Users Type Domain Names Straight into Google
Anybody who spends any time with web analytics knows this fact, but I thought I’d highlight a real world example. Three years ago I wrote about a sort of money-tracking website (I’m reluctant to name it here, for fear of Heisenberging the search results further). I’m referring here to the Canadian site–not the American one shown above.
Three years later, there are 181 comments on that post, mostly from people providing the details–their location, the bill’s serial number–of a particular bill. Lately the reports have been coming in at a rate of nearly one per day.
Why’s that? Because if you search for the money tracking website, my blog post is the first result. It’s kind of weird, like the website doesn’t really exist in Google at all.
Clearly the folks visiting my site aren’t entering the URL on their money into the address bar–they’re searching in Google. It seems peculiar to web veterans, but it’s really not. They’re trying to find something, after all. And where do you go to find something? A search engine. They just don’t seem to conceive that the www address means that they’ve already found it.
Hmm…today’s posts have been particularly navel-gazing. I’ll do better tomorrow.
asia travis