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  &lt;p&gt;The study&#160;compared the keywords that firms were bidding on with the organic results for the same terms.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;Retailers spend most on paid search of all categories of firms, but rank poorly for natural search visibility; partly due to the competitive nature of the market.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;Gap was the highest scoring retailer for natural search on the list; its US site has improved since &lt;a href="/blog/750-find-the-gap-com-oh-actually-you-can-t"&gt;we looked at it in 2007&lt;/a&gt;, though it still hasn't bothered to launch in the UK.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;The report concludes that, with limited paid search inventory and the vast majority of clicks occurring on the organic results,&#160;Fortune 500 firms&#160;should be paying more attention to natural search.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;This matches what we have&#160;seen for some retailers in the UK; Kevin Gibbons recently found that, though they are bidding for the term, &lt;a href="/blog/2801-supermarkets-ignoring-seo-for-major-keywords"&gt;no major UK&#160;supermarkets rank above #9&lt;/a&gt; in Google for 'supermarket'.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;A recent Hitwise article echoes this view, with more than 80% of supermarket's traffic for their biggest terms (laptops, washing machines etc) coming via paid search ads, suggesting they are &lt;a href="/blog/2882-hitwise-reports-on-supermarkets-online-growth"&gt;paying less attention to SEO&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;My Twitter page can be found &lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/home"&gt;
      &lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Related articles&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/2764-why-you-need-to-know-ppc-to-be-great-at-seo-2"&gt;Why you need to know PPC to be great at SEO&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/1083-seo-commitment-essential-as-consumers-go-organic"&gt;SEO commitment essential as consumers go organic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Related research:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/uk-search-engine-marketing-report-2008"&gt;UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2008&lt;/a&gt;
    &lt;br /&gt;
    &lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/search-engine-optimization-seo-best-practice-guide-2007"&gt;Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Best Practice Guide&lt;/a&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;
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  &lt;Paragraph&gt;The study&#160;compared the keywords that firms were bidding on with the organic results for the same terms.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;Retailers spend most on paid search of all categories of firms, but rank poorly for natural search visibility; partly due to the competitive nature of the market.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;Gap was the highest scoring retailer for natural search on the list; its US site has improved since &lt;Link URL="/blog/750-find-the-gap-com-oh-actually-you-can-t" Window="Self"&gt;we looked at it in 2007&lt;/Link&gt;, though it still hasn't bothered to launch in the UK.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;The report concludes that, with limited paid search inventory and the vast majority of clicks occurring on the organic results,&#160;Fortune 500 firms&#160;should be paying more attention to natural search.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;This matches what we have&#160;seen for some retailers in the UK; Kevin Gibbons recently found that, though they are bidding for the term, &lt;Link URL="/blog/2801-supermarkets-ignoring-seo-for-major-keywords" Window="Self"&gt;no major UK&#160;supermarkets rank above #9&lt;/Link&gt; in Google for 'supermarket'.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;A recent Hitwise article echoes this view, with more than 80% of supermarket's traffic for their biggest terms (laptops, washing machines etc) coming via paid search ads, suggesting they are &lt;Link URL="/blog/2882-hitwise-reports-on-supermarkets-online-growth" Window="Self"&gt;paying less attention to SEO&lt;/Link&gt;.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;My Twitter page can be found &lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="http://twitter.com/home" Window="Self"&gt;
      &lt;Emphasis&gt;here&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;/Link&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Related articles&lt;/Emphasis&gt;:&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;Link URL="/blog/2764-why-you-need-to-know-ppc-to-be-great-at-seo-2" Window="Self"&gt;Why you need to know PPC to be great at SEO&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;Link URL="/blog/1083-seo-commitment-essential-as-consumers-go-organic" Window="Self"&gt;SEO commitment essential as consumers go organic&lt;/Link&gt;&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Related research:&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/uk-search-engine-marketing-report-2008" Window="Self"&gt;UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2008&lt;/Link&gt;
    &lt;LineBreak /&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/search-engine-optimization-seo-best-practice-guide-2007" Window="Self"&gt;Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Best Practice Guide&lt;/Link&gt;&#160;&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
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  <created-at type="datetime">2008-11-11T10:07:00+00:00</created-at>
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  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Many Fortune 500 companies, retailers included, have plenty of scope&#160;to improve&#160;their natural search ranking for main keywords&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;While these firms are spending plenty on search ads for their targeted keywords, 72% of Fortune 500 firms&#160;were not even&#160;in the first five pages on organic search results for these terms, according to a &lt;a href="http://www.conductor.com/files/research/Conductor-Natural-Search-Trends-of-Fortune500-Q3-2008.pdf"&gt;US study (PDF)&lt;/a&gt;&#160;by Conductor and SkyFu.&lt;/p&gt;
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    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Many Fortune 500 companies, retailers included, have plenty of scope&#160;to improve&#160;their natural search ranking for main keywords&lt;/Emphasis&gt;.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;While these firms are spending plenty on search ads for their targeted keywords, 72% of Fortune 500 firms&#160;were not even&#160;in the first five pages on organic search results for these terms, according to a &lt;Link URL="http://www.conductor.com/files/research/Conductor-Natural-Search-Trends-of-Fortune500-Q3-2008.pdf" Window="Self"&gt;US study (PDF)&lt;/Link&gt;&#160;by Conductor and SkyFu.&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
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  <name>US retailers need to improve SEO - study</name>
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  <published-at type="datetime">2008-11-12T08:45:00+00:00</published-at>
  <slug>us-retailers-need-to-improve-seo-study</slug>
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  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-04-29T21:53:32+01:00</updated-at>
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