SEO: Better this year,
but not good enough

Only 17 percent of Internet Retailer's top 100 sites are fully using search engine optimization and marketing, while 83 percent are not and so are missing profitable opportunities, according to a new study by Oneupweb titled "There's Still Money on the Table: Internet Retailer Study 2005." Oneupweb studied each site's meta tags, site architecture, keywords, content and other tactics.

Among the top 100 sites, only 17 percent were well optimized, 25 percent moderately optimized, 35 percent nominally optimized, and 23 percent not optimized at all.

Among the well-optimized sites, 52 percent appeared on the first page of results for their respective keyword searches—and 89 percent were positioned on the first three pages. Only four percent of sites not optimized appeared on the first through third pages.

Oneupweb also examined the level paid search use among the top 100 sites, finding that moderately optimized sites had the highest rate of paid search marketing (68 percent), compared with 53 percent of well-optimized sites. Some 40 percent of nominally optimized sites, and 26 percent of not-optimized sites use paid search.

"While the study shows that more sites are using search engine optimization overall, sites aren't using sophisticated techniques combined with well-developed content. And that's the crucial strategy that brings better positions on the search engine results pages," says Oneupweb CEO Lisa Wehr.