Earlier this week WebSideStory released a study that took a look at the conversion rates of the top four search engines (Google, AOL, MSN and Yahoo) for the month of January.

Interestingly, AOL emerged as having the best conversion rate among business-to-consumer sites, with Google coming in last.

Here’s a snip:

“For the month of January, AOL Search generated the best conversion rate at business-to consumer e-commerce sites (6.17 percent), followed by MSN (6.03 percent), Yahoo (4.07 percent) and Google (3.83 percent)…The study includes traffic from both organic and paid keywords.”

User demographics could explain a big part of this, says Ali Behnam, senior digital marketing consultant for WebSideStory:

“With portals rich in content and services, AOL, MSN and Yahoo may tend to appeal toward a more buyer friendly demographic. Google, meanwhile, may appeal to more browsers – those with less of an intent to buy.”

Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal has some very funny commentary, not the least of which is a statement which likens AOL and MSN to the “Bingo Moms” of search engines. Find out why here and then see more search/pop culture comparisons in this retro SearchViews post.

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