Keyword Search Placement

Last July, Jupiter Media Metrix, along with Harris Interactive, surveyed 2,000 US companies about online advertising effectiveness. Five types of ads were evaluated: pay-for-placement searches, opt-in e-mail, paid inclusion (on search sites), cost-per-click (CPC) banners and cost-per-thousand (CPM) banners.
Pay-for-placement ad spending (keyword searches) came out on top in four out of the five criteria: overall satisfaction, satisfaction with average ROI, satisfaction with revenue generation and for traffic generation. E-mail was the winner for customer conversions.

And web searching is a major activity, coming in second to e-mail among the top five activities of US internet users, according to the latest research from the US Department of Commerce.

A survey from ACNielsen shows that people who go online search online, with 74% conducting internet searches more than three times per week. The same survey indicates the success rate of paid keyword search links, with 55% of US internet users having clicked on them in 2001.
Further support for the efficacy of keyword search placements comes from this February 2001 survey by the NPD Group (Overture was the survey's sponsor). When asked where their online purchases originate, 55% of the 2,288 US respondents indicated search listings.

In the end, the whole purpose of keyword searches and other pay-for-placement services is summarized by the term "search engine optimization" (SEO) -- having your site appear near the top of search results.

Click Here to Get Your Free Website Visibility Analysis