June 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in June with 65.0 % of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (19.6 %), and Microsoft Sites (8.4% ). Ask Network captured 3.9 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 3.1 percent.


* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Americans conducted 14 billion searches in June, down slightly from May. Google Sites accounted for 9.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites (2.8 billion), Microsoft Sites (1.2 billion), Ask Network (552 million) and AOL LLC (439 million).



* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

June 2009 U.S. Expanded Search Rankings

In the June 2009 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led the search market with 13.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.9 billion. Microsoft Sites ranked third with 1.2 billion searches, up 3 percent from May, followed by AOL LLC with 736 million.
Facebook.com experienced the highest growth of the top ten expanded search properties with a 9-percent increase.

Source : comScore

May 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings Report

May 2009 core search rankings

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in April with 65.0 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.1 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.0 percent), Ask Network (3.9 percent) and AOL LLC (3.1 percent).
* May data does not include search activity at Microsoft Bing, which was launched on June 1. Microsoft Bing.Com will be included with June Search queries data.
** Americans conducted 14.3 billion searches at the core search engines.
Google Sites accounted for 9.3 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.9 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion.

May 2009 U.S. Expanded Search Rankings

In the comScore May 2009 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 13 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 3 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (1.2 billion) and AOL LLC (721 million).
*May data does not include search activity at Microsoft Bing.Com, which was launched on June Microsoft Bing will be included with June qSearch data.

Source: comScore

Bing.Com Continues to Show Growth in Search Activity

According to comScore Bing.Com Continues
to Show Growth in Search Activity.

Microsoft Sees Gains in U.S. Searcher Penetration and Share of Search Result Pages During the Second Week of Bing’s Debut.
ComScore today released a follow up study on the performance of Bing.Com, Microsoft’s new search engine, during the second week of its public launch. The results show that Microsoft has continued to increase its position in the search market following the initial week of Bing’s debut.

Microsoft Sites saw its average daily searcher penetration and share of search result pages in the U.S. continue to climb during the second week of Bing’s introduction. Microsoft Sites’ average daily penetration among U.S. searchers reached 16.7 percent during the work week of June 8-12, up 3 percentage points from the May 25-29 work week prior to Bing’s introduction. Microsoft’s share of search result pages in the U.S., a proxy for overall search intensity, increased to 12.1 percent during the period of June 8-12, also climbing 3 percentage points from the pre-introduction work week of May 25-29.

These early data reflect a continued positive market reaction to Bing in the initial stages of its launch.

source:Comscore

Search Marketing Spending and Trends

Search dominated by paid placement, more SEO to come.

New data provided by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), based on research conducted by Radar Research, sheds light on how search marketing dollars are being spent.

In 2008, $13.5 billion was spent on search marketing. The space was mostly made up of paid placement and search engine optimization (SEO), with a sliver going to technology providers whose software assisted in the execution of search campaigns. Paid search ads saw 88% of the total pie, SEO only 11%.


The ratio of paid placement to SEO will change in the future.

“Internet users prefer organic listings to paid search. They generally find them more relevant—or simply more acceptable—than advertising,” said eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman. “Therefore, they tend to click on organic results more often than on paid search ads.”

SEO is also cost-effective and works across all search engines. In addition, an optimized site doesn’t drop off the first results page even when a marketer’s spending slows or stops, as paid search does.
“Marketers are realizing that even if optimization’s effects are not as obvious as paid search advertising,” added Mr. Hallerman, “SEO delivers longer-term results that support any search marketing campaign.”

Search marketing spending will thrive in the coming years. SEMPO estimates that $14.7 billion will be spent in 2009.


Other sources are not quite as bullish, but they only cover the US, so it not surprising that the figures are lower. Myers Publishing, Credit Suisse, Oppenheimer and Co. and Barclays Capital all had lower 2009 projections, $13.0 billion, $11.6 billion, $11.6 billion and $11.2 billion, respectively.

eMarketer currently estimates that search ad spending in the US will reach $12.3 billion in 2009. But revisted figures are due out soon. Watch for them.

Analysis For Incoming Traffic From Search Queries Is A Gold Mine

Commenting on the previous post: search queries with 8+ words continue to rise
I decided to analyze my search quires because it drew my attention that any of the visits that I receive are a result of four-word search quires or more.
The visits on my blog (e-marketing strategies) were analyzed last week and noticed that my blog appears as a result of the search with the following quires:
1- Google EG : “Retail Statistics Egypt”.
2- Google SA : “Blogsphere.jeeran.com” (check my article: Egyptian Bloggers Full Statistics - Part 1)

There are more than three-word search quires such as:
Google NL : “marketing penetration middle east.” The result of this search is this article: MIDDLE EAST vs GLOBAL INTERNET PENETRATION


Of course that is so far from what the visitor desired to find; as he wanted data about marketing in the Middle East and therefore he didn't stay on the blog for more than a minute. That gave me the idea to improve the content of the articles, since it appeared in the results of that search term. More attention is required for the articles concerned with "marketing in the middle east"; especially after the economic crisis and the need to search for markets all over the world.

More examples of the search quires are:
1-Google UK : “facebooks e-marketing strategies.”
2-Google USA : “e-marketer objections.”

The search quire that contained eight-words is:
Google EG: “statistics about number of internet bloggers in Egypt ”

To sum all that we may say that since the search quires increase, then the visitor needs more specified information, and needs more specified and regional articles than before. That is the reason of using four or eight words per search quire.
The visitor might not find his quest in your article this time, but definitely he will find it next time he visits your blog because you now know the requirements of your reader. It is your job now to use the chance and introduce the content that the reader seeks, especially that you come up in the results under the search terms he uses.

Last week, I analyzed the search quires and found that the field of marketing in Egypt and the Middle East is so vague (especially to foreigners). More information is required about that field, and hence I will concentrate my efforts on articles, statistics and presumptive figures about marketing in Egypt and applying it online.
One of the reasons that infused this idea is that my article (Egyptian bloggers full statistics) is read more than any of my other articles. That article was written in Arabic and was based on a research from the Centre of Decision Making - the Cabinet of Ministers. This article is highly read because of the lack of information about blogging in Egypt and the Middle East.
The bottom line is: analyze your Keywords and create a new content according to the search quires that your article appears in its results.

Search Queries with 8+ Words Continue to Rise

The use of keyword searches that are eight or more words long increased 20% in the period between February 2008 and February 2009, and search queries averaging five to more than eight words have increased 9%, according to data from Hitwise, which reports an overall trend toward longer searches at the major search engines.


The same time period showed that shorter search queries - those averaging one to four words long - decreased 2%. Searches of two words comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 23.47% of all queries.

The growing length of search queries was first reported last month, and appears to be a trend resulting from growing sophistication among web searchers and the need to use more specific terms to cut through web clutter.

Google Search Share Holds Steady at 72%

In related news, Hitwise also reported that Google’s share of searches in February 2009 held steady at 72% vs. January 2009. In this period, Google accounted for 72.11% of all US searches.
Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com received 17.04%, 5.56% and 3.74%, respectively. The remaining 46 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.56 percent of US searches.

Check: Google continues to grow as a greater source of traffic to key US industries at Histwise