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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK
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Cheap vs. Free
September 13, 2007
This week's Guardian Siteseeing column was inspired by Sandra's and Bill's recent posts on search value determinants. The main similarity between search behaviours in the UK and the other regions is the use of 'cheap' to search for travel and holiday products, although where Brits are looking for train tickets, Americans prefer car rentals. Cheap money in the form of insurance and loans is also popular.
The web continues to offer a range of free entertainments, and games and music top the list in the UK just as they do in the US. The pleasures of the flesh continue to temp bargain hunters, while there a still some optimists who believe that simply searching for ‘free’ will unearth something worthwhile.
Posted by Robin Goad at 08:15 AM
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In Categories Financial Services | Music | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Travel
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Links to weblogs that reference this entry:
- SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 13, 2007 (Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing)
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.... [Read More]
Comments
Im not sure if i agree with Ben with the word free been spammy ... I also sell mobile phones over the internet and did try the keyword FREE for quite a while which did well ... then i removed it for a month or so and now i am onto the word Cheap so we will see how this goes.
I must agree this is a really valid point that has been made.
Posted by Mobile Phones Man | February 21, 2008 02:34 PM
I completely agree with Ben. For me, cheap always converts more than Free as most people try to find the cheaper deals as they are of the opinion that Free comes with strings attached.
Posted by suresh | December 1, 2008 05:47 PM
I work in the gaming market, in specific with bingo, the word free is a great converter for some sites, for others not so much. I've seen it convert though
Posted by Lisa | May 28, 2009 06:29 PM
Worth noting perhaps that Google is seen to penalise "free" as being spammy, so sites do avoid using it.
We've been supplying free mobile phones online for over 12 years now but we still have to pick "cheap" over "free" as one of our main keyword targets for this very reason.
Posted by Ben | September 13, 2007 10:18 AM