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According to recent research relating to search engines and their importance in the B2B or Business-to-Business segment, search engines are fast becoming the first and most important research tool that is being used by people in the competitive B2B or business-to-business sector, making it one of the biggest influencers when it comes to purchasing decisions. In a business-to-business survey which was conducted in 2007, Enquiro Search Solutions made an update to the B2B study which was completed in 2004 by examining how people conducted research online for B2B buying decisions.

However, the study conducted by Enquiro Search Solutions also found that a large percentage of buyers also tended to move toward vertical search engines when they came closer to making specific decisions for buying. In the phase for search awareness, more than sixty-five percent of all users remarked that they would begin researching through the use of a general purpose search engine, including Google or Yahoo. However, this number dropped to nearly fifty-two percent when it came to the research phase, then to forty-two percent during the negotiation phase and just slightly more than forty-two percent during the purchasing phase.

This study on the relationship between the B2B or business-to-business segment and search engines revealed that during the researching phase, most purchasers are around five times more likely to look to generic search engines like Google and Yahoo to find information, rather than turning to a B2B-specific search engine. As purchasers begin to enter the later phases and begin to compile information to begin the true negotiation phase, many of them turn to vertical B2B or business to business search engines like Global Business Listing, Thomasnet, Business.com or Knowledge Storm in order to help gather the more detailed and specialized information that is needed in order to aid in the decision-making process.

Overall, business to business search engines were the first, most relevant choice for over twenty-two percent of all respondents during the negotiation phase of the purchasing process, and around 17.9 percent of respondents in the purchase phase.

The most influential factors that remain constant when it comes to buyers are the website for the vendors, and word of mouth recommendations which are made by colleagues. These are the two most relevant factors, followed closely by search engines, and the web sites of the distributors.

The B2B and search engine study also found that twenty-seven percent of buyers look for vendor web sites through search engine queries, and that many search engines are found through recommendations from colleagues or other related influences on an offline basis. Because of this cycle, the cultivation of a strong web presence in relevant search engine results is absolutely necessary for B2B vendors in order to draw traffic to their businesses.

This study generally focuses on Google as the general search engine that most B2B vendors and buyers were referring to. The search engine and B2B relation study found that a surprisingly high number of respondents, over seventy-seven percent to be exact, preferred Google as their general search engine over all other search engines. Only around fourteen percent of all respondents selected Yahoo as their preferred search engine, and only around seven percent selected Microsoft. Only around two percent of respondents chose other search engines, despite there being such a large number of them.

So what does this study mean? It means that when it comes to the relationship between search engines and the business-to-business or B2B sector, the relationship is a lot stronger than many people may have initially realized. When buyers decide to make a purchase, they often turn to search engines for initial research rather than relying on colleague recommendations or other offline factors to guide their search. Because buyers are using search engines more often to find vendors and distributors, it is absolutely necessary for businesses to improve their search engine presence to open themselves up to new buyers and more exposure. As a vendor, increasing your search engine presence through search engine optimization and latent semantic indexing techniques will allow more buyers to find you through general search engine searches for purchasing research. So unless you have a strong network for word of mouth traffic, optimizing your website for high page ranking is simply a necessary part of keeping your business alive. Take advantage of the correlation between the business-to-business sector and search engines, and drive new traffic to your company website today simply by making yourself accessible.

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Mary Murtha

Visit www.quamtum-seek.com niche Search Engine for all of your Specialty Information searches!

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