Internet retailers do a remarkable job with their paid search marketing hard work in most of the times; however the search engine optimization techniques appear to be missing according a study based upon Google search results in the 2010 edition of the Internet Retailer Search Marketing Guide. Creating a solid paid search strategy is something that major internet retailers appreciate and excel at because it is computable and can be fine tuned to meet back-end goals.
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Working to stay at the top of the organic search results for their top product categories involves a very different approach, which is not as easy to succeed at without the right approach and plan. Since organic search results are a reflection of Google’s assessment of site content and link popularity, it means that internet retailers need to continually create content and establish links to their online store from other sites. This is not as easy as it sounds because retailers need the right type of content and links if they want to be first for their desired product category keywords.
The study used over 300 keywords to determine where top internet retailers ranked on Google’s search engine for a number of product categories. It found that they only owned the top three spots in a little more than 50% of the 20 merchandising categories, placing in 35 of 60 possible spots.
Results were slightly improved over the prior year, but still indicated that Google completely passes over internet retailers for the top positions in the organic results. For example, when searching for “refrigerator” 3 out of 5 of the top results did not even sell the product and were informational sites like wikipedia.org and energystar.org. Profit margins on organic search traffic are typically significantly higher than that of paid search and if internet retailers want to improve their overall profitability then they will need to focus on a strong search engine optimization strategy.
