October 17, 2005 Comments
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A new study released by the team at Oneupweb shows that less than twenty percent of Internet Retailer Magazine's top 100 sites are doing a good job of using search engine marketing to promote their products and services. The report studied a company's use of things like site architecture, content, keywords and other tactics that could impact a site’s ability to rank well on search engines. While over half of the sites had some type of optimization in place, only 17% were dubbed to be "well optimized." On the bright side for the industry, that number was up 5% from last year's findings.
Of Internet Retailer Magazine's top 100 sites, Oneupweb found:
The study went on to share numbers about how well each of the categories showed up in the search engine listings and what type of traffic figures they might be enjoying.
"Search engine success is not a big mystery," says Megan Dwyer, Research Manager at Oneupweb. "As you get higher in the results pages, your visitors increase and you make more profits. The most effective method to drive this kind of success is search engine optimization and marketing. It is surprising that ten years into the internet boom, there are still so many companies that aren’t focusing marketing dollars where they’ll see the greatest return on their investment."
That's good news for small businesses that have already implemented a solid search engine marketing plan. With competitors lagging behind in SEM adoption rates, the businesses that get their sites indexed and ranked early will have plenty of time to build brand awareness and loyal customers. Even so, it's not a matter of if competitors will show up, it's a matter of when.
"This study teaches us one important lesson: There's still tons of opportunity for companies to realize substantial online gains by implementing search engine optimization and marketing," says Oneupweb CEO Lisa Wehr. "The search spark has matured into a steady flame and it’s only a matter of time until it's a wildfire."
The full study is available for download as a white paper. There's Still Money on the Table – Internet Retailers Study 2005
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
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