2011 has barely begun, but anyone involved in search engine marketing is already planning for the year ahead.
If you are considering search engine optimisation for your company or your website, here are 10 top statistics and indicators to bear in mind.
The value of Google results positioning
If you’ve ever wondered what the value of obtaining the top slot on Google search is worth, then here’s the answer. The Chitika Network has estimated that earning that coveted top spot is worth a hefty 34.35%: that equates to double the traffic guaranteed for second spot and almost as much as the combined total traffic generated for numbers 2 to 5. Getting that top slot is a real money-maker.
Google search share
According to Comscore, Google accounted for 66.2% of all organic searches undertaken in North America in figures released in November 2010.
Search – the competition
Although Yahoo and Bing are lagging behind the market leader, there combined search share still accounted for 28.2% of all organic searches for the same period. So that’s still a sizeable chunk of the market.
PPC as a sales gateway
According to figures released by the Direct Marketing Association, the average cost of pay per click advertising was $3.89 in June 2010 with a conversion rate of 3.81%.
The use of organic search for research
According to figures released by the E-Tailing Group, 57% of all respondents started their research on any given product by initially utilising a search query.
The increasing role of earned Media
According to a King Fish Media study released in June 2010, nearly 75% of US companies with a social media strategy utilised earned media in their campaigns. Adding content intended to attract consumers is now by far the most popular strategy used in the US.
The growth of mobile search
Figures indicate that the rate of mobile search clicks could exceed 16% of all Google search clicks by the end of the year.
Web searcher habits
According to a study conducted by ROI Research, 89% of all browsers will modify their search results if they don’t initially get the information they require. 79% however, prefer to try a different search engine.
The speed of Google Instant Previews
With its new Instant Preview platform, Google claims to be able to match a search query of the entire web, identify the relevant parts of each web page, stitch it all together and serve the resultant preview completely customised to a specific search in less than one tenth of a second.
Facebook recommendations
According to the Morpace Omnibus Report in April 2010, almost 70% of consumers stated that a positive recommendation from a Facebook friend would have a positive effect on a future purchasing decision.
