Posts Tagged ‘search engine’

New figures released explore our search engine habits

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

A survey of over 1000 Australians explored some of our search engine habits, and discovered a general lack of understanding around why search engines display the results they do.

It was revealed that,

  • 46 per cent of online shoppers said the order of search results displayed affected their choice in choosing where to shop.
  • Only 15 per cent of respondents look past the 1st page of search results.
  • On average 72 per cent of users select the first website listed, with the second and third websites receiving 13 per cent and 8 per cent of clicks respectively.

About 6 per cent of Australian retail sales are made online, or roughly $12.6 billion a year. This is expected to increase significantly.

You can read more over at theage.com.au

Rankings drop after Google change

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Some small businesses dropped in rankings when Google changed its search algorithms a few weeks ago.

‘Many local businesses will find Google doesn’t position their entries as high as previously, meaning potential customers will have to scroll further down the pages of results to find them’, said search engine consultant Ash Nallawalla.

For example, a company that might have previously come up higher in the Google search results, now may have other ‘map-based’ entries above it, pushing it lower down the page and putting it below the ‘fold’ (tech-speak for the bottom of the computer screen).

Nallawalla says that businesses above the fold are far more likely to gain the attention, and custom, of people conducting a Google search.

What is the solution? Businesses need to optimise their online presence, ensure they have a physical address on their website, with phone and other relevant contact information.

View the full article here.