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Search Engine Survey Solution and Maintenance!
NEW SURVEY REVEALS THAT TOP SEARCH ENGINE MATCHES EQUAL TOP BRAND STATUS FOR MANY U.S. ONLINE USERS
33% of Internet Users Believe Companies Found in Top Search Results Must Be a Major Brand -- Indicating That Top Rankings Transmit Brand Equity
A top Search Engine Positioning Firm, today published survey results showing that major brands of leading companies that do not use search engine positioning to propel their sites to top search engine results fail to meet the expectations of a majority of America's 175 million Internet users. The majority (56%) of consumers surveyed expect leading brands to hold top search listings. When Web marketers do not make search engines the primary focus of their online marketing initiatives, they are forfeiting "top-of-mind" brand position to lesser-known organizations on the medium most frequently utilized by consumers for finding Web sites.
Survey respondents were asked, "If you spotted a company within the opening few lines of search results, would that make you think that the company was a top one in the field?" Fully 33% of the respondents indicated they would. "This was the biggest surprise in the survey. Our hypothesis was that people could tell the difference between a major brand and a lesser-known company, product or service that happened to enjoy a top ranking," said Dr. Amanda
Watlington. "What this indicates is that being found in a top search engine match transmits a halo effect of sorts. We can infer by this response that a large number of search engine users will assign brand value or equity to a top ranked Web site, disregarding the fact that the search engine's mathematical algorithm is the cause. This demonstrates, especially for new Internet users, that top search engine listings transmit brand equity. Based on these results, lesser-known brands, or perhaps resellers of these branded products, can increase their perceived brand equity with search engine users by being found in the top search matches."
An unexpected twist in the findings was discovered when the data was segmented by the respondent's Web experience. While 55% of all survey respondents expect major brands to show up in the top search results, Internet users who had been online less than six months had the greatest expectation, with over 65% indicating that they expect to find major brands in the top spots. However, the longer the user has been using the Internet, the more disaffected they become. Respondents who had been online six or more years were three times less likely to expect to find the major brands in the top search results. "The increase in Web experience will slowly erode existing brands unless they engage in aggressive search engine positioning. When a search engine query is launched, there are only two possible outcomes for marketers: your Web site will be displayed to the searcher, or your competitor's will - whether you think of them as your competitor or not," said Watlington. "Brand managers risk diluting their brand equity if they fail to meet the expectations of Internet users and repeatedly allow other entities to be displayed to these search engine users."
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