Food is big business, maybe the biggest. I can't think of a more routinely asked question than "What should we eat?"
Thankfully we now have technology -- namely search -- to help us answer that question so we don't hurt our brains thinking too hard. Although we've probably all used the Internet to help us find a local restaurant or order a pizza, the vast majority of our eating is done inside the home and the food is procured the old fashioned way -- from a visit to your local grocery store.
Impulse decisions aside, grocery shoppers tend to be an informed (and often thrifty) bunch who turn to the Internet in increasing numbers to research and prep for their trip to the store. ComScore's latest search data sheds some light on how consumers and manufacturers are making the most of search with this ubiquitous consumer behavior.
Just how important is search to the food industry? In the fourth quarter of 2010, food related websites attracted nearly 400 million visits from U.S. internet users via search, a number that has grown 22 percent in the past year and shows no signs in slowing down as more opportunities to "play with your food" become available online.
Paid Search for "Recipes" is Huge