Getting Ranked in the TOP 18 RESULTS is VITAL

Quote:

• Americans conducted 3.9 billion total searches in June • 44% of those searches were done from home computers, 49% were done from work computers, and 7% were done at university-based computers. • The average Internet user performed 33 searches in June. 1 • The average visit to a search engine resulted in 4.4 searches. • The average visitor scrolled through 1.8 result pages during a typical search. • In June, the average user spent 41 minutes at search engine sites. • comScore estimates that 40-45 percent of searches include sponsored results. • Approximately 7 percent of searches in March included a local modifier, such as city and state names, phone numbers or the words “map” or “directions.” • The percentage of searches that occurred through browser toolbars in June was 7%. • Search engine market share data are available upon request.

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Data_Memo_Searchengines.pdf


http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=483


more info...

Interesting Stats :-)

That is interesting information. I checked our site. We are definately a regional business. We are also high in the SERPs for national keyword phrases very well.

I checked our logs for the top 100 keyword phrases. Over 50% was for national phrases. Over 30% was for local variations. We cover all kinds of variations on this. Over 10% was for other phrases. We are putting language in there that we want to use for a different strategy. Over 5% was for phrases that might be local or regional. If I went deeper into keyword phrases the local terms would represent a higher percentage.

On conversions, virtually all conversions that came from search phrases came from regional phrases. Hardly any came from national phrases. The difference is extraordinary. A large amount of conversions came to our site direct through other forms of marketing that drove them to the web site. Another significant number of conversions came from themed links into our site: themed sites in our industry that direct searchers to the appropriate regional sites and local relevant sites and themed directories.

If only 7% of searches are local...that is clearly where we must be best because that is what turns into conversions.

On the other hand some other studies have stated that you need to be on the first page and one said "over the fold" which is the top 3-5 depending on a screen size.

Anyways good information.

Dave