual Tagging method we mentioned above.

Selective meta tag pages: HuffingtonPost.com calls their meta tag pages "Big News Pages - Some News is so Big It Needs its Own Page". If you look at the "big news page" for Sarah Palin, you'll find pictures, blogs, news articles, polls, Twitter tweets that use the term "Sarah Palin", stories from popular bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious and Google BlogSearch, comments, etc.

They only list robust, dedicated pages in their "big news pages", but they also use additional tags for less popular terms that link to auto-generated tag pages such as the term "republican nomination". At the beginning of every article, there is a list of "tags" that link to their respective meta tag pages.

fuelNet.com uses the Automated Tagging method we listed above. They use not one, but two versions of the meta tag page.

Classic meta tag pages: This page includes snippets of articles, like the one they have for "corporate identity".

Glossary meta tag pages: This page includes a glossary definition provided by the site's editors, then is followed up by related posts. "Brand building" is an example of their glossary meta tag page.

Here are the elements a meta tag page should include (at a minimum):

• Definition (if a term)
• Bio (if a person)
• Any articles or posts using the tag
• Any videos, podcasts, or other media using the tag
• Related product/sponsor ads
• Photo gallery (if relevant)
• Most popular stories (if content is evergreen)
• Most recent stories (if content is news-based)

Why are meta tag pages important?

Meta tag pages are incredibly valuable to your website in terms of driving traffic. Due to the enormous amount of content on a meta tag page, and the inbound links it can gather, these pages are likely to rank extremely high. This means that relevant ads and conversion architecture should be your number #1 priority for meta tag pages (next to content of course).

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Looking to improve or build a newsletter website? Learn these 8 best practices for building profitable newsletter website templates.

A newsletter website is set up to build subscriptions for a print or digital newsletter. The newsletter website offers access to back issues in either HTML or PDF form. The site also sells subscriptions to the newsletter like a retail site.

The Motley Fool’s six print newsletters, for example, all have related subscriber-access-only newsletter websites. They are companion retail subscription websites, where newsletter subscribers can download PDF versions and non-subscribers can purchase a newsletter subscription.

Newsletter websites are commerce-based with an overall objective of increasing product sales and providing customer service to existing subscribers. A newsletter website includes, for example, a customer-service functionality to manage the ongoing relationship with the subscriber; it might also allow the subscriber to download back issues, perhaps for an additional price. Most importantly, the organization of information on a newsletter website is by issue date, not topic of interest.

Here are eight steps to creating a newsletter website template:

Offer a print and PDF package: While subscribers enjoy instant-access to a digital newsletter, they also appreciate a print counterpart more than you might think (and vice-versa). From our experience, in an orderflow that offers a package upsell including both the print and digital version, 80% or more will choose the package.

Include testimonials: People love to help, so when someone emails you and tells you that they love your newsletter, ask them if you can use their testimonial. Alternatively, you can send out a survey asking people to write testimonials that will be used on the website. Make sure to include first and last name as well as location or business (depending on whether you are B2B or B2C).

Offer a trial issue: Offer a trial period of one to three months where they will receive your newsletter at no cost. Collect their credit card so that when the trial is over, and they haven’t cancelled prior, they become a full-fledged subscriber. This may come with a few people who will want to cancel late, once the bill has come in, but you’ll graciously refund them. Trial issues are the key to building a large database because there is low-risk to the subscriber and as long as you are selling a quality product, it’s also low-risk to you.

Offer premiums: If you have an archive of freemiums, offer them along with the subscription package as premiums. Offering them “six special reports” with their order sweetens the deal and adds value to the package. If you are offering a trial issue, hold the premiums until they have confirmed that they want to continue receiving your newsletter and their credit card has been charged.

Feature key points with corresponding issue numbers: In the section of your salesletter where you reveal what the subscriber will learn in your newsletter, include the issue information when you answer a question. For instance, if you were a gardening newsletter, you could say “Why you must wait until the soil is dry before re-watering your orange trees. Vol. 6, Page 8”. This increases interest in your archives while giving subscribers a sample of the information your newsletter is built upon.

Show cover shots: In your archive, showing the cover of every issue will increase the ability to scan when someone is looking for a specific newsletter that they may have lost or accidentally deleted.

Allow subscribers to sort by date and keywords: Be forewarned, in our experience we’ve seen newsletter websites have very low usage rates. Meaning, that once a person gets your newsletter, they don’t come back to view past archives very often. If your content is evergreen, they will visit more often than if the content is newsy. However, when subscribers do come back to your archive, you should make it easy for them to find what it is they’re looking for.

Assign tags to every newsletter: This will make it easier for subscribers to find specific issues, unless you have a PDF search built into your newsletter website. Use names, topics, and other identifiable keywords from every article.

Now that you know what to do, take a look at three examples of what we would consider best-practice newsletter websites:

• Golf Odyssey
• First Class Flyer
• fuelNet Monthly

Is it still worth the time and effort to get into Google News?

The important thing to know is that not everyone can get into Google News. At a minimum, a site looking for inclusion in Google News needs to...

• Contain original content
• Involve multiple authors
• Use proper attribution
• Have top-notch response times

Original content and proper attribution are the easiest of these to take care of. Unfortunately, as you have seen with your weightlifting blog, the second point is where most potential sites run into problems. If your site is a one-person operation it's very unlikely to be listed in Google News.

A minimum of three authors and an editor or two is generally required to get listed. Consider creating a few more author profiles and display them prominently on your blog. Google has even said that great, original content from a single talented writer isn't enough to get a site in; forging relationships with other writers or adding more guest commentary to a site will help improve long-term chances of inclusion.

The final point above deals with the potential server response time. Google's news bots are looking for pages they can index swiftly and load quickly for readers. If you have a custom management system, make sure to review it frequently to ensure the added code doesn't bloat or slow down the serving of your content. Also ensure that your systems are able to handle the increased traffic results from inclusion in Google News.

Finally, it's important to note that potential sites for inclusion in Google News are human-reviewed. If you want to get in, you need to make a good impression on the individual reviewing your site. When submitting a potential site to Google News through this link make your case with the following:

• Tell them about your editors and authors
• Show them any awards your site has won
• Provide a historical overview of your site
• Highlight the stats of your site
• List your high-value backlinks
• Emphasize the newsworthy aspects of your site
• State in detail that you satisfy all technical requirements

So, what does being included in Google News mean for you? Increased traffic, tons of high visibility exposure, a wider audience for your news and services and the potential for higher ad sales, are all among a few of the benefits. Again, not every site can get into Google News; but with some attention to the recommendations laid out above, you can greatly increase your chances of success.

If you have everything in place, go ahead and get listed in Google News.

This article was written by SearchEngineNews.com, authors of The UnFair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars, an SEO book updated monthly.

How Mono Topic, Multi Topic and Promo email newsletter templates are used in online publishing

The most effective email newsletters are also semi-promotional. Effective publishers have dedicated templates for each email newsletter they send.

On average, 68% of product sales start with an email newsletter. If you are a medical publisher sending an email newsletter about “heart health”, your featured product should be a report about “how to avoid a heart attack”, or the like. The same goes for ad-driven publishers; the content in your email newsletter must match the sponsor or sponsored links in order to get the best click-through or conversion rate.

Here are three email newsletter templates:

Mono Topic Email Newsletter Template – In this type of email newsletter template, there is only one article as opposed to several. This email newsletter (in addition to providing valuable content) has the functional goal of driving subscribers to a salesletter landing page.

This isn’t to say that Mono Tip emails are only for product-driven publishing companies. Many ad-driven publishers have dedicated sponsors for their Mono Topic emails, and some have a mix of sponsored ads and product ads.

Mono Tip email newsletter templates are best used when your blog update schedule matches your email delivery schedule.

A Few Mono Topic Best Practices:

• Users love alignment. Don’t try to increase open rates by using a subject line that is more creative than the article title. Make sure that the title of your email matches the title of the article to avoid confusion.

• Keep them in one place. Users prefer full content rather than clicking out to a website to finish the article. When they eventually click, the goal should be to get them to your salesletter landing page or sponsor. If you have graphics, it makes sense to point your users back to the blog, but you should include the full text of the article in the email with a link to view examples and graphics.

• Make ads relevant. No matter whether you are product or ad-driven, keep your product or sponsor limited to the same topic. If you are writing an article on knitting, promote a book on knitting not beading. If you are writing an article on cars that get the best MPG, use a sponsor like Toyota with a Prius ad, not a Hummer ad.

• Promote one thing, not several. When you’re ad-driven, this can be tricky because you have many sponsors. Try having one sponsor per topic email and offering them ad spots at the top, side and bottom of the email. This cleans up your emails for our users and makes your sponsor happy too.
  
  

Multi Topic Email Newsletter Template – In this type of email newsletter template, there are several stories in one email newsletter. The email delivery schedule could be once a week as a “week in review” or it could be a wrap-up of current news stories on a daily basis. In any case, the email newsletter usually does not feature the full article but instead links back to the website.

Multi Topic Tips are frequently used on ad-driven websites where the primary purpose is not to sell a product in the email newsletter, but to drive traffic back to the website and increase page views.

Computerworld offers more than 50 free Multi Topic Tip email newsletters. There is something for everyone actively involved with information systems. According to Pat McGovern, founder of IDG, email newsletters are used extensively abroad. In all countries, emails are an effective driver of traffic to the main website. "People see the issue and want to go back to the site to get more details on the story," Mr. McGovern told us.

A Few Multi Topic Best Practices:

• Include sponsored content. If you have sponsored job listings, forums or other parts of your website, include them in your email newsletter in your side navigation. This will increase sponsored clicks and interest in the rest of the content on your website.

• Segment by interest. If you have dozens of categories and publish new articles frequently, split your email newsletters by topic. This will increase advertiser and subscriber interest by only showcasing relevant information and ads.

• See what you can fit. If your articles are short, try including the whole article in your email. FDANews does a great job of this in their Daily Drug Bulletin, which features about 3-5 articles that are about 140 words long.

Promo Email Template - This is the email sent out to promote a single product. In the case of ad-driven websites, you might send out a “sponsored product ” email, but in any case, this email is sent to generate revenue, while providing your users a valuable service.

What do we mean by providing a valuable service? In the words of Jay Schleifer, Managing Editor of HR Daily Advisor, "When you read a movie review in a newspaper or a product review in Popular Mechanics, you're reading an advertisement. But the audience doesn't see it as that; they see it as you doing them a service to help make up their mind on what electronic device they should buy. If you can write it up in a way that makes them feel like you're doing them a service, they won't see it as advertising."

A Few Promo Best Practices:

• Promote only one product. By trying to get more bang for your buck, you might confuse your readers and you will certainly distract them from focusing on one thing.

• Go text-based. Unless your promotion truly requires graphics, text-based promotional emails still work best. If it does require graphics, make sure to include alt-tags, which include a description of the graphic for any email clients that have images disabled.

• Keep it personal. If you’re promoting someone else’s product or are sending out a sponsored promotion, keep the promotion design and signature from you. Users are more likely to follow through on a promotion that they feel is being suggested by a company they trust—you.

• Don’t tell them to “click here”. Action-based links such as “order now” or “register today” have a much higher conversion rate.

• Keep it short. Your subject line should be short and specific. Lengthy and imaginative subject lines don’t work as effectively now as they used to. Subject lines like “Save $50.00 – Merry Christmas” perform better than “Save $50.00 on Christmas Stockings This Week”.

How are you delivering your content? Are providing your users an email newsletter as a service while still driving traffic and increasing RPM? Join us at the Mequoda Summit Boston 2008 in October to learn more about how to build profitable email newsletter templates. Learn more...