The latest search engine survey
conducted by iProspect shows that 60.5% of
Internet users identified natural search results
as most relevant to their query as compared to
the 39.5% who selected paid search
advertisements.
Across the top four search engines -- Google,
Yahoo!, MSN and AOL -- which hold over 90% of
the market share, more than 60% of users chose a
natural search result over a paid search
advertisement as most relevant to a sample
query.
"This illustrates that even though online
marketers focus the majority of their energy and
budget on paid search advertising, natural
search results are at least equally if not more
important to reaching their entire searching
audience," said Fredrick Marckini, CEO of
iProspect. "Marketers who are not investing in
natural search engine optimization and paid
inclusion programs such as Yahoo!’s Site Match
Xchange program are missing a large percentage
of potential traffic. However, the same is true
for the reverse; marketers who are only
investing in natural optimization and paid
inclusion miss nearly 40% of search engine
users. The clear finding here is that smart
marketers must invest in both," Marckini added.
Search engine marketing firms that offer both
natural search engine optimization and
management of paid search advertising campaigns
can ensure their clients' Web pages are
consistently found prominently in both types of
results in all major search engines, which will
lead to the most significant return on
investment.
During the survey, respondents were first
asked if they use one search engine more than
any other. Those who answered yes were asked
which search engine they use most often. Those
answering Google, Yahoo!, MSN or AOL were
provided with a sample search result screen from
their preferred search engine, displaying the
results of a search for "used cars" and were
asked to click on the result, on that page,
which they found to be most relevant had they
been in the market for a used car.
According to iProspect Director of Business
Analytics, Dr. Naga Krothapalli, "This
methodology ensured that these users were
allowed to select a search result from the
search engine with which they were most
familiar. It ensured the greatest degree of
accuracy by guaranteeing that a Yahoo! user was
not asked to select a search result from AOL
search results or a Google user was not asked to
select a search result from an MSN search. In
theory, each searcher who indicated a
‘preferred’ search engine, would be familiar
with the layout of the search results from their
engine of choice."
http://www.iprospect.com/media/newsletter_june_molina.htm
