Google maintains the search lead

That is a full share point over April numbers. Americans conducted more than 7.6 billion searches in the time period; Google accounted for roughly 4 billion of those searches.

Yahoo remained in second place with 26% (2 billion) of total searches, Microsoft ranked third with 10.3% (782 million) of searches and Ask.com remained in fourth with 5% (384 million) of searches. Time Warner Network rounded out the top five with 4.6% (348 million) of May searches.

Google was the only search engine to gain in share (1%). Yahoo fell 0.4% as did Ask.com (down 0.1%) and Time Warner Network (0.4%). Microsoft sites remained steady with no change.

Though many users have begun inputting their information directly into address bars, it is clear that most prefer to use their favorite search engines to find needed information. It is clear from these results that paid search is still a good option for online marketers.

Paying for higher placement, utilizing search engine optimization to get organic search placements is a good way to increase traffic to websites. To ensure that traffic converts to sales, optimize the landing pages to include interactive features and clear product information.

Tags: search marketing, search metrics