Which search engines are most important
to target for maximum traffic?
The most recently gathered data by Qsearch shows
clearly that Google is the dominant force in search engine traffic. By
tracking the search engine use of one million U.S. Internet users, they
were able to generate the following statistics, ( as reported by SearchEngineWatch.com.
)
Percentage of total searches for each of the major
search engines:
Google - 32%
Yahoo! - 25%
AOL - 19%
MSN - 15%
Ask Jeeves - 3%
Others - 6%
( SearchEngineWatch.com, August 1 2003)
Google has been in the lead in the search engine
industry for some time. Their dominance is only truly reflected in the
figures above once you take into account the fact that Google's database
is used for the search results produced by both Yahoo and AOL. This means
that 75% of all searches by U.S. Internet users are powered by the database
results of one search engine : Google. At present, getting your site
seen by the search engine using public means you need to rank well in Google's
results.
What about Pay Per Click Search Engines? Can't
I just buy my way to the top of the search results?
Yes, you can buy a top spot for the search words
of your choice on a Pay Per Click search engine, but the cost to you will
be a good deal higher than what can be delivered by an effective optimization
and the volume of traffic will be a good deal less. The more popular search
terms can cost as much as $2 per click to outbid the competition and obtain
top spot. If your website is selling tourist accommodation, your
conversion of visitors to your site to confirmed bookings is likely in
the range of one reservation for every one hundred visitors to your site.
At $2 per click, each resulting reservation could cost you as much as $200!
There's a lot more to be added. Please visit
again soon. E-mail me at the address below if you have a search engine
optimization related question you'd like to see addressed here.
