Importance of Search Engine Marketing

In my earlier blog "Search Engine Marketing", I had written about how important it is to market on Internet through search engines like Google or Yahoo or MSN. Recently, I read some interesting research data on how people use search results, here is the summary of that research (done by iProspect) :

1. Four of ten searchers tend to click on links on the first page of search results - then either revise their query or go to another search engine if they don't find what they're looking for.
   
2. 62 percent of searchers said they click on a link within the first page of results, up from 60 percent in 2004 and 48 percent in 2002.
   
3. 90 percent click on a link within the first three pages, up from 87 percent in 2004 and 81 percent in 2002.
   
4. 16 percent of respondents said they revise their query or move to another engine after reviewing the first few entries; 25 percent said after the first page; 27 percent said after the first two pages; 20 percent after three pages; and only 12 percent beyond three pages.
   
5. When re-launching an unsuccessful search, 82 percent of users use the same search engine as for the initial search, but add more keywords, That's up from 68 percent in 2002.
   
6. 36 percent of search engine users think that companies appearing at the top of search results are leaders in their field.

This data makes it clear for all marketers that their company's web page must appear in the first page of the search results - especially when users are searching for the product(s) the company makes.