Consumers Are Using Search Engines More Than Ever

It's important for small business website owners to realize where the customers are these days. They are online, and their numbers are growing. If you are a Yellow Pages advertiser, you'll need to watch this migration of customers very closely.

Search Engine Usage Nearly Doubles In 18 Months

According to a new article in DMNews, 60 million U.S. adults use search engines on any given day, up from 38 million in June 2004. This impressive increase is according to research just released by Pew Internet & American Life and comScore Media Metrix. 41% of the internet population now use search engines in one form or another.

Google The Engine Of Choice, But Yahoo! And MSN Not Far Behind

No surprise to see Google come out on top in terms of traffic. ComScore's latest data found that Google was the most heavily used engine in October with 89.8 million unique visitors; followed by Yahoo!, 68 million; MSN Search, 49.7 million; Ask Jeeves, 43.7 million; and AOL Search, 36.1 million.

Small Business Websites Should Focus On Where The Customers Are

Clearly, if you own a website, you need to be reaching the consumers who are using the search engines. What is impressive about these numbers is the traffic on search engines # 2-5: in the aggregate, they outpull Google by about 198 million to 90 million. So don't overlook these other engines when you are optimizing your site and implementing your internet marketing strategy.