Amazon Tops Search Engine Rankings Among Major Retailers

A WebPosition® Search Ranking study released last week by WebTrends, showed that four major retailers selling some of the year's hottest toys, used Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies to attract online visitors. Findings revealed that Amazon’s visibility in both organic results and sponsored search results were the highest, with an organic Visibility Percentage more than twice that of the other retailers. Using WebPosition® Gold, giant retailers Wal-Mart, Target, Sears and Amazon were analyzed to determine their visibility in organic and paid search results on Google, MSN, Ask Jeeves, Teoma and Yahoo! for five toys (selected from USA Today’s ‘Hot Dozen’). As a group the retailers were more than twice as visible in sponsored search results (73.87%) as they were in organic search results (35.87%). Amazon was the most visible among all sites in organic search engine listings for the targeted keywords, with an organic Visibility Percentage of 34.67%, followed by Wal-Mart at 14%, Target at 7.33% and Sears at 3.87%. (Visibility Percentage is a reflection of a site’s positions within the first three pages of search results for its targeted keywords and search engines. For example, a site that has #1 organic search positions for all of its targeted keywords in all search engines examined would have an organic Visibility Percentage of 100%.) After including sponsored search listings, all the retailers increased their standings, with Amazon rising to 52%, followed by Wal-Mart at 39.73%, Sears at 16% and Target at 13.6%. ### What this means for small business: Giant retailers are able to apply large budgets towards highly competitive keywords. Notice, however, that these retailers also paid attention to maintaining a high organic ranking. This levels the playing field for the small online business. Properly optimizing your web site and incorporating appropriate keywords into your content can put you on the same page as any of the mega-retailers. It is crucial to use organic rankings as an integral part of your online marketing program.