What Research Indicates
You can increase the results from your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaign by writing concise, relevant titles and descriptions.
A study was conducted to find out what makes search listings effective. The following listings were shown to potential customers and asked how likely they were to click on each.
| Titles and descriptions | |
| Listing A | Sail On Over to Zephyr SeaCraft Zephyr SeaCraft will give you a ship-shape price on the finest sailboats ever to sail the seven seas! Click here today, and we’ll prove that working with Zephyr SeaCraft is a breeze. |
| Listing B | Sailboats from Zephyr SeaCraft Zephyr SeaCraft is the premier seller of the finest sailboats on the market. Click now to see our fine selection of vessels. |
| Listing C | Sailboats—Zephyr SeaCraft Zephyr SeaCraft sells sailboats to private and professional buyers. A variety of small, medium and large models are available in various price ranges. |
| Likelihood to click | Findings |
| Low—37% | Listing A scored low because it sounds “salesy” and less credible; it doesn’t give customers enough information to decide whether the site contains what they’re looking for. |
| Medium/High—52% | Listing B outperformed Listing A, but isn’t as effective as it could be. It uses a number of superlatives, such as “finest” and “premier,” and offers only general information. |
| High—56% | Listing C scored the highest. It has the least amount of “salesy” language, it doesn’t use superlatives and it provides several concrete details. These are the qualities that appeal most to customers. |
The potential customers were then asked to rate the quality of the business based on the search listing. In other words, how much would they trust the business, and how likely would they be to make a purchase? Once again, Listing C performed the best.
| Perceived quality/ Likelihood to buy | Findings |
| Low—32% | Listing A scored very low on quality. Most customers did not find this business trustworthy, and therefore were not likely to make a purchase. |
| Medium—43% | Although Listing B scored almost as high as Listing C in customers’ likelihood to click, it scored much lower on quality. Customers found it less trustworthy, which means that while Listing B might encourage clicks, it does not encourage conversions. |
| High—58% | Listing C received the highest score for quality. Customers found this listing to be the most trustworthy, and were more likely to purchase from this site. |
Establishing trust is a key to conversion. The more trust customers have in your business, the more likely they are to purchase. Research shows that trust is one of the most significant factors for customers when choosing an online business.