Google Analysis
October 7, 2005 SEO — by Brian Turner @ 5:07 pm
Search engines are important for people to find information -
and commercial products and services - when using the internet.
The internet is the largest single market place on earth, used
by millions of people, looking for everything from international
to local purchases.
And in the UK, the search engine they turn to most is Google UK.
According to Hitwise, who monitors over 500,000 websites, around
70% of UK internet surfers will turn to Google - mostly
Google.co.uk, but also a small number to Google.com/ In fact,
you can see the figures here:
When you need visibility on the internet marketplace, you need
to have good rankings on Google UK. This will allow you maximum
exposure of your products or services to the largest volume of
potential customers.
Google's Domination of Internet Search Grows, but Yahoo!
Dominates Local Search
In the 2 years since Google's IPO, industry observers have
pondered whether the search giant could hold onto its loyal
audience in the face of increasingly aggressive competition.
Despite MSN's vow to own search, and major advancements by
Yahoo! and Ask, Google is still the dominant consumer search
engine by far.
Data from Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive
intelligence service, show that the top three search engines -
Google, Yahoo Search and MSN Search - accounted for 93.5 percent
of U.S. Internet searches across major engines in July 2005.
Amidst that triumvirate's consolidation of search power still
lies Google, which claimed 59.2 percent of searches across all
major engines in the same month, a 14 percent increase in share
versus a year-ago. Yahoo! Search and MSN search respectively
captured 28.8 percent and 5.5 percent share of searches in July
2005.
Google's growth is noteworthy considering that, unlike its
competitors, it does not have a stand-alone portal to drive
traffic to the service. Yahoo! Search received 73 percent of its
visits directly from its main portal sites (www.yahoo.com and
my.yahoo.com) in July 2005, while MSN Search received 61 percent
of its visits from its portal sites (www.msn.com, my.msn.com and
dellnet.msn.com).
"Google continues to demonstrate the value of effective Internet
search on its own, irrespective of any connection to a general
Internet portal," said Bill Tancer, General Manager, Worldwide
Research, Hitwise. "Clearly the next big challenge for Google
will be the arrival of Microsoft's new operating system,
"Vista", which is said to have far tighter search integration."
Local Search
While Google may dominate general search, attention is directing toward local search, and Yahoo! is the leading service in that arena. Visits to Yahoo! Local (local.yahoo.com) were 4.4 times greater than visits to Google Local (local.google.com) in July 2005. However, Google Local's market share increased 61 percent between February 2005 and July 2005, while Yahoo! Local grew 14 percent. Google Local's catch-up is occurring amidst the growth of Google Maps (maps.google.com), which has quickly grown to become the third ranked site in the Hitwise Travel - Maps category in July 2005. Maps have proved important to local search users, as 17 percent of Yahoo! Local's visitors went directly onto Yahoo! Maps in July 2005.To request the Hitwise Search Report for a more in-depth analysis that provides great insights into trends in the online search engine market, click here.
