Before one can fully understand the importance and necessity of implementing a search engine optimization program into their marketing mix, it is important to first look at the phenomenal statistics on internet usage. For example:
- There are 7 new people on the internet every second.
- Every fourth person online is buying something right now.
- One billion dollars in e-commerce transactions will take place this month.
- More than a trillion dollars in e-commerce business will be generated this year.
- 1 out of every 8 dollars spent by consumers is spent on online transactions.
(Source: ACCUTIPS.com, December 2003)
Furthermore, according to glreach.com, there were 649 million online Internet users worldwide in March 2003, an increase of 14 percent in just one year! That works out to be around 88 million new users in that year alone.
There can be no doubt that the Internet continues to grow at a staggering rate. While the fact that so many consumers are online is important, it is even more crucial to understand what these consumers are doing while online. The two most prominent reasons people use the Internet are to communicate (email) and to research (use search engines).
Again, here are some statistics on how people spend their time online (for more statistics and a list of sources, visit [http://www.10xmarketing.com/information.asp]):
- 88% of all internet users use search engines
- 37% of online shoppers used Google to search for online retailers. The search was used by 25 percent of consumers searching the Web for holiday shopping.
- For car buying decisions, search engine advertising was shown to be more influential (26 percent) than TV ads (17 percent).
- Virtually all wealthy adult shoppers (HHI $100K+) use the Web to make or research their purchases. For car, computer and travel purchases, Internet use is extraordinarily high (more than 90 percent of respondents)
When consumers go online, they use search engines because they can find the products they want, reviews, descriptions, consumer ratings, and the best possible price. Consumers are less concerned with where they buy their products and more concerned with how much product they can get for their dollar.
Thus, every day millions of people use search engines to find items they want to buy on the Internet. The businesses that appear on the first page of these searches get 50% to 70% of the business from these customers. There is no doubt that potential customers today use search engines to find the products and services your business sells. The only real question is: What are you doing to help them find you, rather than your competitors?
There are two ways to get your website to appear on the first page of any search. The first is to participate in a pay-per-click campaign. The second is to appear on the first page due to free or natural search results. Getting high and natural rankings on major search engines is one of the most efficient and profitable ways to market and sell your products on the internet.
Search engines use complex mathematical algorithms to determine which websites rank highly and which do not. If your website meets the criteria, it ranks high. If not, then you are not. It’s that easy.
Search engine optimization, then, is designing your website and all of your e-commerce actions so that when consumers search for keywords that are central to your business, your website will appear at the top of the search results.
For example, if your business sells running shoes (keyword receiving 127,575 searches per month), it would be highly beneficial to be among the top search engine websites. If you were to get just a small percentage of new visitors each month from that top ranking, it would still result in a significant source of income.
It can help to think of it this way: At least 10 million Internet searches are performed each month within every major business category. If just 1% of those searches found your website, you would have over 100,000 new visitors to your site each month. If just 1% of those visitors bought your products or services, you would be making over 1,000 new sales per month. (The world average is 2.5%, making these estimates conservative.)
The scope of this article is not to look at the methods behind search engine optimization. Instead, it is about seeing the importance of the Internet in business development today and in the future. The traditional marketing schemes of the past still have their place, but advertising dollars must be allocated to internet marketing.
As Bruce Carlisle, CEO of SFInteractive, said, if you’re not putting money into search engines, you’re letting business walk out the door.