Taking statistics found in a multi-study search engine interaction report and another report on search engine usage provides a useful portrait of how search engine users behave. Considering 74% of people use search engines to find businesses and view the top ranked businesses in search results as the most reliable, you definitely need to start building a genuine and effective online presence.

The Importance of the First Page

No matter the search engine, over half (62%) of users click a link within the first page of results for a keyword phrase and 90% within the first three pages. If you cannot get ranked on the first page for a search term, you will automatically lose over half of your potential visitors!

Bottom line: Get on the first page for your keywords!

The Importance of Relevance and Clarity

Almost half (42%) of people will rephrase their search if they do not find a useful link on the first page and 88% within the first three pages. If your content and title do not fit in well with the keywords you use, you will miss almost half of your potential visitors!

Bottom line: Use very specific, highly targeted, and relevant keywords that match your content.

The Importance of the Top Three Spots

In a study of the AOL search engine, which I am liberally applying to the other engines, the very first page listed in the results receives 42% of all click thrus, with the second almost 12%, the third 8%, and the fourth 6%. If you do not rank within the first three spots in the results, you miss well over half of your potential visitors! On top of that, if you rank below the first four spots, you only have a 5% chance of someone still clicking on your page. So even though 90% still “might” browse the first 3 pages, the chance that someone will click your page after the user moves half way down the first page of results is almost zero. People also trust the websites in the top positions the most.

Bottom line: You need to rank within the top four spots for a keyword and aim for the first spot.

The Importance of Getting on Google

By the end of May 2009, almost 74% of all users used Google to search for websites, 15% used Yahoo!, and 6% used Bing (formally Live, formally MSN). This means that Google is definitely the most important search engine to be listed in volume-wise. It also means that Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool provides the most representative statistics on keywords and user searches.

Bottom line: You need to get ranked on Google and optimize your keywords for Google.

Taking into account how people use search engines, definitely aim for keywords where you can rank for the number one spot for the term in Google, period. Otherwise, you’ll just be stuck in the 5% club, a very lonesome place indeed, and a death trap for your business.

Additional Search Engine Ranking Research

While doing your own inqueries on search engine optimization, you will surely come across a plethora of tips, tricks, and strategies to optimize your pages. Taking into account the signifigance of the before mentioned information, I began conducting my own research examining which SEO factors actually matter to get into the top spots and which do not. Spanning from inbound links and keyword placement in titles to placing keywords in heading tags and domain age, my preliminary findings might surprise you.

Top Tips for Optimizaing Your Pages for Search Engines

Inbound Link Volume

In almost every instance, the number one website would receive the most inbound links of the the first four websites in a listing for a given keyword, and the inbound link volume for the following sites would decrease accordingly. This stayed true whether using Google or Yahoo! to test the amount of incoming links. You can get an estimate of inbound links to a page by typing “link:www.thewebsiteurl.com” into either the Google or Yahoo! search engine.

Bottom Line: Your pages must build links from other relevant websites to continue to rank well.

Placing the Targeted Keyword in Titles

72% of the top four ranked sites in listings contained the exact keyword in the page title (<title>Keyword</title>). Page titles can clearly be seen in search engine rankings as well as on the top of the browser when visiting the page.

Bottom Line: Place your keywords in your page titles, preferably in their entirety and near the front.

Code to Text Ratio

Like inbound links, code to text ratio usually decreased along with a decrease in listing rank, with the pages with higher text then code ranking better. You can test a page’s code to text ratio by using SEO Chat’s Code to Text Ratio tool.

Bottom Line: Write plenty of content for your pages and try to keep your code to text ratio above 50%.

Page and Domain Age

Most pages in the top 4 rested on domains 6 years or older, usually with the oldest domains ranking higher than the newer ones. You can test a domain’s age by using the WHOIS Lookup or using SEO Log’s Domain Age Check tool.

Bottom Line: Place your pages on older domains and give your domain type to build the trust of search engines. I also believe that older pages do better, so stick with current file names and try to avoid redirects.

Relevancy

A majority of pages existed on domains that could be considered an authority on the topic related to the targeted keyword and contained the keyword at least once in the body of the content.

Bottom Line: Host your pages on websites related to your content and keep your content related to your targeted keywords.

I conducted my study using random keywords from clients that ranked high for them and then using any random keyword. I only examined the top four listings. While my study still remains in the early stages and does not produce any revolutionary results so far, it can serve as a reminder of the more important elements in web page optimization and suggests that people focus less on rather insignificant SEO practices, like placing keywords in heading tags, using meta tags, focusing on Google’s PageRank, or worrying about keywords places in anchor text.

Half of the top SEO factors, depressingly, cannot really be controlled by you. While you can create some inbound links, it will be up to the greater web community to share your information. Domain and page age you just need to be patient and wait for. So make sure you do well with what you can control, create excellent content with plenty of insight and value for your targeted audience and/or possible clients, and the rest should come.

I will most likely update this article while I complete my research. Until then, good hunting, and please post any comments or questions you may have! Feel free to pass this information along to others as well so they may benefit