Small Business Marketing News
Internet Retailers Not Effectively Using SEO, Study Finds
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 9/3/2009
Internet retailers are falling behind in the search engine optimization platform, underutilizing what could be an important marketing resource.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has become an industry buzzword, filling recent marketing news. For small business owners, the strategy can increase their brand visibility, marketing ROI and even sales by making them more visible in search engine results.
However, not enough online retailers are taking advantage of this platform, according to a recent study from Internet Retailer.
The study found that in 60 of the most common merchandizing categories, online retailers held the top three spots in only 35 of the categories.
Internet Retailer found that there are a number of major merchandizing categories in which informational websites enjoy precedence over retail websites - one example is the appliances category, in which the top three results were informational (ConsumerSearch, Energy Star and Wikipedia), while the top appliance manufacturer, Best Buy, did not appear until the sixth result.
Because SEO requires keywords to be integrated in the site's content, many small businesses see it as more labor- and cost-intensive than paid search - a category in which online retailers overpower informational websites, the study found.
However, the reason for the discrepancy could be that many businesses are not effectively executing their SEO marketing campaigns, as a recent survey from iPressroom, Korn/Ferry International and the Public Relations Society of America found that two-thirds of businesses say they are using SEO in their marketing efforts.
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