In a recent and groundbreaking study, the Atlas Institute has busted
the myth that the web traffic for the websites listed in the
top ten of a search engine is the same. On the contrary, they
have come up with solid evidence to prove that in reality there
is a great amount of difference in the traffic between the
sites located at the very top and the ones situated at the
fourth or fifth position.
The index used by the Atlas
Institute is the Click-through rate or CTR, which
is obtained by dividing the number of times the
ad/link was clicked on by the number of times
the ad/link was actually viewed. The CTR is an
accurate indicator to the web traffic although
it cannot predict the conversion ratio i.e. how
many of the HITs will translate to actual business.
According to the research, CTR declines alarmingly
after the surfer views the page at the top of
the search list. The search engine turns up with
a limited number of options for every key word
or key phrase search. Increasingly there is more
jostling to be at the top. However, as the list
trails off from the top three, so does the CTR.
The steady decline can even doom the fifteenth
or twentieth site on the search engine results.
This clearly points to the fact that despite
being among the best-designed and well-written
sites, the dividends are not meeting the potential.
Even listing the site with two hundred odd search
engines is of little use because high web traffic
can only be attracted by the websites located
at the top of the major search engines.
Interestingly in spite of their
differing modus operandi, both Google Ad Words
and Overture show similar results of declining
CTR although they vary in terms of the percentage.
It is evident that the website company can almost
certainly double its traffic by simply improving
its positions a couple of notches. Things are
slightly different with organic search procedure
promoted by Google. The free organic listings
ensure the hundred clicks per day for free, once
the website reaches the top of the results. It
is unbiased and helpful to the smaller companies
because only in the organic search system, they
can beat the monetary muscles of the big brothers
on the basis of sheer relevance of their content.
An Organic search produces results
by indexing pages based on content and the relevance
of the keyword. This is contrary to the listing
systems which rank their finds purely based on
the amount of money paid by the websites in order
to feature at the top. Overture.com operates
in the above-mentioned manner. Some search engines
like Google have successfully implemented a combination
of both paid and organic search. Although Google
primarily focuses on returning fast, highly relevant
results based on the content, links to the page,
and other objective criteria, but it also comes
up with a list of websites on the right hand
side, which are listed based on the amount of
money they pay. For example if one searches on “medical
records” in Google, chances are the first
position of the organic results will not match
the paid listings on the right side of the page.
The organic search listing automatically
guarantees greater trust by the surfer because
a) the results are not motivated by monetary
benefits and hence do not compromise on the ‘relevance’ factor;
b) offers a greater depth of choice. The trust
factor definitely ensures that most of the surfers
check out the left hand column more often than
taking a sneak peak at the right hand list. The
clients submitting their websites at search engines
have understood that greater trust easily translates
to greater conversions. The best part is that
it is completely free.
So how does one site set about
to reach the summit of Google, MSN or other organic
or semi organic search engines. First and foremost
one must hire the services of a professional
expert with knowledge of the Key words, Key phrases
and who would identify a target audience and
develop the site content accordingly. The better-targeted
keywords and relevant content would automatically
attract greater number of HITS from the target
audience ensuring higher conversion ratio to
potentially lucrative business. So the site should
not only be well written but must have the right
Keyword phrases that people are actually searching
on. 3daywebsites provides innovative, reliable
search engine optimization (SEO) that can help
catapult
your website to the top of the charts. Click
here to find out more about the Internet
promotion services offered by 3daywebsites.
The other virtue required for
the client is to have patience. The famous adage "Rome
was not built in a day", applies to this
system, as even leading web content developers
agree that they expect results on search engines
to begin after about four to eight weeks from
the launching date.
The key to succeed in the organic
search engines is to target the most relevant
keyword phrases a surfer is going to look for
in searching for your product or service. Having
the content and SEO developed by companies with
the expertise in this area is well worth the
investment as it can be the difference between
achieving high ranking and being buried deep
within the murky depths of search engine purgatory.
By the way - there are no short cuts.
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