Amazon passes Currys and Argos in Google consumer electronics search race

Amazon now beats Currys and Argos when UK consumers search on Google for consumer electronics topics, according to research by Searchmetrics.

For mobile phone related searches specifically, carphonewarehouse.com is the most visible on page one, with nearly double the market share of second placed buymobiles.net.

But consumer tech retailers are not doing enough to attract informational searches: 49% of searches are from people looking for information, yet retail sites in the research are estimated to attract only 20% of their traffic from these.

YouTube.com is the second most visible site overall for consumer electronics. And 99.5% of the search traffic to YouTube for consumer electronics searches is informational, meaning Google’s algorithm recognises that those looking for information on products and for post-purchase help are often best served through video content.

“Attracting informational traffic to your e-commerce-focused site is a strong way to create brand awareness at the top of the ‘sales funnel’, that will then translate into conversions down the line,” says Stephen Bench-Capon, Senior Content Marketing Manager, Searchmetrics.

“This means that retailers’ content marketing strategies should include creating informative blogs and articles that address people’s questions such as ‘how to connect a computer to a tv wirelessly’ or ‘how to set up a projector’. Running a YouTube channel that answers these types of questions in an understandable, straightforward way, is also very powerful.”