Personal finance least searched industry online

An analysis of Hitwise search traffic data for the eight major online comparison industries in Australia showed that personal finance is the least searched industry, attracting fewer than three million monthly visits on average in the first five months of this year.

By comparison, real estate averaged almost 53 million online visits, making it the most popular industry.

This was followed by jobs, which saw Australians searching 15 times more than personal finance, while cars and gambling were searched seven times more.

Hotel and dating comparison websites were searched five times more than personal finance, while flights were searched four times more.

“These results are disappointing, especially when you consider the potential savings that Australians can make by using financial comparison websites,” finder.com.au spokesperson, Michelle Hutchison, said.

“For example, comparing home loans and switching to a better deal can save you tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, over your loan term.

“Buying a property is probably the biggest purchase in your lifetime, so it perplexes me that people are not making the effort to do more cost-savings research in this area online.”