Australia’s attitudes to SEO and SEM quantified in online survey

Research shows that the majority of online Australians trust and use the natural or organic search results they find using Google and other search engines rather than sponsored links or ad words - which they realise are simply paid online advertisements. 

Natural or organic search listings are largely derived from content on web sites or other published information on the web. We call it ‘editorial’ - as opposed to advertising.

The research - ‘Australian Online Search Habits’ - was undertaken by Galaxy Research in September 2006 on behalf of Network.

Findings covered top Australian search categories by product groups, search habits by age and gender, and more importantly, how Australians viewed paid results (such as sponsored links) as opposed to natural language or organic search results.

The research found that approximately 85 per cent of online Australians ignore sponsored links or pay per click, trusting and preferring to use the natural language or organic search results.

The significance of this is that the kind of content  found in natural or organic search is normally generated from public relations material - such as media releases, content on web sites, blog comments and all kinds of ‘editorial’.