Who Uses Search Engines to Find Your Business Website?

By Jan Zimmerman from Web Marketing For Dummies, 3rd Edition

The majority of users will find your business website the first time through a search engine. But who are these people? Several studies offer the following interesting insights into the population of search engine users:

The higher a user’s educational level, the more likely he or she is to access a search engine.
The higher a user’s household income, the more likely the user is to access a search engine.
The younger the user, the more likely he or she is to use a search engine.
A user who has a high-speed connection at home is far more likely to use a search engine than a user with a dialup connection.
Rather than try to compete in all sectors, Bing focuses on specific market segment populations, such as people interested in shopping, travel, and sports.
Yahoo! and Bing attract slightly older users than Google. Yahoo! attracts a higher percentage of female users.

The following table compares the demographics of U.S. users of Google, Bing, and Yahoo! search.

Demographic Comparison of U.S. Users for Google, Bing, and Yahoo! from March 2011 Estimate
Demographic	% Google Users	% Bing Users	% Yahoo! Users
Gender
Male	50	50	48
Female	50	50	52
Age
3 to 12	5	4	4
13 to 17	15	14	10
18 to 34	36	37	37
35 to 49	26	26	29
Over 50	18	19	21
Ethnicity
African American	9	13	11
Asian	5	5	6
Caucasian	74	68	71
Hispanic	10	12	10
Other	1	1	1
Income
$0 to $30,000	15	15	17
$30,000 to $60,000	24	24	25
$60,000 to $100,000	29	29	28
More than $100,000	32	32	30
Education
No college	44	51	45
College	40	35	40
Graduate school	16	14	15