How do you compare search engine user behavior across platforms?

1 What are the metrics to compare?

To compare search engine user behavior across platforms, the first step is to define the metrics you want to measure. Common metrics that can help you understand user behavior include click-through rate (CTR), bounce rate, dwell time, conversion rate, and return rate. CTR is the percentage of users who click on your website from the search results; bounce rate is the percentage of users who leave your website after viewing only one page; dwell time is the average time users spend on your website after clicking from the search results; conversion rate is the percentage of users who complete a desired action on your website, such as signing up, buying, or subscribing; and return rate is the percentage of users who come back to your website after leaving. These metrics can provide insight into how well your website meets user intent, how engaging and relevant your content is, and how effective your website is at achieving goals.

2 How to collect the data?

In order to compare search engine user behavior across platforms, the next step is to collect data from reliable sources. Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yandex Webmaster Tools are search engine tools that can provide insights into website CTR, impressions, rankings, and errors on each search engine. Analytics tools such as Google Analytics can be used to monitor and compare website bounce rate, dwell time, conversion rate, and return rate across different search engines. Additionally, user behavior tools such as Hotjar can be used to visualize and understand how users interact with a website on different search engines. Heatmaps, recordings, and surveys are features that can be used to observe where users click, scroll, and leave feedback on each platform.

3 How to analyze the data?

To compare search engine user behavior across platforms, it is necessary to analyze the data and draw meaningful conclusions. Benchmarking can be used to compare your website's metrics with industry averages or competitors' metrics, using tools such as SEMrush, Moz, or Ahrefs. Additionally, you can track trends by comparing your website's metrics over time with tools such as Google Data Studio, Tableau, or Excel. Finally, testing can be done by comparing your website's metrics before and after making changes to see their effect on each search engine. This is done using tools like Google Optimize, Optimizely, or VWO. By understanding how users behave on each platform, you can gain valuable insights into your website's strengths and weaknesses and optimize accordingly.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?