Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Sometimes a picture is wort a thousand words.

A Search Illustrated post in Search Engine Land called Search Engine Click-Thru Behavior; You've Got To Be In The Top Ten! by Elliance got me thinking -- so what, then I started thinking how could I use this to get more attention internally about the value of search.

We all know the value of being above the fold when viewing the first search engine results page, but it's been my inhouse SEO experience that if you can get 70% of all targeted terms in the top 10 positions people are happy. How can I get more mind share! What if I applied the percentage of top of fold positions for a tight group of terms, against the total number of searches per time period. But instead of focusing on the visibility, focus on the missed opportunity. That would raise fear in the hearts of Product Managers, and get their attention.

I call it, the Missed Search Opportunities Per Month (MSOPM).

(100% - % Number of search terms in the top 5 positions) * the total number of monthly searches = MSOPM