How Web-Savvy Are Online Seniors?

"... seniors were more likely than any other age group to conduct e-commerce activities."

This report documents the potential for businesses trying to reach persons over 64 as part of their pool of prospects. Often, the focus of attention is on younger users, and the size and impact of the senior market can be overlooked.  This latest information shows that ignoring the impact of seniors can be a serious mistake.

Extrapolating the figures cited in this article, it appears that there are some 21 million users in the over 64 market. As the article does point out, this group is serious about the use of the Internet, with over 2/3 of them using the net for information or for shopping. Use of email is just about unanimous within this group. This group is particularly important because they represent significant purchasing power.

In the age group of 45 to 63, referred to as "boomers", there are another 58 million users, who are another very important demographic on the web, and generally thought of as being more web-savvy and involved. As with everything on  the Internet, these groups are growing daily and becoming more and more active. As Yogi Berra might have said, "the future is still ahead of us!"

Keep up with more information about the changes on the web by following my Internet statistics reporting and information on searcher behavior.

Synergy of Search and Social Media

"Research has shown that display ad exposure can lift consumer response to paid search."

This research refers to paid search activity, but it seems fair to assume that organic search activity would be influenced in the same way. The point to take away from this article is that your marketing efforts through different approaches support and enhance one another. It is not a good idea to conduct all your marketing efforts through a single vehicle. The success that you have in each approach reinforces the success that you have in other approaches.

To put it another way, look at all the tools that you have available to promote your site and make use of several of them simultaneously rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. Your web site itself, is the core around which your other marketing revolves. This core effort is then supplemented and strengthened by your activities with blogging, newsletters, article publication, press releases, social media sites, reciprocal links, and, yes, even paid Internet ads! Plan to use several of these tools in concert based on your personal and business characteristics and capacities to support different approaches.

While our focus here is on Internet tools, don't overlook the importance of what you do in more traditional marketing through your use of business cards, letterhead, brochures, promotional gifts, and networking, which also reinforce your online marketing efforts. A well managed mixture of approaches could be more effective for your business than a single-minded focus on one strategy alone!

Why People Go Online - eMarketer

"According to Ruder Finn, 100% of US Internet users surveyed in Q2 2009 went online to pass the time. Other popular reasons were education, connecting with others, researching and sharing. The least common intentions when logging on were to make purchases, manage finances, comparison shop and join causes. "

As Internet Marketers, we have to go where the people we are trying to reach are going. This survey tells us more about what people are doing when they are on the internet, and most of the time they are not there to buy things or do business! If we focus our efforts too narrowly on those kinds of activities, the people we are trying to reach are not going to be interested most of the time that they are on-line. That does not sound like a productive approach.

The message that this survey emphasizes once again is the importance of content to effective on-line marketing. Note that "Keep informed" was given as a reason for going online 79% of the time. Other similar reasons like "Research" and "Educate self" were cited more often. Entertainment reasons like "Pass time" and "Be entertained" also ranked very high. What this says is that if you provide interesting and informative content on your website, you will be in the zone that most of your prospects are seeking when they go online!

For effective outreach on the web, always keep in mind what the people you are trying to reach might find useful or entertaining. If you can communicate with them in that mode, you can be there when they are ready to make a purchase or another commitment that supports your business objectives.

Keyword-Driven Marketing for B2B

"Understanding what your customers want – and how they express that need – is the foundation of effective marketing, ..."

We all know that keywords are the most important element in ranking that generates traffic to your web site, but the trick is understanding how to make them work for you. The quote above makes the point well, that you have to understand how your prospective customers express themselves in order to be successful.

This author is telling his audience that keywords are important to B2B (business to business) marketing just as in B2C (business to consumer) marketing. He also has a good list of points included in his article.

• Use Keyword-Driven Marketing to truly understand the language of your customer.
• Understand user intent and provide an entry point as early in the buying cycle as possible.
• Develop integrated search marketing strategies to maximize return on investment.
• Provide compelling experiences – not just content.
• Test, test, and test again. Then, test, test and test again…

While these points are good, it is disappointing that there is no more detail provided to help one understand what these guidelines mean in practice.

I would elaborate on his points in this way.

It is crucial that you, as the marketer, understand what keyword phrases the prospect is like to use and what that choice of words indicates about his frame of mind at the time of the search. Specific terms pertaining to the product or service should never be overlooked in keyword marketing, but often the searcher is looking for information to understand a problem better or to get ideas for solutions. This orientation will lead to a different choice of keyword phrases for the search that must be anticipated.

As the author says, particularly in B2B marketing, it is important to enter the relationship with the prospect as early in the buying cycle as possible. With B2b, the cycle is likely to be longer, and the purpose of the marketing is to get into consideration before the purchasing decision begins to be made. Using your web site to convey your knowledge and understanding of the searchers' needs, and the professionalism to assist with them is the goal.

Applying the points described in the preceding paragraph is the strategic consideration. Creating compelling experiences means that you have to engage the interest of the prospect. Providing useful information in understandable form is the challenge.

Finally, testing is always important. One of the things that I liked about the website StartBreakingFree that I recommended in my previous post is the way Brian describes his testing efforts in great detail. It is through testing that you can discover which of various alternative approaches to your market will prove to be the most effective for you.

Local Search Growth Outpaces Overall Online Search

"The study found that local search -- the practice of using online search tools to find local businesses, products, or services -- grew 58 percent in 2008, reaching an annual total of 15.7 billion searches."

Interesting statistic from an article pumping the value of internet yellow pages. What they are promoting in the press release is the idea that it is important to be listed in online yellow pages. I am not going to say that this is not a good idea, but it is one that you will have to pay for. I am interested in how you can improve your web site to perform better in these local searches without having to pay extra for the traffic increase!

The first interesting aspect of this report is simply the growth in use of the internet for searching for things in the neighborhood (that is, "locally"). Since the Internet covers the entire world, we often lose sight of the fact that it is useful in finding things that are near to us. The user community is waking up to this fact, as shown by the growth in those kinds of searches.

The question is, "How do I make my site more productive for local searches?" That really brings up another question, "What distinguishes a local search from any other search?" No doubt people will search for something they are interested in and scan the results for something that might be considered "local", but is that really a "local" search? I would say not.

To me, a local search is one that contains a local reference such as the name of a community or a zip code. I know in my own use of the web, that is how I focus my searching if I specifically want local results.

In our bi-monthly clinics, we teach the use of specific community names and zip codes on the site as a means of ensuring that the site will perform well for people searching in that fashion. There are specific techniques that we use to get the impact without cluttering up the site with redundant place names.

But there is another technique worthy of mention in this arena, and that is the use of Google and Yahoo Local features. Both search engines allow the free placement of business information on the web in a way that often comes up when users are searching for neighborhood specific resources. With a little effort, you might also find other local oriented directories that you can post your business information in without charge. These are very good ways to draw in that local traffic without breaking your budget. All it takes is a little effort on your part and you can boost your traffic substantially!

And then, you can always pay for another listing in the Yellow Pages!

The Internet Is Getting Gray

"... the largest jump in adoption of Internet usage was by users ages 70 and older."

Older users are getting more comfortable with and active on the Internet. What this amounts to is an expansion of the marketplace for businesses trying to reach that older segment of the population. The web is becoming a more and more useful tool for reaching older audiences.

In the first table in this article, usage by age sector is displayed. Most sectors increased their participation rate from 2005 to 2008. Only the age group 65-69 showed a decrease in participation, and that was by 1%. This is probably some kind of anomaly resulting from demographic factors, but a very minor change in any event.

The next table breaks down Internet usage by age groups. The surprising fact to me in this table was that the age groups that spend the most time on the web are 35-49, 55+, and 65+, in that order. What surprised me was that the younger segments of the audience did not dominate the usage. Now this is due largely to the numbers of users in each age segment, but the overall image of the user base seemed different to me from what I might have assumed. To me, that points up the value of looking at these kinds of numbers. My perception of the audience on the web changed somewhat.

The last table broke down Internet usage by activities for two age groups, 64-72 and 73+. In both groups, email and search were the top activities. The interesting observation I took away from this table was that the younger age group spent much more time looking at government sites, banking, and viewing religious sites than the older group. What this means to me as a marketer requires a little more thinking than I have had time to devote to it now, but it seems to point to the kinds of issues that the different age groups are dealing with. The younger group, it would seem, is facing issues of adjusting to questions of retirement and changing lifestyle, while the older group had more likely resolved lots of those issues. For a business offering solutions to changes in lifestyle, this could be important information.

As always, the important issue is for marketers to understand their target audience so they can find the best way to reach that audience effectively.

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

Local Search Improves Your Business!

"You only have to compete with similar businesses in your AREA."

Many businesses are strictly local in their reach and competing on the worldwide web does not contribute much to the bottom line. However, the web is a great source of locally oriented inquiries as well. The important thing is knowing how to reach those locally oriented searchers effectively.

This article from Derek Gehl's newsletter discusses how people search for local services by adding city, state, community or neighborhood-specific terms to more general searches in order to find the businesses or services that are relevant to their needs.

Derek provides a very useful listing of sites where you can submit your site to acquire links that are oriented to your locale. I have incorporated his listing in my spreadsheet of useful links for your convenience.

In addition, Jay recently (April 9, 2008) presented a new technique in our clinic for enhancing your site for local searches. This technique relies upon how Google responds to particular combinations of text and links within your site. Join us twice a month in our free Internet Marketing Class at UH SBDC for regular updates on the best way to make your site into an efficient prospect-gathering tool for your business!

How Much is a Top Google Ranking Worth to Your Business?

"In 2004 at the New York Search Engine Strategies conference a JupiterMedia analyst stated that 5 out of 6 commercial purchases which originated from search originated from the organic search results. They also stated 'algorithmic listings in search indexes generate an estimated six in seven commercially natured search referrals.'

2008 Penn State research titled Determining the informational, navigational and transactional intent of Web queries [PDF] found that roughly 80% of search queries were informational, while approximately 10% were each navigational and transactional. With so many searches being informational and navigational, it is unsurprising that people click the organic search results more often than the associated PPC ads."

This is a very extensive article with a lot of information about how to estimate a value for different ranking positions. There is more in this article than I can summarize in a single entry, but the quote above jumped out at me.

To summarize briefly what I found interesting in this selected quote:

1. Most commercial activity originated from search is due to organic results!
2. Ranking determines 6 out of 7 commercially oriented referrals!
3. Some 80% of searches are informational in nature as opposed to transactional or navigational!

These points really emphasize how important performing on organic searches can be to a business. Participants in our free Internet Marketing Clinic receive current information on the best techniques for making your web site perform well in this crucial arena!

This article is well worth some time to study, but be forewarned that it is full of information and will take some concentration.

Google: The Search Party

"the idea is to anticipate a user’s intent in a search query."

I just watched the author, Ken Auletta, at the New Yorker magazine, talk about Google with Charlie Rose, and a thought came to me about this concept. It seemed more obvious in the show than it does in this article, but the question is, "With Google customizing searches based on what it knows about different searchers, are we coming to a point where different searchers will get different results on the exact same search?" And, if the answer to that is "yes", what does it mean to web masters who are trying to optimize sites for the broadest possible reach? I don't have an answer to that question, but will certainly be thinking about it.

This article makes very interesting reading for general information about Google, how important it is, and where it is going. For example, it reports that Google has a market value of just over two hundred billion dollars. By comparison, ExxonMobil, the richest corporation, has a value just under five hundred billion. Google is only about ten years old!

This year, 2008, their ad revenues are expected to reach sixteen billion dollars, close to the combined revenues of the four top television broadcast networks. Google's ad revenues are increasing, while revenues for other players is declining.

Andy Grove, the former chairman and C.E.O. of Intel,says, “Google’s power is shaping what’s happening to other industries.” According to ComScore, Google does an estimated four hundred billion searches a year, which amounts to about sixty percent of the searches worldwide.

One other interesting point in the article is that "Americans spend the same number of hours a week online as they do watching television—fourteen..."

What does this mean to those of us who are working in the SEO field? For one thing, it emphasizes the absolute dominance of Google on our results, and suggests that this will not change in the immediate future, but, in fact, will probably become more pronounced! It says that we have to stay on our toes with the way Google rates our work, because that rating is constantly changing, with possibly serious impact on our results. And, finally, it illustrates the importance that the Internet has taken on in everyone's lives, and how that presence will likely become more significant rather than less significant, as we tie in more devices to the Internet (cell phones, for example!) Our field, while continually challenging, is only beginning to become what it will be in the future!

Eyetracking Shows Web Audience Ignores Ads

More evidence of the importance of ranking in the "natural" or "organic" results! We continually talk in class about how searchers ignore ads. Here is some hard evidence on the point.

In the study cited in this article, the focus was on banner ads, and with some discussion of "annoying" ads and how people respond to them. The posting shows the results of some eyetracking studies. These are tests that are done by having subjects open web pages, then having machines follow their eye movements to see what parts of the page they actually look at. In the three sharts shown, it is clear that people don't even look at the ads sections of the pages!

This is entirely consistent with my observations of my own experience when browsing the web. I can assure you that I could not even tell you what the ads on the page referred to in most cases. They are just not a part of my "scan pattern" on a page!

All studies that I have seen of searcher behavior have always reinforced this point. With this kind of information in hand, one wonders how paid ads ever contribute anything to the success of a site!

Optimizing your site properly so that the search engines present you in their unpaid listings is still the best investment of your marketing efforts! Not only will you get better results for your efforts, but the results don't stop when you stop paying for them!!

Google Experimental Search Adds Personalized Page Ranking | Compiler from Wired.com

"Google has rolled out a new option in its Labs-based experimental search program which allows you to rank and re-order search results. The new experiment is reportedly showing up for select users only, but the help page says that the goal is to allow you to 'influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results.'"

This article in Wired magazine illustrates the constantly changing nature of the search engine environment. As the article indicates, this is not available to the general public yet, and may never be, but it points the direction to where Google is going with its thinking about searching.

As the article states, this feature is available only to select users at present. If it does make it into the public experience, it adds a level of customization to the search experience. If users have this kind of control over their settings in Google, and if they find the feature useful in improving the quality of their searches, it will tie them more firmly to Google to help maintain the current dominance that Google has over the search arena.

I can also imagine the possibility that Google will be aware of how its users apply this customization and somehow figure out how to incorporate that information into its public algorithm. What that might mean to webmasters is that the importance of community building is reinforced. Assume that your community of users makes changes to their search parameters to favor your site or sites like yours. If this filters back to the Google algorithm, it could become another factor in achieving the high rankings that make your site outperform your competition!

How the Web Interacts with Brick & Mortar!

"Now, one company is planning 3-D-like tours of Cambridge, Mass., and other cities that not only venture down streets, but also inside some local businesses. Tourists to this virtual Cambridge will be able to click their way along a Brattle Street rendered in realistic detail, and move through the computer-generated interiors of dozens of nearby shops and institutions."

This story is really interesting because it shows how the web is influencing and changing how brick and mortar stores conduct their businesses. If you think about this for just a minute, you realize that prospects on the web no longer even have to visit a store to see the displays and promotions!

The more people can do about their shopping on the web, the better it is for web sites that have effectively built their web sites to respond to searcher interests.

Scientific American Mind: When Words Decide

"Researchers are discovering the myriad ways in which language can have a profound effect on the choices we make..."

A recent article in this magazine points out three ideas that can influence people in the choices that they make. These can be applied to how your web site is set up to encourage more conversions by your visitors. Unfortunately, the article is not available on-line without a subscription, but you can subscribe at the link if you are interested.

The ideas are:
1. People are more inclined to avoid pain than to gain something.
2. Most people will take the default option.
3. A more expensive option makes other options seem like bargains.

One: Avoiding pain motivates people. People are more motivated by the idea of avoiding losing $100 that they are by the idea of gaining $100. If your product or service can help people avoid losses, that should be emphasized in your marketing pitch.

Two: Defaults rule. A study of 401(k) participation rates showed that participation increased from 49 to 86 percent when people were required to opt out of the choice rather than being asked to opt in to the plan. When you offer your users a choice, it is better to ask them to opt out if they don't want it than to have to ask to be included.

Three: Always have a more expensive choice. Several years ago, Williams-Sonoma offered an automatic bread maker for $275. That seemed an expensive way to make bread. Months later, they introduced a "deluxe" version of the item for $429, and sales of the regular breadmaker shot up, because it now looked like a good deal!

In summary, how you present things to your readers will have a lot of influence on how they respond. Put yourself in the best position to make your web site marketing efforts pay off for your business's.

Internet sales continue to rise!

In another report of retail sales for the year end holiday season, Internet sales have again risen faster than retail sales in brick & mortar stores.

For a number of years now, quarterly Internet sales for the fourth quarter, the biggest retail quarter due to the holidays, have risen more than 25% over prior year sales. The current year is no exception!

Shopper behavior is contributing to the growth. Shoppers are making larger purchases over the web, and shoppers are beginning to execute more spontaneous purchases. This indicates that shoppers are really browsing on the web in the same way that they have always done in stores.

Other factors also contribute to this growth. Many more shoppers have broadband access, which makes the experience much more satisfying. Retailers are doing a better job of marketing their wares, becoming more sophisticated about offering complementary purchases, suggesting other items that might interest the consumer. And, finally, purchasing security has been improved, making consumers more comfortable with their transactions.

We provide a free weekly Internet marketing clinic to help small business owners and operators to understand how to make use of the Internet to promote their businesses.

Relevancy Rules in Top Sponsored Ads

Notes from an eye tracking study confirm that organic listings are still the most relevant for most searchers!

"Here's what we took from the numbers. On Google, although over 80% of searchers started in the top sponsored, only 26% found something relevant and compelling enough to click on, and remember, these were commercial, product oriented searches. On Yahoo, 84% started in top sponsored, but in Yahoo�s case, about 30% stuck around and clicked an ad. And with MSN, something entirely different was going on. It seems that MSN users have a bad case of banner blindness when it comes to top sponsored ads."

This blog points out that searchers focus initially on the sponsored ads at the top of the page (since our natural focal point on a new page is at the upper left of the page). It goes on to say that, although searchers focus first on the ads, they don't primarily choose to follow the ads with a click. In other words, even though they look first at the sponsored ads, they still choose to click on the organic listings!

Searcher Behavior Research Update

"If you're not ranking well for your desired search terms, brand names and other important key words and phrases, you're missing out on significant, highly qualified traffic."

A new study from iProspect provides insight to searcher behavior that is of interest to web masters. The full study is available for download.

While the major point is highlighted above, the findings show that searcher behavior has changed in the four years since the last study in 2002. The numbers reveal something of the strategies that searchers are using to find what they are looking for in the dramatically increasing amount of information available on the web. Understanding these strategies is important to making your site work more effectively in attracting the traffic that is going to boost your business.

One of the really interesting observations in the report says, "Apparently there is still a segment of end-users who think 'industry leadership' is a component of what search engines use to rank search results, and both online and traditional marketers can use this perception to their advantage." To paraphrase this observation, if you rank high, you are an industry leader! Think about what that can mean for your business!!

While there are no easy answers (it still takes hard, persistent work to be successful), our weekly Internet Marketing clinic at the University of Houston Small Business Development Center will help you to understand what you need to do to master this constantly changing game.

Why search is so hot today,

An article in Searchenginewatch reports from the Search Engine Strategies conference, February 27-March 2, 2006, New York, NY.

Searchers want more control over the information that they will base their opinions and purchasing decisions on. The Internet serves this preference with search engines. As the presenters at the conference made their point:

Searchonomics: Search Statistics Made Fun:
"1. Consumer skepticism and resistance to advertising. According to Insight Express, 'consumer trust in advertising has plunged 41% over the past three years' and only '10% of consumers say they 'trust' ads today.'
2. In the varied world of today's media, the consumer is increasingly in control. A 2005 study by Yankelovich showed that almost 70% of consumers were actively looking for ways to block, opt-out, or eliminate advertising."

The speakers went on to describe how advertisers are spending their money on Internet advertising, but this represents a real disconnect with waht is happening on the web. Note the following quote from the presentation:

"A 2004 Enquiro study found that B2B users had a 63% preference for organic. Interestingly, according to a 2005 MarketingSherpa report, "organic SEO gets a higher conversion rate than does sponsored search." The conclusion? "Advertisers should be spending more time, effort, and money towards improving their natural search results," said Ramsey."

The question this raises is, "Why do advertisers insist on spending their money so ineffectively?" One can only speculate. My personal reflection on this question is that there is a familiarity with advertising that is driving part of this phenomenon, whereas the dynamics of organic search are unfamiliar to marketing personnel. People will stick with what is comfortable to them even though all indications are that another approach would be more effective. In addition, advertising through a system like PPC (Pay Per Click) lends itself to statistical reporting and analysis in ways that organic search promotion does not.

Good organic results promotion is a more amorphous process. A PPC ad can be measured more precisely than the impact of good site development and promotion, which has a more holistic nature to it. I find this encouraging because it means that there will continue to be opportunities for those of us who are willing to put in the effort to focus on organic results. We will still be able to compete against the larger organizations with their bigger budgets.

Making your search engine marketing efforts pay off.

"... 42% of users clicked the top search hit, and 8% of users clicked the second hit."

How do you get results from your search engine marketing efforts?

This item from Nielsen 's Alertbox makes a couple of interesting points. First, the top ranking in a search clearly has a payoff. This little study indicates that a large percentage of searchers will click on the top link. Interestingly, it is not "most" searchers, as the study shows that when results of the search were artificially shuffled, searchers tended to move down the list for their first click.

What this tells us, as marketers, is that you need to pay attention to the content on your pages that the search engines will display in a search results page. This requires more effort, and more attention to detail on the part of the page designer, but, as always, attention to detail does have a payoff!

We have talked in our clinic many times about how to identify what different search engines will display on their results pages. Make use of what you learn to improve your performance on the web and the bottom line in your business!

Paid Search not the way to go! - says eMarketer

"Paid search spending is up more than 40%, overshadowing all other forms of Internet advertising and marketing. Yet if you take a close look at the actions and attitudes of search users the people who monetize search with their clicks you may find that paid search ads are not the most effective way for you to advertise online."

This research study comes to a conclusion that we have seen echoed in many other studies that we have viewed on line and presented in Internet Marketing class.

We have seen information showing different demographic profiles for the major search engines that can be useful to marketers who are targeting particular markets.

Studies have indicated that trust in a web site or vendor can be a more important factor in a buying decision than price.

Searchers prefer natural listings over sponsored listings by a rate of 60-70% (although other studies have indicated that most searchers don't know the difference!) Different studies have shown us that searchers tend to see what is presented on the upper left side of the page more than any other page content. This finding could have something to do with the preference for natural listings, since sponsored ads tend to be placed on the right.

People more and more use the Internet to research purchases they are considering, sometimes far in advance of the actual purchase. In addition, many of those purchases occur "off-line", that is, the buyer will go to a store to complete the purchase after they have done the research on the Internet. It takes good marketing on your site to make these people convert on-line, where the site owner will get the direct benefit!

The lesson is that marketing on the Internet is a complex business that requires persistence and attention to detail in order to succeed. There is still no free lunch!

More American Women Than Men Go Online

" More women than men surf the Net.
That's a conclusion of online marketing firm eMarketer Inc., which issued study results Thursday saying that girls and women represented 51.6% of Americans online last year. While females make up about 51% of the U.S. population, and that ratio is expected to hold in the coming years, the proportion of girls and women on the Web should grow to 52.6% by 2008, according to eMarketer.
That's a big change from the early days of the Internet, when males dominated. As recent as 1997, boys and men made up three-quarters of Internet users. "

Another indicator of the continuing evolution of the internet! The likely immediate impact of this particular shift in the population on the 'net is a coming change in the way shopping sites have to work. This article predicts that "offering a page of thumbnail images of blouses" will longer be sufficient to capture the consumer dollar. Instead, "retailers must use the power of the Internet to build customized shopping experiences tailored to a woman's browsing or previous buying patterns."

For small business marketeers, this means paying more attention to how you design your site. The simple, mechanical approach of throwing all your product up on line is not going to continue to work for you. You will have to be more creative to remain competitive!

Continuing march of the Internet!

Excerpts from the article:

"... The internet is working wonders in raising standards. Good and honest firms should benefit most...."

".. But it is also intensifying competition. Today, window shopping takes place online. People can compare products, prices and reputations. They can read what companies say about products in far greater detail, but also how that tallies with the opinions of others, and most importantly of all discover what previous buyers have to say. Newsgroups and websites constantly review products and services..."
"... Ford is finding that eight out of ten of its customers have already used the internet to decide what car they want to buy—and what they are willing to pay—even before they arrive at a showroom..."

"... Many people now spend as much time surfing the web as they do with television, magazines or newspapers..."

"... It is true that the vast majority of people still go to shops for most purchases (though online sales continue to grow). Before doing that, however, most have used the internet. More than 90% of people aged between 18 and 54 told America's Online Publishers Association in a survey that they would turn to the internet first for product information..."

"... And soon this facility will be available not just on PCs at home or work, but on mobile phones. At a touch, consumers will be able to find a local store and then check the offers from nearby outlets even as they browse the aisles, or listen to a salesman..."

A new article in the current issue of The Economist re-emphasizes for us the importance of the Internet to business, and takes a look ahead at now much more important it will continue to become as technology advances. The information in this article resonates with that I covered in our last class pointing out how many people research products on the Internet for extended periods of time before actually closing a sale, and how many of those sales take place off-line, where they don't show up in eCommerce statistics! In other words, the growth we are seeing in Internet sales, which is remarkable, actually understates the significance of the Internet experience for business!

Organic Search Still Dominates!

In a report cited in Searchday newsletter, Enquiro reports that organic searches still dominate the generation of commercial leads. The study involved eye scanning of searchers as they reviewed their search results, and found that searchers prefer, by a large margin, the results that appear in the upper left corner of the results page.

This study reinforces the concept that organic listings remain extremely important to marketers regardless of how much they might spend on Pay Per Click marketing!

We discuss these and other factors relevant to search engine marketing in our regular Wednesday evening clinics at the University of Houston Small business Development Center. Sessions are free to all comers!

Search Engines Drive Traffic to Shopping Sites

"While visits to shopping sites are claiming a record share of total holiday season Web visits, search engines are continuing to contribute high levels of shopping referrals."

According to the latest research, search engines are increasing the amount of traffic that they refer to other shopping sites. This shows the importance of shopping sites being represented effectively in the search engine rankings.

The article reports Google as being the most effective, "Google contributed 4.26 percent of visits to shopping sites last week, while Yahoo! Search contributed 2.24 percent and MSN Search 0.54 percent." This distribution is consistent with the search results that we have regularly reported in our classes.

Another interesting finding of the study is the differences in types of shoppers that frequent the different search engines. Special strengths were noted as follows:

· Google: Books, Sports and Fitness, and Music.

· Yahoo!: Video and Games, Automotive and Classifieds.

· MSN: Apparel & Accessories, House & Garden and Appliances & Electronics.

How search engines affect purchases.

comScore Study Reveals the Impact of Search Engine Usage on Consumer Buying: "The comScore research studied the buying activity of Internet users who conducted a consumer electronics or computer (CE/C) search at one of the top 25 search engines in Q1 2004. Among the other findings, the study revealed that 25 percent of searchers ultimately purchased a CE/C product and that an estimated 92 percent of these purchases occurred offline. Among the 8 percent of post-search purchases that were made online, the vast majority occurred in subsequent user sessions (not directly after a search click-through). "

The study goes on to point out that most (85%) of purchases occurred later than the original search, in other words, the user came back another time before making a purchase!

They also point out that few purchasers utilize product specific search terms (for example, "Sony Plasma KE-42M1”). Their finding emphasizes that marketers have to appeal to their prospects on the basis of more general terms (such as, “plasma TV”). This is consistent with our recommendation that webmasters utilize both general and specific terms on their sites.

In our classes, we have shown how to utilize "down-list" terms, or, those terms that appear in your site statistics further down the list of keywords that have brought visitors to your site. Previous classes have also covered the concept of the "sales funnel", where prospects enter the funnel on more general search terms and work their way down the funnel to the purchase decision, often by refining their search terms. Capturing traffic on the general terms at the beginning of the funnel is an important element in converting the traffic later in the process!

As the representative of Overture (who sponsored the study) said, “This research supports the theory that all types of terms play an important role in influencing the consumer’s purchase decision.”

Search Engine User Attitudes

"An important takeaway for search marketers from this survey is that it's increasingly important to think of your target audience not as 'searchers' or 'prospects' but rather as multi-dimensional users with complex needs and desires. An effective search marketing strategy now must go beyond simply optimizing for a particular engine, or bidding for a narrow range of keywords specific to your product or service.
Rather, it's important to build up a profile (or multiple profiles) of the type of people you're interested in attracting to your web site through search marketing. Build optimizing strategies and campaigns around those profiles, and the iProspect survey results suggest you'll be far more effective than using the one size fits all approach that many search marketers still employ today"

A different survey of searcher attitudes phrased things slightly differently, but again, emphasizes the importance of having good content on your site. Simply getting ranked on keywords won't get the job done if you don't have content of interest on the pages that the searchers find.

Inside the Searcher's Mind: It's a Jungle in Here!

"For those doing research, the following items were mentioned and listed in order of importance to the user, in getting them to clickthrough:

The exact query in the title and description
Product information: features, comparisons, reviews, prices
Trusted sources of information, i.e. Consumer Reports
Trusted brand names and vendors
Trusted URLs

For a purchaser, some of the items are the same, but different factors are also introduced. Again, these are listed in order of importance:

The exact query in the title and description
Offer product information: features, comparisons, reviews, prices
Trusted brand names and vendors
Promises of added value: discounts, free shipping, etc
Ability to buy online
Trusted URLs

"

Here is a research article that says that 80% of searchers skip past sponsored results to go straight to "organic" listings. It also emphasizes that searchers go from the "general to the specific" in their searches.

The quote describes the important factors, in order, to searchers in considering how to respond to search results. It says that searchers are primarily looking for information when searching, in other words, researching their interests, and those web sites that provide information to the searchers will get the most click-throughs.

Based on this research, a good site should give the users information about the product or service first, then take steps later to entice them to commit to the product or service. Offering discounts or incentives to purchase too early in the process is a wasted endeavor.