Although men do not make up the majority of the internet population, a new report from eMarketer finds that they do spend more time online and perform more search queries, which may cause some companies to rethink their search engine optimization (SEO).
The internet research company predicts that there are 95.9 million men online in the U.S. or about 48.2 percent of the total online audience. By 2013 that percentage is expected to drop slightly with an estimated 52.1 percent of the online population being dominated by women by that time.
For those conducting search engine optimization (SEO), gender may be one thing to consider with a search campaign, says Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report Men Online.
"Gender is just one factor that affects what people do online. It is does not dictate individual actions any more than age, race or ethnicity are absolute determinants," said Phillips. "Still, gender does play a very basic role in human life – and that is borne out even on the internet."
The report finds that men are "goal-oriented" when it comes to ecommerce and are unfazed by ads on sites.
This may be of special interest to retailers who are expected to increase search engine optimization efforts this year. According to a report last month from Internet Retailer, 55.3 percent of retailers plan on increasing their search engine optimization (SEO) this year.
