Current Search Engine Usage

The search engine market is growing exponentially and is fast becoming the main marketing medium in markets of the world. As the search market grows, Google continues to command the largest share and continues to dominate the search market worldwide. Yahoo and MSN however are not to be left out as they still have a double figure presence in the US market.

• 81% of Internet users use search engines to find the information they need.
• Google has approximately 70% share of the global search engine market.
• Google’s share of search engine market is even higher in UK and Europe where it commands nearly 80% of the total search engine market.
• Search engine reach in the UK is the highest where 85% of users use search engines.
• Search engines in the UK also receive the most hits; more than in any other country.

User Behaviour

The search engine market is evolving. The number of multiple keyword queries has increased and so has the frequency of searches. Following are some important statistics that highlight these trends.

• An internet user on an average spends more that 3% of their internet time on search engines. As an average every internet user spent 27 minutes on search engines each month and viewed nearly a 100 search pages, accounting for 3.4% of total time spent online
• The heaviest search users come from France and Spain
• Many users use a search engine as their point of entry to the Internet

Advertiser Behaviour

There is a continuous increase in search engine marketing and business expenditure on online marketing activities. A recent survey of European businesses conducted by a French research agency found a continuing upward trend in search engine marketing budgets.

• The top 30 results get over 90% of search traffic and the top 10 results receive nearly 80% more traffic than those in positions 11-30 achieve.
• More than 60% of advertisers surveyed plan to increase expenditure on search marketing over the next year.
• Building brand awareness for their business online and increase sales are the two main objectives for businesses

• The main problem search engine advertisers face is increasing competition and increase in the cost of pay per click campaigns including Google Adwords
• In many European countries Organic SEO is more important than paid search for advertisers
• One of the main reasons to outsource search marketing to specialist SEO companies is lack of in-house knowledge and experience.