The holy grail of internet marketing these days is search engine optimization (ranking high in organic or natural search engine results for popular keywords related to your business, market sector, or products). It is closely followed by pay-per-click advertising (sponsored results). Not knowing which search engines to focus on can lead to a huge waste of time, effort, and money.

Below are the latest search engine usage statistics for the UK:

Google: 32%

Yahoo!: 26%

AOL: 19%

MSN: 17%

Ask Jeeves: 2%

Well, as you can see, Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN should be the main focus of any search marketing campaign, but are these numbers accurate?

Google, Yahoo, AOL, Ask Jeeves and MSN make up the heavyweight search division, with the highest market share among them (around 98% of all UK based search queries). But Google provides search results to AOL and Yahoo provides results from Wandadoo? Knowing this information significantly changes the previous results.

Actual UK Search Engine Usage Statistics:

Google: 51%

Yahoo!: 26%

MSN: 17%

Ask Jeeves: 2%

Google now has more than half the market share and should be the main focus of any search marketing strategy. Combine these figures with the fact that 80% of products purchased online come from a search engine. It can be said that out of ten items sold online, Google was the starting point for four of them. Ignoring this information would be a very bad idea for any business looking to use the Internet to increase revenue.

The future of search

Search has become a multi-billion dollar industry that is constantly changing. Which is not surprising when you consider that each person using a search engine is estimated to earn £50 a year from sponsored clicks and ad serving.

The competition to be the number one search provider is tough, but it is open to any company capable of providing better results than the reigning champion. Searchers will use the best tool for the job no matter who provides it. Currently, 51% of people believe that Google offers the best results and choose to use its service. But for how long?

You don’t have to look far back to see the Internet without Google. Which means that the current situation of a search provider that dominates the entire industry will probably change over time. With companies like Microsoft, Google and Yahoo driving the industry forward at high speed. The first place of the search will probably be a subject that will change forever.

From this article, you’ll know where to focus your search marketing campaign, but you’ll find it very helpful to keep an eye on this ever-changing medium.