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More Online Shoppers Reading Reviews before Purchasing It looks like the recent economic crisis changed online shoppers' mindsets about how to shop, where to shop and what to purchase. According to a survey from PowerReviews, online shoppers are spending more time on reading reviews before purchases these days. 64 Percent of shoppers say they spend at least 10 minutes reading product reviews before making a purchase, up from 50 percent in 2007. Growth of UK Online Advertising during Recession UK online advertising market is proving to be unaffected by recession. Internet advertising overcame recession mode market conditions and achieved growth as per the marketer’s expectations. Major Search and Social Media Developments in 2009 2009 has seen major events and happenings that could have a wide impact on the aspects ranging from usage to advertising on the Internet. Some of the developments that are set to change the course of Internet are Yahoo-MSN search deal, MSN Live’s transformation into Bing, introduction of Google Caffeine, the emergence of Facebook as the top social networking site and popularity of Twitter. However, there are no surprises in the search engine shares in 2009. 2009 US Online Holiday Season’s Sales Show Positive Growth The year 2009 ended with a positive note showing a clear growth trend in the online retail sales for the holiday season of the year. US online holiday season sales improved by a solid 5% when compared to the corresponding period last year, according to comScore report. Competition for Search and Advertising Market Shares Gets Tougher The competition among top three search engines is becoming tougher. Bing is giving strong competition to Google and Yahoo in terms of search share as well as advertising. According to ComScore, Bing showed more growth than Google and Yahoo in terms of percentages of search engines market shares and number of searches in November. However, Google remained at top position in terms of overall search market shares, Search ad ROI and Click-through-rates. Longer Search Queries Increased By 8% In 2009 The use of longer search queries is gaining popularity in the year 2009. According to Hitwise, The use of short search queries is reducing and the long search query is increasing, as users want a more specific search. Longer search queries are becoming popular, as there is a consistent growth in the usage when compared to June 2008. Broadband Usage Yields $32 Billion Net Benefits To The Consumers Broadband usage yielded $32 billion net benefits to the consumers in 2008, which increased from $20 billion in 2005. According to Compass Lexecon, this increase illustrates that American households are reaping benefits in many broadband enabled areas such as education, health, work, news, entertainment and civic affairs. Google Search Share Remains Unchanged In the Month of June Google remains unchanged in terms of US search engine market share as yahoo decreased, and Bing increased. Google is still ahead of all other search engines. Google has a search base of 9.1 billion searches with 65% market Share in June 09. The total US search base is about 14 billion searches, which increased about 2.5 billion searches from June 08 to May 09. Dramatic Fall In Education Standards In Just One Decade The Indian Higher Education System has a history of imparting quality education. This was a major strength and competitive advantage of India. During the years when offshoring was not yet popular, the PowerPoint presentations created for top management of North American / European companies would include several slides on the quality of education in India and the difficulty of getting admission into higher education. Online Customers Believe Word Of Mouth More Than Traditional Advertising ‘Online recommendations’ are becoming one of the trusted forms of advertising for a major section of online customers. According to Nielsen, 70% of the people surveyed globally said that they trust ‘Consumer opinions posted online’. More over, 90% said they trust ‘Recommendations of people they know’. How Online Desk Research Is Better Than Traditional Research? The marketing activity is changing more dynamically than ever due to the economic realignment in the recent times. The vital part of any marketing initiative is market research. Comprehensive market research provides insights to marketers on target markets and customer segments. Traditional Retailers Missing the Online Search Potential A recent study by ‘Internet-Engine’ revealed that traditional retailers are extremely behind their online counterparts in typical online searches. At the same time, e-tailers have a sturdy base in search queries. The growing importance of search among online population depicts its remarkable potential to enhance business opportunities, which the traditional retailers are not focusing on. Google US Search Share Reaches 63.2% in May 2009 Google leads the US search base of 9.4 billion with 63.2% share in May 2009. According to Nielsen, Google reported a significant 28.2% YOY growth in number of searches in May 2009. While US core search base reached to 14.3 billion, Google is incredibly ahead of all the search engines in US with 5.9 billion searches in May 2009. Search Traffic From Paid Listings Declines 26% Paid search took a hit in April 2009, with a decline of 26% in its search traffic share. Recent report from Hitwise shows that search traffic from paid listings is not in pace with the overall search traffic. The Potential of Search Marketing In Driving ROI for Retailers Effective marketing is key for retailers to survive and stay ahead of competition, especially in recessionary times. It is proven that search engine marketing is helping many small and medium scale enterprises to fortune 500 companies to market their products and services online effectively. Search marketing helps to increase ROI by creating a strong online presence while making it easy for customers to find the retailer online. US Search Behavior in April 2009 The core search query volume of Americans in April 2009 reached 14.8 billion, according to comScore. Google leads this vast search query volume, in terms of search market share, with Yahoo following it. Americans have increased using lengthy search queries, over the past year. Marketers Believe SEO to Be Effective Tool for Generating Sales The 2009 Advertising Effectiveness Survey from Forbes revealed that a significant percentage of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) believe that SEO is an effective way to generate sales for their companies. A majority of the surveyed CMOs said that they use conversions or sales data as main metric to measure the success of their marketing campaigns. Almost half of the surveyed marketers believe that SEO has the potential to generate sales for their businesses. Information Online – A Great Source For Marketing Research The growth of the World Wide Web has been one of the major events in the second half of the 20th century. A big advantage of World Wide Web for businesses is the availability and quick access of information than ever before in the history of mankind. Overpriced Internet And Low Speeds Prevent Broadband Growth In India In the area of broadband, India has a lot of catching up to do. According to Point Topic, India has fewer broadband connections than Hong Kong, a region it out-populates by nearly a billion people. Broadband penetration is estimated to be around 0.5% in India. Search Marketing Is Gaining Popularity among Retailers A considerable amount of web-only retailers believe that search engine marketing helps to get good results compared to other forms of online marketing based on a survey conducted by Internet retailer. They find search marketing as an effective strategy to adopt amid glooming economy. The survey says natural search results are providing better ROI than paid search for a substantial percentage of retailers. YoY Retail E-Commerce Spending Seizes Negative Growth US retail e-commerce spending in Q1-2009 recovered from 3 percent negative growth YoY when compared to Q4-2008. According to ComScore, retail e-commerce sales remained flat when compared to Q1-2008, as they recovered slightly from the immediate previous quarter. Sports & Fitness is the fastest growing category online followed by Books & Magazine in dollar sales. Why online desk research is recommended before primary research? Online desk research is a systematic examination of the available online sources and data in the context of a research objective. In many research assignments, initial desk research is strongly recommended before primary research to gain background knowledge of a subject as well as get useful leads that will help to get the maximum from a research budget. Holiday E-commerce Spending decreased by 3% During Holiday Season in 2008 For a few years, holiday ecommerce sales have been in a growth mode, but the trend changed in 2008 holiday season. According to comScore Report, holiday ecommerce spending went down by 3% in 2008 compared to 2007. 92% of Search Engine Users View First Three Pages of Search Results Search engine users are more likely to view the first three pages of search results. According to iProspect, 92% of search engine users only view first three pages of search results. Search engine users frequently change their keywords or search engine if they don’t find expected results from the first three pages of search results. In another report released by OneStat.com, 58.93% of search engine users prefer 2-3 word phrases while using search engines. Mistakes in PPC Landing Pages to Be Avoided For Better Conversion-II In the first part of this article we have discussed some of the common mistakes that you have to avoid in PPC landing page for better ... Things to Consider While Hiring an SEO Firm – II There are various SEO firms and consultants that optimize your websites and facilitate in obtaining improved search engine results. These firms use various techniques to increase qualitative and quantitative traffic for your website. Enhancing The Growth Of Online Business Through SEM Search engine marketing is the process which ensures the website online popularity and rankings prominently within the search engine search result listings. A search engine drives maximum traffic to any prospective website. How to Get High Rankings on Search Engine Results Page The main objective of every website is to rank top on the search engines. This is possible when the people search for your website with the related keywords. Basically you should know the factors, which influences the search engine ranking, so that you can focus your efforts on them. Things to Consider While Hiring an SEO Firm For most businesses hiring an SEO firm is a good way to improve their website ranking on search engines. As people don’t have sufficient information about SEO, they may have some assumptions on how it works. Therefore, people find it difficult to choose the right SEO firm. SEO Is the Best Marketing Practice in a Recession Time During recession time, businesses are very careful in balancing both the business existence and as well as business growth. Many companies tighten their marketing budgets to minimize the wastage of the funds. Avoid Unethical SEO Techniques -Black Hat SEO When you are planning to start an SEO campaign, it is essential to know the techniques used to optimize your website. This is because there are some SEO firms, which practice various illegal and unethical SEO techniques in their campaigns. Mistakes in PPC Landing Pages to Be Avoided For Better Conversion Landing page is typically used to describe the page where visitors are brought on clicking an Internet advertisement. This page has to be well thought out and executed to achieve the marketing goals. From Information Scarcity to Information Abundance Information abundance is not about digitalization and copying but is about the perception, analysis, comparison, exchange, reuse and evaluation of facts. Prior to Internet, information is collected through different sources like books, newspapers etc. 77% of Total Internet Users Viewed Online Videos in November 2008 Online videos are becoming a part of daily routine and users are becoming more craving for them. According to comScore Report, 77% of total Internet users viewed online videos in November, 2008. 97.92 million Internet users viewed videos on Google sites in November, 2008. Google sites are leading with 40.3% market share of all videos viewed for the same period. More than 146 million Internet users watched an average of 87 videos per viewer in November, 2008. E-Commerce Fraud Reached $3.6 Billion in 2007 and Set to Increase Further E-commerce fraud is becoming a more serious problem day by day. According to CyberSource Corp survey, losses due to e-commerce fraud reached $3.6 billion in the year 2007. 1.4% of online revenue of total online sales is lost due to E-commerce fraud. Merchants with online revenue about $5-$25 millions are more vulnerable to e-commerce frauds. Google Retains Its Position As Number One Search Engine In US U.S. based search engine major Google’s leadership in Internet search market is unabated. According to Nielson Online May 2008 report on top ten Internet search providers in U.S., Google bagged first position with 59.3% share of the total searches. Yahoo’s competence is deteriorating with the market share of 16.9% registering negative growth over the previous year.