Search Engine Optimisation News from SEO Leeds

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Local Searches Becoming More Important

According to a 2009 study by the US-based ComScore, local Internet searches are growing at a much faster rate than search as a whole.

The figures stated are a 58% growth during 2008 for local searches, compared to the overall 21%, and similar figures are expected for 2009.  This suggests that attention to geography is becoming more important when considering an SEO campaign.

Local phrases account for over 12% of all searches, which is good news for directories and other websites that focus on a certain town, city or county, as well as certain business directories like yell.com, which are popular with people looking for businesses in their area.

While Internet users have always been keen to make use of the net to find information and the bargains that may be found with such a huge choice at their fingertips, these figures may suggest an eagerness in consumers to deal with local businesses.  For website owners, this may mean that while the Internet can open your doors to potential customers across the country or even worldwide, it may also pay dividends to optimise your website for your local market.

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Search Engine Market Share - US

What share of visitors are held by each of the major search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and Ask?

At the start of 2009 the approximate search engine market share in the US was as follows:

Google - 72%
Yahoo! - 18%
MSN Live - 5.5%
Ask - 3.5%

You may note that the above account for around 99% of total searches. This is because several smaller search engines gain their results via partnerships with the four above. For example, AOL gain their SERPs via Google listings.

This page: Search Engine Market Share - US

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