The Market Share of Search Engines

Figure 1-1 shows the U.S. market share for search engines in January 2009, according to
comScore. As you can see, Google is the dominant search engine on the Web in the United
States.
In many European countries, the disparity is even greater. However, in some markets Google
is not dominant. In China, for instance, Baidu is the leading search engine. The result is that
in most world markets, a heavy focus on SEO is a smart strategy for Google.

The Human Goals of Searching

The basic goal of a human searcher is to obtain information relevant to her inquiry. However,
searcher inquiries can take many different forms.

One of the most important elements to building an online marketing strategy for a website around SEO and search rankings is developing a thorough understanding of the psychology of your target audience.

Once you understand how the average searcher, and more specifically, your target market, uses search engines, you can more effectively reach and keep those users.

Figure 1-1

Search engine usage has evolved over the years, but the primary principles of conducting a search remain largely unchanged.

The following steps comprise most search processes:

1. Experience the need for an answer, solution, or piece of information.
For example, the user may be looking for a website (navigational query) to buy something (transactional query) or to learn something (informational query). We will discuss this in more detail in the following section.

2. Formulate that need in a string of words and phrases (the query). Most people formulate their queries in one to three words. ComScore data from March 2009 shows an average query length of 2.9 words. A more detailed look shows the following percentages of searches per word length(see Table 1-1).


Data from Hitwise for this book shows a similar distribution of search query lengths (see Table 1-2).



3.Execute the query, check the results, see whether you got what you wanted, and if not,try a refined query.

When this process results in the satisfactory completion of a task, a positive experience is
reated for the user, the search engine, and the site providing the information or result.