As more and more businesses go online to captivate their target audience, do managers understand that there is a great deal more than just having an online presence?
According to IMRG (membership community for the e-retail industry), online retail sales amounted to £5.46 billion in 2009, which is a 17% year on year increase and this figure is only set to increase further in 2010. Therefore, having a strong online presence is a must for the vast majority of businesses. However, it is one thing to have a website, but unless the public are made aware of it, it is unlikely to generate a vast quantity of relevant traffic and is likely to get lost amongst the infinite World Wide Web.
Statistics have proven that 90% of people will locate websites through search engines of which a mere 16% will look beyond page 2 of the results pages. Therefore search engine optimisation is an absolute must for companies that are seeking to generate sales through their website, but there is even more to it than just ranking on the first two pages of Google, Bing and Yahoo! The graph below shows the percentage of click through’s a website is likely to get from ranking on the first page of Google.
As you can see, the optimum position to rank for is naturally number 1, but even more surprisingly is the decline in the number of clicks that the latter positions get, and remember this is on page 1 – subsequent pages are even worse! The only result that gets a higher percentage of click through’s than its predecessor is position 10 – the most likely reason for this is because internet users will take a last look before clicking onto page 2 or entering an alternative search term.
The financial benefit to businesses can be drastic depending on their search engine position. For example the average sale for company A is £15 per 100 visitors to the website. For every 1000 searches, if it ranks number 1 the company is set to make approximately £63.20 where as if it ranks in position 5, it is only set to make £7.38.
Remember that these figures are not set in stone, for more or less competitive markets the click through rate will be higher or lower, however it goes to show that it is one thing to have a nice, functioning website but without it ranking highly in the search engines, it is unlikely to make a significant impression.
