The survey found that 64% of official FTSE 100 web sites do not
appear in the first page or top 10 results of a simple on-line
search using keywords such as "travel", "insurance" or "bank".
The travel sector is the most advanced, with more travel
companies achieving a high profile across the largest number of
search engines than any other sector. The FTSE 100 insurance,
banking and financial sectors, however, face considerable
challenges in raising their search prominence.
"It's now well recognised that 90% of consumers will look no
further than the first page of results from web searches," said
Nick Hynes, CEO of The Search Works. "Businesses must therefore
respond to the ever-increasing intelligence of the consumer who
types in very specific search terms and expects to find the right
product or service in just a few clicks."
Companies advertising on-line would also benefit from learning
the processes, procedures and products relating to each of the
search engines, so that they can understand how each engine ranks
and edits the search listings they provide to consumers.
On the positive side, the research did find some improvement in
companies' understanding of search engine marketing.
Similar research carried out by The Search Works in 2003 found
that nearly one third of FTSE 100 company web sites did not even
appear in the top 30 results when searched for by name. But in
2005, all of those currently ranked in the FTSE 100 appear in the
first page of all search engine results when a name search is
conducted.
"The consumer's ability to locate the products and services they
want is key to successful on-line sales and those companies without
comprehensive and targeted on-line search advertising campaigns
fully integrated into their marketing programmes risk losing
sales," said Hynes.
