Search Engines Are Vital To Internet-Based Home Business Success
By Kirk Bannerman
Nearly everyone involved in an Internet-based home business
will very quickly come to realize the importance of search
engines as a vehicle to attract potential customers.
Since the inception of Google in 1998, the popularity of using
search engines has increased dramatically. Nielsen NetRatings
reports that about 114.5 million Americans, or a whopping 39
percent of the US population, currently use search engines.
As of July of 2005, Google accounted for 36.5% of all searches
and Yahoo accounted for 30.5%, according to ComScore Media
Matrix. MSN ranked a distant third, accounting for 15.5% of all
searches.
The market shares of the three major search engines (Google,
Yahoo, and MSN) have remained fairly constant throughout 2005
and together they account for over 80% of all searches.
As they vie for position, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft plan to
continue upgrading their services - healthy competition that can
only serve to improve the search experiences of Internet users
in the future.
According to comScore Networks, an estimated 3.5 billion online
searches are performed in the United States each month, making
searching the second most popular online activity, ranking
behind only e-mail.
In 2003, businesses spent an estimated $2 billion on advertising
related to searches and some knowledgeable sources expect the
search-related advertising market to triple during the next
three years. Internet advertising as a whole is expected to
exceed $13 bilion in 2005.
There are various search engine formats including natural
search, pay for inclusion (PFI), pay per click (PPC), and hybrid
approaches which combine both PFI and PPC characteristics.
Because of the immense and growing popularity of search engines,
their effective utilization is the life blood of Internet-based
home businesses.
About the author:
Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at
Legitimate Home Based
Business for more details.
