WWW Design - Newsletter No. 105 - Search Engine Results

Click Here to view this Newsletter online

Selling or buying a property or business?

www.nzpropertyforsale.co.nz

A great way to improve your link popularity which is directly related to your search engine ranking, is to take advantage of our FREE classified advertisement offer. We have "classifieds" on our four town websites (www.matamata-info.co.nz/classifieds.html - www.morrinsville-info.co.nz/classifieds.html - www.tearoha-info.co.nz/classifieds.html - www.thames-info.co.nz/classifieds.html) and they receive an enormous amount of visitors and are extremely well ranked in the top search engines - if you're not there you're missing out !! All you have to do is forward us 25 words about your business - a breeze surely !! Your classified advertisement will be linked to your website and can also have an email link on it if requested. Take a look at our top ranking regional websites >>>>

Feature website ...

WWW Design took over and redesigned this website in November 2007. Cotswold Cottage had new owners with new ideas and they wanted a completely new look for their website. Cotswold Cottage has recently been awarded the Qualmark Four Star Plus ranking for guest and hosted accommodation, which is a testament to all the hard work Jacqui & Graham Hamlett have put into their new business venture. Cotswold Cottage Bed & Breakfast has even been described in Lonely Planet as "beautiful" and "tranquil" (Lonely Planet comments are completely unbiased and cannot be "bought"). Jacqui is a qualified chef, so to treat your self to a "gourmet" break away, check out their July & August special offer by visiting www.cotswoldcottage.co.nz.

Search Engines ... what do people click in the search results?

A new study about the click behaviour of web searchers was released in April. The study shows that searchers click specialised content within general search results more than they do within the results of specialised searches.

Blended results and specialised searches

Within the last year, all major search engines have begun returning blended results for some searches. For these searches, specialised search result types such as news, images and videos appear along the regular web pages on the search result page.

Before search engines introduced blended results, these result types were only available by performing specialised searches in the news, image or video sections of the search engines.

Which results are clicked by web searchers?

The study shows which results are clicked most often:

36% of searchers click news results within blended search results, while only 17% click a news result after conducting a news-specific search.
31% of search engine users click image results within blended search results, while 26% click an image result after conducting an image-specific search.
17% of search engine users click video results within blended search results, while only 10% click a video result after conducting a video-specific search.
Images are the most clicked result type after a specialized search.
News items are the most clicked result type within blended search results.

The first result page is getting more important

The study also revealed some trends that show that the first page of the search results is getting more important:

68% of search engine users click results on the first page of search results, compared to 62% in 2006, and 60% in 2004.
Only 8% of search engine users review more than the first three pages prior to clicking on a result.
49% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they are looking for, change and/or re-launch their search after reviewing just the first page of search results, up from 40% in 2006, and 42% in 2004.
37% of online users associate appearance at the top of search results with a company's leadership within its industry or category, up slightly from 35% in 2006 and 33% in 2002.

What does this mean for your website rankings?

The study clearly shows that it is very important to be listed on the first page of the search results.

1. If your website has been online for one year or more and cannot be found in the top 10 results for your specific keywords, then we should take a look at ways to improve your website’s ranking.

2. In addition to getting top 10 rankings, it is also important that your website attracts visitors. If your website is not getting sufficient visitors, then talk to us about how to improve your visitor numbers. (Remember, if you are not receiving monthly stats for your website, then you have no way of keeping track of visitor numbers).