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SES London 2007: A Review

By Joanne Casey

Account Executive

As masses of people gathered into the annual 2007 London SES Conference, everyone was anxious to hear the latest word on the happenings within the Search Engine Marketing World.

The general feeling at the conference was that the emergence of Vertical and Local Search was to become ever more apparent in the next while, that while Google still held onto the greater market share, Ask was beginning to very quickly flourish where MSN is helplessly faltering.  Furthermore, a number of interesting issues and points emanated from various presentations at SES London 2007.

One of the very first sessions at the conference entitled "The Search Landscape", detailed the interesting trends of search including user behavioural trends across Europe. In general, it was reported that for 8 human page views, 1 is a Search Engine network referral, while consumers normally carry out around 12 searches before they buy and spend on average 3.4% of their time with search, while on the internet.

Global trends showed that Germany and Australia were found to be brand loyal when it comes to choosing Search Engines while the UK, France and Spain have seen massive growth in recent times.

Recent statistics relating to Search Engine market share from Hitwise reported that in the UK, Google powered 78% of the market; Yahoo 8%; MSN (+live) 6% while Ask held 5%. What was most interesting is subsequent year-on-year figures reported which does not spell good reading for MSN. Google was up 6% year on year, Yahoo was up 12%; Ask was up 12% in last 6 months while MSN (+live) was down 15%.

Other interesting facts included:

• Of UK internet visits, the market share of search engines has now taken over that of adult websites and this market along with gambling is beginning to fall
• Google and Yahoo users tend to show preference for social networking websites such as Myspace and Bebo while Ask users tend to prefer Bebo and FriendsReunited
• People tend go further (past page 1) for organic results
• Around 85% of clicks are from organic search
• Google has a higher CTR past page 1
• Users go deeper for image searches
• Mobile and video search are growing
• 62% of advertisers’ plans to increase spend in search.

Another interesting session came from Shair Throw on how to build a search engine friendly design. During the session she emphasised the importance of bringing in SEO before designing a website whilst also ensuring that sites are designed primarily for your market and then for search engine friendliness. Websites, she said need to be easily found and navigated while users should always have a sense of place when at any page on your website. Also emphasised were consistency of design and layout, having a page that downloads quickly and one that is easy to read.

3 useful tips given by Shari to evaluate your website included:

• Use the 8 second rule - show someone your webpage for 8 seconds and then ask  them to relay information that they seen on the page (including keywords)
• Show your website to your mum - how easily can she navigate her way around it?
• Copy your source data information into notepad. What you see and read is what the search engines crawl and index!

The Local Search session also indicated that already in the US, local business adverts are now readily available on mobile whilst many local businesses see Google AdWords as a method to drive customers to specific coupon pages. For local businesses, statistics highlighted conversions to be over 30% better if you refine your campaign to local search.

Although there are many Google verticals such as Google Image search (9.54%), Mail (5.51%), News (1.49%) and Maps (0.82%), most local searches are still carried out on the main Google search engine. With the excellent visibility and accuracy of Google Maps, local search is undoubtedly an excellent way to ensure that your results are specifically targeted to your end user.

Regarding directories, Grant Muckle from TouchLocal commented on how although consumers still use paper directories, this is beginning to fade out dramatically where the internet becomes increasingly accessible. Already, approx. 8-9 million searches in the US have now moved off-line to online yellow pages directories. 

Lastly, one interesting statistic showed that there is a visible trend by internet users towards using search engines to find out information on a product or service and then purchasing off line. According to statistics at SES London, 63% of purchases resulting from an online search were in fact made offline. So to conclude, it is important to keep in mind that the internet may be driving more sales to your business that you may think it is!