The Foolproof 2007 Online Shopping Survey found that most of the sites popping up when consumers conducted searches were largely those of brokers and their affiliates.
The vast majority of mortgage shoppers prefer to use the internet to get information, and even though just under half were planning to applying online for their next mortgage, only 1 in 10 have actually managed to do so.
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Online shoppers spend an average of half an hour shopping for mortgages and prefer to use both comparison sites and direct lenders sites, with around a quarter expecting to go to a broker or an affiliate site to do so.
In reality though, 60 per cent end up on a broker site and 53 per cent on an affiliate one because they feature so prominently on search engine listings meaning that consumers are getting increasingly frustrated.
Foolproofs managing partner, Tom Wood, comments: Online shoppers first port of call is usually a search engine which provides listings that are largely irrelevant and inappropriate. Shoppers are looking for well known brands but search engines are doing a good job of hiding them.
Whilst part of this problem lies with the lenders in not investing enough in search engine optimisation and pay-per-click conversions, the search engines have a responsibility to weed out those sites that are bidding on mortgage terms which clearly do not help the consumer.
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