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important.  According to Forrester Research, if customers don't already know who they want to buy
from, 99% of them are going to buy from one of the top 30 web sites displayed in search results
.  
97% of them are going to look the top three listings only.
 As a result, the top 3 organically listed
websites earn approximately 65% of an industry's total online revenue.  

Types of Search Results
There are three different types of Internet search results:  organic, sponsored and local.  The
image on the above right shows where organic, sponsored and local results are typically
displayed on search engine result pages (SERPs).  

What is the difference between sponsored,  
organic and local search results ?
As a web site owner, you should understand the difference between sponsored, organic and
local search results before you decide how you want to spend your advertising dollars.  

  • Sponsored or pay-per-click (PPC) results appear at the top and right of the page.  If your
    website appears in sponsored results, you are charged a fee every time someone clicks
    through to your website.  Sponsored results gain visibility for your site very quickly, but they go
    away as soon as you stop paying for them.  Sponsored results can grow to be very expensive
    quickly and they're not terribly effective.  Seventy percent of visitors equate sponsored listings
    with advertising.  Even when they do click through to your site, only 1 in 100 will take action
    beyond that.

  • Organic or natural search engine listings typically appear below and to the left of
    sponsored results.  There is no charge associated with clicks to organic listings, but in
    order to rank well, your site must be optimized first.  Costs for search engine optimization
    (SEO) vary widely.  As a rough guideline, it is safe to assume it will probably cost as much to
    optimize a website as it did to build it in the first place. SEO takes 3 to 12 months before its
    full impact can be measured.  You usually get a far better return on investment for SEO than
    you can for sponsored advertising.  

  • Local search results appear on the first page when the search phrase includes a
    geographic term like city-name, or when the search engine detects your IP address.  Any
    brick & mortar business can create a free local listing on Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.  Most
    of the other local directories charge a listing fee and some charge click fees as well.    
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Importance & Types of Search Engine Results

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This page describes describes the
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About Internet Search
Last Revised:  10/12/11

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Copyright 2007-present B-SeenOnTop LLC, 33 Meadows Lane, Haverford PA 19041. All rights reserved. "B-SeenOnTop" and it's logo is a trademark of B-SeenOnTop LLC. All other trademarks, names, logos are the property of their respective holders. This page - search engine results. Serving: Ardmore, Mainline, Main Line, Philadelphia, Philly, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Havertown, Villanova, Gladwyne, Narberth, Newtown Square, Wynnewood, Bala Cynwyd, Paoli, Devon, Penn Valley, Radnor, Swarthmore, Wayne, Lower Merion.
Contact us about any of these types of listings. We are happy to discuss your very specific
situation and which type or types of listings might work best for you.  Bookmark us (top right) if
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According to the September 2010 PEW Research Center's Internet &
American Life Project, "Many Americans begin their purchasing experience
by doing online research to compare prices, quality, and the reviews of
other shoppers.  Even if they end up making their purchase in a store, they
start their fact-finding and decision-making on the internet.”

Search is important.  According to the most recent statistics from Internet
World Stats, 28.73% of our world's population (6.846 billion people) use  
the Internet.  Forrester Research says that rather than type a URL into an
address bar or surf the net, 93% of Internet users find the information they
are looking for using a search engine.  

The results that come back from a search engine are infinitely more
Image of a Google search engine result page (SERP) with organic, local and sponsored results circled.
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