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SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 6 February 2006

In this issue...

- Search Engine Market Share
- This Fortnight's Question
- Resources For Small Business

SEARCH ENGINE MARKET SHARE

A recent Neilsen survey (November 2005) showed the following results for which search engines people are using worldwide:

Google - 46.3%
Yahoo - 23.5%
MSN - 11.4%
AOL - 6.9%
My Way - 2.5%
Ask Jeeves - 2.3%

This shows that if you can get your site listed high in the top 3 search engines at least, then that covers over 80% of the market.

In Australia, however, things are a little different, because Yahoo Australia currently provides the top pay per click results for the Australian version of MSN, NineMSN. That is, if you take out pay per click listings with Yahoo Australia, not only will you be in the top results for Yahoo, but also for NineMSN, and other engines they supply (Optusnet, Altavista, etc).

Are trends changing? Not a lot at the moment. Google continues to be the king of search, and in fact the top 5 search engines haven't changed in a long time. Looking at the gap in the percentages, it doesn't look like it will change for some time either.

THIS FORTNIGHT'S QUESTION

This fortnight's question comes Ron:

"How long does it take before Pay Per Click listings show up in the search results? "

With Google, almost immediately. Once we place your advertisements, the ads are usually online within 5 minutes. This provides great advantages if you need to reach a certain market very quickly.

With other search engines however, such as Yahoo, the process can be much longer. Sometimes several days. Once we even waited a week.

Even so, this is much faster than trying to increase your search results in the free section of results, which often takes many months of hard work before you start seeing results, if any.

Got a question? Send it to us at admin@southwestecommerce.com and we'll do our best to answer it, as well as publish one every fortnight for everyone to see.

RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Ecommerce Library

Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.

Newsletter Archives

The SWeCS Newsletter archives provides a wealth of FREE information on small business and the Internet. Browse through the main topics or search for your particular query.

SWeCS Affiliate Program

Start up another income stream, by earning commissions for each referral who signs up for one of our services.

Affiliate Directory

Browse through a list of reviewed Affiliate programs. Let us do the work of testing it out for you!

Do you know of a resource that should be added here? Email us and let us know. There is only one condition - it must be free.

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