iProspect: Search Engine Usage Ranks High

Culled from the results of 1,403 e-mail participants during spring 2002, the iProspect Search Engine Branding Survey found that roughly 16 percent only look at a few entries of search results, and almost 32 percent read through the whole page. Only 23 percent of searchers go beyond to the second page, with the numbers dropping significantly for every page thereafter.

This is part of an ongoing trend, with people becoming less and less inclined to move past the first few search results. Because of this many companies are now abandoning search engine optimisation, and instead focusing their resources on immediate response pay per click solutions such as Overture, Google Adword Select, Espotting and FindWhat.

I personally think that this is shortsighted - good search engine marketing has to include a mix of PPC and SEO, balancing direct marketing with long term positioning.