Weekly news round-up (30/07/2010)
Friday 30 July 2010
TAGS: Search engine optimisation | Usability
This weeks news dished out in byte-sized portions...
A new study reveals almost 50% of SME websites have basic or no SEO.
According to the State of UK Business Websites 2010 study, 47% of SMEs are failing to make their most of their online presence by lacking SEO.
According to the study, large companies invest more heavily in search, but a staggering 70% of companies with less than 50 employees have only basic levels of optimisation, and some none at all.
Only 3% were deemed to have ‘advanced levels of SEO’. But more shocking is 12% of business websites were not indexed in search engines, entirely defeating the object of a having website. This will have a huge impact on sales and the future longevity of the company.
UK consumers least likely to pay for content, but happy to give out personal data.
According to research by KPMG, 81% of consumers will flee a website as soon as it begins to charge for content. This compares to a global average of 57% and in the Asia-Pacific region, 59% are actually willing to pay.
To avoid charged content, 75% of UK users don’t mind receiving online advertising and 48% would allow social networking sites to track and store their information in order to lower costs.
These statistics are evidenced by the fact that as soon as The Times newspaper introduced paid content in July, readership declined by almost 90%.
Web users have just a 50% chance of finding what they are looking for using site search
According to Econsultancy’s site search report, a user has a 50-50 chance of getting what they want using a website’s search function.
This means businesses are losing sales as use of the site search box tends to result in a higher conversion rate of 2.4%, compared to an average of 1.7% through perusing the website manually.
Although only 40% of companies were aware of the success rates, or lack there of, 57% are planning to increase investment in this area.
There is much a company can learn from onsite search. The data can be used to discover trends and keywords and to facilitate future SEO and PPC campaigns.
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