Internet Marketing Services | Internet Statistics Page: search terms - keywords, search engine rankings, SE optimization, webpage development, PPC campaigns, buyer behavior.

Internet Marketing Statistics:

Internet Usage

Total Internet users for North America—266,224,500. North America has the highest Internet penetration rate in the world with 77.4%.(Internet World Stats, 2010)

North America Internet users enjoy the fastest and most reliable connections. The average response time for North America is the lowest in the world at 117ms. (Internet Traffic Report, February 2009)

Active Home Internet users for the US--150,441,473.  (Nielsen/NetRatings, 2008)

The Internet is the second most used medium for the 2008 Presidential election. (Cisco Visual Networking Index Pulse Study, 2008)

The Internet is the second most commonly used medium after television. (Internet Statistics Compendium, 2006)

The Pacific Northwest Region (Oregon and Washington) have the highest adult Internet Access in the nation—68%. (Pew Research Center, December 2002)

Active Internet domains on the web approaching 76 million. (September, 2006)

30% of the Internet involves duplicate content. (Server Insiders)

A disturbing statistic--25% of live websites serve adult content. (Server Insiders)

Search Terms

"Facebook" is the top search term acroos the three major search engines. (Hitwise, April 2010)

Facebook has 500,000,000 users who spend nearly 10% of their Internet time on the Facebook website. These same users spend another nearly 10% of their Internet time on Google sites, including YouTube, Gmail and Google News. (ComScore, Sep 2010)

The top search terms by categories are as follows:

automotive manufacturers - Toyota
movies - Netflix
Internet communities or chat - myspace followed by YouTube
food and beverage - Pizza Hut
pharmaceutical and medical products - cymbalta followed by viagra
broadcast media - CNN
travel - hotels.com. (Hitwise, November 2008)

The average search query uses two to three words.

When "localizing" a search, searches tend to use state abbreviations for search terms rather than spelling out the name of the state. They tend to use UT more than they use Utah.

22% of search queries are refined with an adjustment to the original search terms.

More than 92 percent of searchers never use brand names as search terms. "Generic keywords drive activity that later converts to brands. (DoubleClick, 2005)

70 to 80 percent of buyers searched on generic terms, with searches on brand names peaking immediately before purchase. (DoubleClick, 2005)

How do Internet users search? 45% search by using multiple keywords or key phrases, 28% use one keyword, 18% search by a pre-defined option (such as browsing through a directory category) and 9% search by typing in a question. (NPD Group)

Branded search terms convert to a sale much better than non-branded terms.

Search Engine Usage

Hitwise rates Google at 71.51%, Yahoo at 14.03%, Bing at 10.16%, Ask at 2.36% and AOL at 1.2%. (September 18, 2010)

Hitslink shows search engines market shares at 84.73% for Google, 6.65% for Yahoo, 3.3% for Bing and 0.71 for Ask and 0.48% for AOL. (September 25, 2010)

The ComScore for the top search engines are Google sites at 65.1%, Yahoo! sites 17.7%, Microsoft sites 11.8% and Ask Network 3.7% and AOL at 2.4%. (ComScore, April 2010)

18 billion monthly U.S. searches with 12% retail focus. Comscore, 2008) Google sites produced 14 billion search queries monthly. (Comscore, April 2010)

SearchEngineLand reports 86% of searchers start their search at a major search engine when shopping and 70% of the product related queries are for category keywords. (Microsoft 2007 Study)

Hitwise rates Google at 67.3%, Yahoo at 20.3%, Microsoft at 6.7% and Ask at 4.1%. (Hitwise, March 2008)

Neilsen Netratings pegs Google at 62%, Yahoo at 17.5%, MSN at 9.7%, AOL at 4.3% and Ask at 2.1%. (Neilsen, April 2008)

75% of Internet users begin their search on the Internet through a search engine or Web portal.  (Clickstreams, 2005)

Search engine market share is as follows: Google 77%, Yahoo 12%, MSN 6%, (Net Applications, December 2007)

81% of Internet users find websites by using search engines. (Forrester Research, 2000)

85% of users found information they were looking for through search engines (GVU Survey, 1998) 81% of people using search engines find the information they need every time or most of the time. (NPD)

70% to 80% of home buyers begin their search using the Internet. (National Association of Realtors and Google, 2007)

Page Ranking

Often Internet users rarely go beyond the top 30 search engine listings. (Forrester Research, 2000)

90% of Internet search engine traffic goes to the top 30 results. (Forrester Research, 2000)

Web users typically visited only the first three results from a query, with one in five searchers spending 60 seconds or less on a linked web document. Penn State University, 2003)

Organic (non-paid listings) search engine results found that study participants viewed the first three positions 100%, the 4th at 85%. Positions 5 through 10 required scrolling down to view and resulted in 60% to 20% views. (Eye-tracking Study, Enquiro, Did-it and Eyetools, 2005)

Sponsored (PPC/paid advertisements) search engine results found 50% viewed position 1, 40% viewed position 2, 30% viewed position 3, 20% viewed position 4, and the other six position were viewed at 10% each. (Eye-tracking Study, Enquiro, Did-it and Eyetools, 2005)

75% of search engine users click on the first link of interest. (Eye-tracking Study, Enquiro, Did-it and Eyetools, 2005)

Search Engine Optimization

Searchers spend less than ten seconds on the search results page and only 2 seconds evaluating the individual results.

The percentage of clicks on the first page of the search results is above 60% The first three pages provide over 90% of the clicks. The majority of clicks take place "above the fold".

60% of searchers rely primarily on the title of the search results in selecting a link to click upon. Searches often do not read the entire title but look primarily at the first few words on the left. (Penn State University Study by Bernard J. Jensen)

Only 42% of the Top e-Tailers have had their corporate websites optimized. (Oneupweb, 2005)

Web Analytics

Only 23% of websites have analytics installed upon their site. Only 1% are doing A/B or multivariate testing.

Web Conversion Rates - Cart Abandonment Rates

                                                         Conversion Rates  Cart Abandonment

Fashion & Apparel                                  1.5%                           86.4%
Electronics                                                 0.5%                           77.2%
Catalog                                                         6.0%                           60.1%
Specialty                                                     2.1%                           65.0%
Outdoor and Sports                               1.4%                           70.0%
Software                                                      1.4%                           69.4%

 (FireClick, Sep 2010)

Typically between 1% and 7% of registered users will convert to a paid service. (E-Consultancy.com, June 2003)

Web Page Development

The most interest for search engine results page is in an area in the upper left corner of search results. Secondary interest is at the top right where sponsored listings begin. (Eye-tracking Study, Enquiro, Did-it and Eyetools, 2005)

Internet Explorer (IE) is the number one browser in use with IE7 at 25.7% followed by IE6 at 18.5% and IE8 at 0.6%. Firefox accounts for 45.5% and is growing. (w3schools.com, January 2009)

Hitslink shows IE at 67.5% market share, Firefox at 21.5% and Safari at 8.3%. (Hitslink, January 2009)

Windows XP is the number one operating system in use at 68.8%. Vista is at 16.5% (w3schools.com, January 2009)

Macintosh OS has a grown from 3.3% market share in August 2006 to 5.8% share in January 2009. Linux is growing very slowly and was at 3.9% January 2009. (w3schools.com, August 2006 & January 2009)

Screen size trend is at 1024x768 with 48% usage. Higher screen sizes account for 38%. (w3schools.com, January 2009)

Color depth usage stands at 24 or 32 bit hardware with display of 16,77,216 different colors at 90% and 16 bit hardware with display of 65,536 colors at 8%. (w3schools.com, January 2009)

95% of Internet users have JavaScript turned on within their browser software. (w3schools.com, January 2009) sales.

Approximately 60% of Web users employ the back button as their primary means of navigation (source: Usability Interface)

Media

Getting The top B2B advertising media venues rank Google second, behind the Wall Street Journal. The third ranked media is Business Week followed by USA Today. (Media Power 50, May 2006)

Forecasted total advertising spending online will match that of print magazines by 2007, and then surpass it in 2008. (Jupiter Research, 2006) sales.

Buying Behavior

Men prefer succinct and targeted content and are more likely to make impulse purchases than women. Men are less patient in shopping. Fewer men look for price tags. Men make quicker decisions, spend less time on a specific website, and are more likely to favor a brand.

Women are engaged more by images. Women tend to be more deliberate in reading through search results postings and spend more time with their searches. Women spend more time making their purchase decision. Women want to see pricing information up front.

Searchers do a lot of research before buying, affording nearly five touch points on average. (DoubleClick, 2005)

More than 50% of buyers in the travel category made their last search two or more weeks before purchasing. (DoubleClick, 2005)

Organic Search Campaigns

Organic search results produces around 85% of searcher clicks.

IProspect found that 72% of Google searchers feel that organic results are more relevant to their queries than paid results.  (Marketing in the Age of Google, p. 220)

The largest expense associated with organic search is the production of content.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaigns

PPC results produce around 15% of searcher clicks.

Only 44% of Google queries display PPC ads.

"... [W]hen a site is visible in both paid and organic search results, both results receive more clicks that if either appeared alone.  (Marketing in the Age of Google, p. 12)

eMarketer found 66% of searchers distrust paid ads and 29% are actually annoyed by them. (Marketing in the Age of Google, p. 220)

Google PPC ad positioning is determined by several factors including these three key elements--the amount the advertiser is willing to pay for each click, the relevance of the ad to the search query and the quality of the page linked in the ad. (Marketing in the Age of Google, p. 10)

The average cost per click (CPC) for finance $1.37, automotive $0.45, travel $0.58 and retail $0.37. (Efficient Frontier, January 2009)

The average cost per click (CPC) for insurance - $11.40, mortgage - $2.93 and dating $0.40. (Efficient Frontier, September-October 2008)

Social Networking & Email Market Share

MySpace is the top social networking site. Facebook is ranked second with nearly 3/4 of MySpace unique visitors. Flickr is ranked third with less than half of Facebook's unique visitors.(ComScore, December 2008)

Generation Y (age group 18 - 32) is the most social group, using the Internet to play games--50%, watch online videos--67%, profile themselves on a social networking site--60%, read a blog--43%, or create a blog--20%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2009)

Generation X (age group 33 - 44) also plays games online--38%, watch online videos--57%, view job information--55%, send instant messages--38%, use social networking sites--36%, read a blog--34%, create a blogs--10%, obtain health information--82%, buy online--80%, and bank online--65%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2009)

Baby Boomers (age group 45-63) use email--90%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2009)

Silent Generation (age group 64 - 72) use email--91%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2009)

Statistics Quotes

As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information. Benjamin Disraeli

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Benjamin Disraeli

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. Benjamin Disraeli

USA Today has come out with a new survey; apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population. David Letterman

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde

First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure. Mark Twain

Statistician: A man who believes figures don´t lie, but admits that under analysis some of them won´t stand up either. Evan Esar

Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions. Evan Esar

Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics. Fletcher Knebel

The emphasis given to formal tests of significance ... has resulted in ... an undue concentration of effort by mathematical statisticians on investigations of tests of significance applicable to problems which are of little or no practical importance ... and ... it has caused scientific research workers to pay undue attention to the results of the tests of significance ... and too little to the estimates of the magnitude of the effects they are investigating. Yates

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Internet Marketing Services | Internet Statistics Page: search terms / keywords, search engine rankings, SE optimization, webpage development, website positioning, PPC campaigns, buyer behavior.