Facebook tops Google searches 2009

Web hosting users will most likely be interested to learn what came top for Google searches this year. Well, Facebook was at number one, followed by BBC, then YouTube and Hotmail in fourth.

The search term "games" was in fifth, followed by eBay, "news", Google, Yahoo and Bebo. On Google News, the fastest rising search was "swine flu", with Susan Boyle and Jade Goody in second and third.

Generally, Brits were interested in swine flu, celebrities and bargains in 2009, according to Google.

Sam Tilston, online marketing director at internet mail order company Zoombits.co.uk, commented: "The reason a lot of top searches are for specific sites or brands is because web users are becoming more lazy and just type the destination website into Google or their web address bar, rather than entering www. and .com."

Because of this, Mr Tilston explained, it is now becoming more important for organisations to implement pay-per-click campaigns on their own brands and website names.

He asserted that "heavy hierarchical" websites are not user friendly and therefore are not being used as much. As "a general rule of thumb", whatever the user is looking for, it should be accessible within two clicks of the homepage, Mr Tilston commented. He claimed this is the case for all "great sites" like the BBC or Wikipedia.

Even if a user of a company’s website is not its target audience for product, he continued, it will still be positive if they have had a good experience navigating the site.

Companies can also make use of news stories to include relevant content on their websites which features references to topical and popular search terms, Mr Tilston continued. Not only will this make sure that the site is up-to-date, but will also mean it has content related to the high volume search terms, in turn delivering more traffic, he added.

Written by Mick Woods.