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Top Search Industry News: Summer 2008
New Study Reveals That Appearing on First Page of Search Results Has Never Been More Important
Major research analysts iProspect and Jupiter Research recently released the findings of their study designed to help marketers (like you) understand the behavior of search engine users today. One finding rang out loud and clear: with searchers becoming ever more impatient, it’s more critical than ever for businesses to come up on the first page of search results...or they might as well not come up at all.
The study revealed that 68% of all search engine users now only click a search result within the first page, while a full 92% click a result within the first three pages. And the importance of coming up on top in search results is only increasing over time: more search engine users only click on the first page in 2008 (68%), than in 2006 (62%), 2004 (60%) or 2002 (48%). Inversely, only 8% of search users are willing to click past the first three pages of results in 2008, vs. 10% in 2006—13% in 2004—and 19% in 2002.
So, with the first page of results essentially being the ‘last frontier’ past which only a minority of searchers will actually travel, the study concluded it’s more important than ever for businesses to invest in SEO/organic search marketing to insure their website comes up on top—and, definitely on page one.
Searchers Quickly Change Search Terms and Engines If They Don’t Find ‘It’ On the First Page…
And in a related finding, 49% of searchers who do continue searching if they don’t initially find what they’re looking for, change their search terms and/or search engine after viewing just the first page of results—and a full 91% do so if they don’t find what they seek in the first three pages. Again, this is even more pronounced in 2008 than ever before: more users abandon their search after reviewing just the first page today (49%), than in 2006 (40%), 2004 (42%) or in 2002 (28%).
When Searchers Change Search Terms or Search Engines
Coming up First in Search Builds Your Dealership’s Brand
The research further underscores that significant brand equity is conveyed on those businesses whose website appears in the top search results. In 2008, 39% of searchers believe that those companies whose websites are returned in the top results are the ‘leaders’ in their field and markets. And again, that association of top search results with brand power is only on the upswing: up from 33% to 39% between 2002 and 2008. Only 19% of searchers ‘overtly disagree’ with the idea that top search results equal the top leaders and businesses.
This recent, authoritative study provides even more solid evidence that coming up within the first pages of search results is utterly VITAL--while other recent industry data reveals why it’s especially critical for auto dealers. Consider: roughly 9 out of 10 Internet new-vehicle shoppers now use a search engine in their car shopping process—and search now trumps all other media as the #1 resource consumers use to locate and select dealers--with roughly 4 in 5 shoppers now using search engines to select dealerships for new and used vehicles and service.
…And that’s why eXtéres is gratified that our dealer clients have achieved, on average, a 1900% improvement in their first-page saturation rates at the big search engines like Google and Yahoo!—which has led to an average 83% increase in click-through rates and an 87% increase in Internet-generated sales and service calls into the dealership!
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