Search engines are the most popular websites in Canada, according to a recent report released by Hitwise, accounting for 15% of all Canadian Internet visits.
Google is by far the most popular search engine, dominating the Canadian search landscape at a comfortable market share of 80%, with Microsoft’s MSN/Bing in a second position at 9% of total searches and Yahoo third with 8%. Compare with their search market share in US.
Data source: Experian Hitwise
Note: Data is based on 12-week rolling periods (ending Oct. 3, 2009, and Aug. 29, 2009) from the Experian Hitwise sample of 100,000 Canadian Internet users. The percentages for the search properties include the .ca and .com domains.
Search engines are also the largest referrer of traffic to Canadian websites. Hitwise highlights Travel websites as being particularly reliant on search engines for visits. In June 2009, search engines were responsible for 48% of upstream visits to Travel websites and 53% of visits to the Travel subcategory, Destinations and Accommodations.
The report from Hitwise further identifies that 70% of Canadian searches find the desired information after their first query, while the remaining 30% aren’t satisfied with the results and continue refining their search.
Google regards second queries as their own failure to provide relevant results at the first search. However, it may also be a case of searchers using terms that prove to be too generic. In this regard, Hitwise points out that within most categories, Canadian searchers use one or two words to find information, but when searching the Travel industry they tend to be slightly longer.
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Mike Lascut is Principal of Single Entry Point® Marketing, focusing on the search, email and analytics practice and leading the development of the 
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