For enterprise SEM practitioners looking to set budgets or otherwise anticipate their needs in the space for the months and years ahead, it's been a particularly difficult time to get a read on how the industry is really trending. Conflicting data and opinions abound; new threats to the hegemony of search, real or just perceived, continue to spring up; and, there are times when all of us may wonder just how much the numbers are actually changing and whether we should be concerned. Case in point: comScore recently showed U.S. core searches increasing 11% year-over-year to hit an all-time [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Stats: Search Behavior

Stop a search marketer on the street, whether a grizzled veteran or relative newcomer, and ask him/her to list the top goals of ranking in the search results; they will talk to you about traffic, revenue and conversions. Likewise, in reflecting what is top of mind for search marketers, a perusal of industry websites shows a majority of articles focused on the same. Far less covered -- whether research, POVs or even "thinking-out-loud" blog posts -- is content focused on other benefits of appearing in the search results, such as brand development. For decades, marketers have invested in g [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Search Marketing: Branding | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior

Google is introducing "The Customer Journey to Online Purchase" analytics report today, a new benchmarking tool that provides insight into the various elements impacting a single campaign. You can learn more about it in a short write-up at our sister site, Marketing Land: New Google Analytics Path To Purchase Report Provides Benchmark Data On 11 Different Industries. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | SEM Tools: Web Analytics | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior

To give further credence to consumers' love of "second-screening" and why marketers should be salivating at the opportunities these new habits behold, Nielsen released stats on just what consumers are doing on their tablets while watching TV. Social networking sites are users' top destinations, but consumers also seek out information about what they are watching -- and they are buying. One out of five looked up product information for an ad they saw on TV. A full third shopped on their tablets while watching TV. Interestingly, there isn't a big gap between those who look up information a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior

An online survey examining SEO assumptions by SurveyMonkey found that the No. 1 reason users would block a website from their search results was if the website contained too many ads. If given an option to remove a website from future search results, 68 percent of the respondents said they would block a website because it had too many ads, while 60 percent claimed they would block a site because of poor quality content. Respondents were more forgiving of typos and grammar mistakes, with 26 percent claiming to block a website with typos and only 23 percent blocking a website containing bad g [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing SEO | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior

In a recent study by SurveyMonkey examining SEO assumptions, respondents were given two search result pages, one with a page header labeled "Google" and the other with a page header labeled "Bing," and asked which page of results they preferred. Even when the page header labels were swapped, more users preferred the Google search results. Of 641 survey respondents, 379 participants received a survey asking which of two search result pages they preferred. One page of results for the term "file taxes" included true Google results and the other page included true Bing results. The Google page [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Search Quality Raters | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing SEO | Search Engines | SEO: Domain Names & URLs | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Mobile-location based advertising network xAd joined forces with mobile call measurement provider Telmetrics to release their first U.K. Mobile Path-to-Purchase study, focusing on U.K. mobile search behavior. Conducted by Nielsen, the online study, surveyed 1,500 U.K. smartphone and tablet users to measure consumer search activity on mobile devices. While price comparisons and reviews were the leading mobile research activities in the U.K., users performing restaurant and automotive searches on smartphones were most often looking for location or local contact information. According t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search & Society: General | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

The proliferation of tablet devices has begun to lower the value of the tablet segment overall for paid search marketers, even as competition heats up. That's according to the Q1 Digital Marketing Report by RKG, which finds that tablets generated 15% lower revenue per click than traditional computers. Revenue Per Click by Device Type vs Computer "Discrepancy is More Likely to Increase" Much has been made of Google's decision to combine tablets and PCs in enhanced campaigns. The RKG  report is not alone in challenging Google's claim that usage behavior and ad performance among the devices [...]

Related Topics: 1 | Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Marketing: Mobile | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Search continues to shift away from the desktop toward mobile devices. That's one of the conclusions of the just-released Neustar Localeze/15miles/comScore Local Search Study, which is now in its sixth year. This year's study involves a sample of more than 3,000 U.S. adults that say they use the Internet to search for local businesses. Results aren't available online yet, but we'll add a link here when they are. The total number of U.S. searchers using mobile phones grew 26 percent between March 2012 and December 2012, from 90.1 million to 113.1 million searchers. Search on tablets was u [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Did you know that the higher a site is listed in search results, the more traffic that site is likely to receive? If you're a search marketer, or anyone with a dose of common sense, you do. But Microsoft had research conducted to yet again prove this point, in an attempt to influence the ongoing EU antitrust review against Google. Microsoft's Hired Gun Does Research In a Microsoft blog post today, Susan Athey, a Microsoft consultant and professor of economics at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, writes about how she worked with those from Microsoft's Bing search engine to c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Microsoft: Business Issues | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Large numbers of people believe that the majority of mobile search activity happens “on the go.” However, according to an extensive new study from Google and Nielsen, the overwhelming majority (77 percent) of mobile search happens at home or work -- even when there’s a PC nearby and readily available. These people are choosing to search on their smartphones rather than PCs because of speed and convenience. And most of these users take some sort of near-immediate, follow-up action. In fact, the study found, 55 percent of mobile-search influenced conversions take place within one hour. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Microsoft continues to run online its Pepsi-Challenge style ads "Bing It On," in which a majority of users prefer Bing in a "blind comparison test" with Google. Despite the commercials and despite Microsoft reporting that after extensive testing users preferred Bing 2:1, people generally express skepticism. People simply don't buy the campaign. Another recent study conducted by Butler University found that Q&A engine ChaCha bested Google in terms of the quality of answers provided (across nearly 4,000 queries). And last week, YP released the results of an extensive study of local sea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Google: Critics | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Once in every five times that someone clicks a search result, it goes to one of five websites: Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia or Amazon. That leaves about 80 percent of search clicks for the rest of us. Going further, the top 500 websites received almost 50 percent of all clicks from search results, and the top 10,000 websites got almost 75 percent of all search clicks. All of this is according to the 2013 Digital Marketer Report from Experian Marketing Services (Hitwise). The company says that those five sites I listed above combined to get 20.07 percent of all clicks from US [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | eBay | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: YouTube & Video | Search & Society: General | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

When it comes to getting general news and information, consumers worldwide put as much trust in search engines as they do in traditional media -- and more in both than they do in social media. But, the numbers don't portray any single source as highly trusted, which suggests that consumers are at least trying to vet the accuracy and trustworthiness of what they find in today's information-saturated world. The data comes from the recently released 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, the 13th annual global survey that uses data from "informed publics" -- college-educated individuals in upper inc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Knowledge Graph | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Search & Society: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Last night, President Obama gave his State of the Union address. During his address, Google was plotting how his speech impacted the types of search queries done on Google last night. Google was sharing statistics and charts throughout the night on their Google Politics Google+ page. Here are some of the interesting trends we saw last night on Google due to the State of the Union address. During the first 15 minutes of the speech, the top rising terms on Google were Green Ribbon, Eliot Engel, Supreme Court Justices, and Steven Chu. There was a 950% spike in interest on search terms [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends | Google: Web Search | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Marin Software has released a report on paid click, CPC and conversion trends across the globe, with a focus on mobile. Called "The State of Mobile Search Advertising in the World," the 2012 data are drawn from search campaigns conducted in 13 geographies including the US, UK, China, Europe and Australia. Some of the findings, however, will effectively be rendered moot by Google's new Enhanced Campaigns, which lump together PC and tablet targeting and create new default pricing intended, in part, to equalize CPC prices across platforms. Source: Marin Software Marin forecasts in th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Web Search | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

ConstantContact's SinglePlatform division has released the results of a new survey of small businesses (SMBs). The "headline" finding is that nearly half (49 percent) say they've never updated their listings online. The survey polled "more than 350" SMBs. Most small businesses are overwhelmed and confused by even basic online marketing. This is reflected in some of the seemingly contradictory findings of the survey: 50 percent of SMBs have seen listings for their business that are not accurate 70 percent of SMBs say they don’t have the time to manage listings on all of the sites t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: SEO | Search Engines: Location / Checkin Services | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | SEO: Local | SEO: Mobile Search | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

If search has any influence or say in who will win the Super Bowl this Sunday, Super Bowl XLVII, then the San Francisco 49ers are clear winners. A Bing representative told us that the San Francisco 49ers have twice as many searches than their competitor the Baltimore Ravens. Plus, the 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, has 50 percent more searches than Raven’s quarterback, Joe Flacco. The Ravens do win when it comes to searchers on the top player. The Raven's linebacker, Ray Lewis, is the most searched on player for Super Bowl XLVII amongst Bing searchers. While Alex Smith is the top [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior

Although there's long been a debate over the accuracy of health information online, many U.S. Internet users aren't hesitant to use the Web when they want answers to health-related questions. And rather than dedicated health sites, the vast majority of them begin their research at a search engine. A new study out tonight from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project says that 72 percent of U.S. Internet users have gone online in the past year specifically for health-related information, and 77 percent of that group says their research started at Google, Bing or another [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search & Society: General | Search Engines: Health & Medical Search Engines | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Two reports out this morning from Marin Software and IgnitionOne capture a range of Q4 paid search ad spending data. For purposes of this article I'm going to focus only on the mobile component of the reports. Both show paid search spending on tablets surpassing smartphones. The IgnitionOne report, focused on the US market, shows that mobile devices now account for 18 percent of total paid-search budgets. However in Q4 tablet metrics grew dramatically faster than those for smartphones. Right now IgnitionOne says CPCs are lower on tablets, while impressions and clicks are much higher for tab [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News