Why search engines should still be part of your marketing budget

Abstract (Summary)

Every day about 70 million commercially oriented searches are done. These aren't searches for Britney Spears pictures. They're launched by consumers looking for a product or service. In a North American study done by Jupiter Media Metrix comparing paid placement search against costs-per-thousand (CPM) and costs-per-click (CPC) banner advertising with opt-in e-mail, search handily out-performed the competition. Overall satisfaction with pay-per-click (PPC) search listings was 41%, compared to 33% for e-mail and about 20% for banner advertising. In terms of satisfaction with return on investment, PPC scored 29%, compared with 24% for e-mail and 16% and 12% respectively for CPC and CPM banners.

Paid inclusion: Found on Inktomi, Teoma, AltaVista, Fast and Lycos. You pay to ensure your site will remain in the search engine's index. There's a set annual price per URL (each individual page on your Web site), ranging from $12 on Lycos to $39 for Inktomi and AltaVista. The paid inclusion fee does not guarantee position.