According to a two-year analysis of the top 100 online retailers 83% are not well optimized for search engines. In fact 58% are listed on the fourth page of search engine results pages (SERPS) or deeper. The research is proof in fact that marketing efforts other than SEO are far more valuable to bottom line performance. Can SEO help? From the perspective of this research the answer would be no. The retailers with good optimization (17%) are listed within the first four pages of SERPS for there respective keywords and doing as well as those retailers that are not. Simple math indicates higher SERP position does not effect bottom line performance. The entire report is available from One Up Web .
The analysis found that less than half of the not well optimized retailers used paid search advertising, while 53% of the well optimized sites used paid search. Analysis is incomplete to determine the total cost of optimization and paid search versus the cost of paid search alone. More directly: Given the cost involved in SEO efforts and the additional costs of paid search (PPC) advertising, it would seem more profits could be realized by discontinuing paid search advertising.
The white paper includes several "Questions Marketers Should Ask" when considering preparations for next years holiday seasons. We did find this last section confusing as the writer seemed to imply the importance of considering moving toward SEO and Paid Search despite the evidence of the bulk of the research data. It could be that One Up does a considerable amount of business in SEO and are just trying to smoke and mirror the analysis results, but that's just our opinion.
For more information on advertising that retailers use effectively please take a look at Mark's Q4 summary report .
