The results of a new study suggest that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of users click on a result within the first three pages of search results. These figures were just 48% and 81%, respectively, in 2002. It goes to show the continuing importance of being at the top of the organic rankings!

Other statistics of interest include:

36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field.

41% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they seek, will change engines or change their search term. This figure was 28% in 2002.

Links from other websites are one of the most important ingredients in obtaining and keeping high organic search engine rankings.

Most web site owners know that the number of links pointing to your site (link popularity) is very important. However, often the source of these links (link quality) is overlooked..

The internet marketing landscape has changed quite a bit in the past 3 years and has further defined itself further in the past 12 months. With Google raising $4 Billion from new stock offerings in 2005 we will see more changes underway over the next 3 years. Unfortunately, I fear the small business is going to be left out in the cold in this process. Perhaps a better statement would be that the small business has already been left out in the cold.

Given that there are approximately 50 million .COM domains registered, it isa fact that the low-hanging fruit domain names are overwhelming taken, and your chances of lucking upon an unnoticed available three-letter acronym (TLA) are close to zero. Lots of more interesting facts in this blog entry from Dennis Forbes.

Guess the money was burning a hole in their pocket. Now for the speculation of how being part owner of a Time Warner company will affect Google - access to all that content would allow them to set up a Yahoo like portal.

More information at Business Journal.

News.com reports that a Trademark Owner has brought suit against a PPC advertiser for misuse of their Tradmark. This case would be the first of its kind which (if successful for the TM owner) could force Google to change their PPC Trademark Policy to be more like the newly revised policy of Yahoo Search Marketing that prohibits PPC advertisers from bidding on trademarks altogether.

Anton Cheranev
Copyright 2006

The use of message boards and web blogs is becoming increasingly more popular, not to mention that they are very powerful tools. Message boards and web blogs are as good as word of mouth. Real people are on those message boards and blog sites to give their opinions and thoughts for the entire Internet world to read. They, the people, can literally make or break your website.

Apple are once again in court accused of violating their agreement with Apple Records not to sell music. Apple claim they are allowed to sell online data downloads, that just happen to be musical.

With a title like that how can you not read the article at the Business Journal?

According to a Forrester poll of 133 advertisers who control more than $20 billion ina dvertising, television is an increasingly risky target for ad spending and will likely soon begin losing dollars to interactive and other channels.

There are few Search Engine Marketers who would debate that most community based websites are favored within Search Engine Results’ Pages or SERP. These Web2.0 sites also have high Google Page Ranks. Links from these could help increase your site’s Google Page Rank while also boosting your site in the SERPs of most search engines if done properly. Within this article you can find how your site can benefit from utilizing social networks as part of your SEM for web2.0 strategy.

An interesting article by Jim Hedger regarding Google's 2005 annual report.

You can get reports at Google's investor page here

or you can visit the SEC site to view the report here

Some simple tips to protect your reputation on social networking sites from the Collaberation Cafe.

Ok it had to happen - finally someone is suing Google for lost business due to losing their rankings. A quote from the article

KinderStart charges that Google without warning in March 2005 penalized the site in its search rankings, sparking a "cataclysmic" 70 percent fall in its audience -- and a resulting 80 percent decline in revenue.

See more at Reuters.

PR sites suck! At lease according to the Internet Standards Assessment Report which provides industry benchmarks for Web site development and is based on data collected from nearly 10,000 Web site evaluations.

When you work in this industry you get to see umpteen sites on a daily basis. And you become aware that there are certain industries that generally speaking lack imagination. The PR industry does come to mind in regards to this! In the study the criteria used to judge the sites includes design, ease-of-use and innovation. One area that was singled out was the low quality of copywriting!! This is surprising in an industry in which writing skills are an necessity. PR agencies have been slow to adapt to the digital age. Perhaps this is a wake up call.

After reading Seth Godin's eBook - A Really Bad Powerpoint I decided to try something different at the AMA presentation today. As the powerpoints were already written and exactly matched Seth's idea of a bad powerpoint I decided to take along a prop - an apple. A plain vanilla, red apple. This became my help though 20 minutes talking about keywords, organic and paid listings. It went really well, what better way to talk about keywords than compare my red apple, to an Apple Mac, an Apple iPod, even Apple records. At one stage the guy working the powerpoint missed his cue and I threatened to throw the apple at him to wake him up. Another time the apple fell and rolled across the room. I'm thinking people will remember the apple.

After today the apple is in my presentations on keyword research for good. There was a video made of it, I'll post the link here when I receive it.