Survey reveals search habits of new and expectant parents

New and expectant parents have a lot of questions. Many now turn to the Internet for look for help and advice. A new survey from Google Think Insights reveals that new and expectant parents conduct twice as many searches online than non-parents.

by Helen Leggatt

From conception to the toddler stage, parents are heading online to help them with the challenges of bringing up a child. While across three identified stages - pregnancy, newborn and toddler - health is the top concern and top search, there are distinct changes in search terms during each stage.

During pregnancy parents are searching for health and safety information, but also already concerning themselves with school and college. Once the baby has arrived, more practical searches are conducted such as feeding, diapers and shopping. Come toddler stage the searches continue to focus on health but return to future concerns of education.

Another finding is that more than half (56%) of those expectant or new parents are searching Google via a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Likewise, the younger the parents the more likely they are to search online than their older counterparts.

"Our survey showed that youth plus parenthood is a digital double whammy: Young parents (ages 18-34) search 54% more than older parents," says Google in a blog post. "Young mothers use smartphones as their primary device most often (more than fathers and older moms). But millennial dads actually did the most searches overall, so don't discount them as consumers."

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: Google, parents, pregnancy, search