A new Oneupweb study shows that only 17 percent of the biggest internet retailers use search engine optimization well.

According to "There's Still Money on the Table: Internet Retailer Study 2005," 83 percent of Internet Retailer Magazine's top 100 sites are not fully using search engine optimization and marketing, missing profitable opportunities and risking loss of market share.

“While the study shows that more sites are using search engine optimization overall,” says Oneupweb CEO Lisa Wehr, “sites aren’t using sophisticated techniques combined with well-developed content. And that’s the crucial strategy that brings better positions on the search engine results pages, more visibility, higher conversion rates and stronger market share.”

Oneupweb studied each site’s meta tags, site architecture, keywords, content and other tactics that could affect the sites’ ability to be spidered by search engines and position well on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Of Internet Retailer Magazine’s top 100 sites, Oneupweb found:

• 17 percent well optimized
• 25 percent moderately optimized
• 35 percent nominally optimized
• 23 percent not optimized at all

The study confirmed the correlation between website optimization and search engine positioning, traffic and sales conversions. Oneupweb found 89 percent of the well-optimized sites positioned on the first three pages of results for searches of their respective keywords -- 52 percent appeared on the first page of results. In comparison, Oneupweb found that only four percent of sites not optimized appeared in the first through third SERPs.

Oneupweb also examined the level at which these same companies were using paid search, or sponsored links, finding that moderately optimized sites had the highest rate of paid search marketing (68 percent) and that about 53 percent of the well-optimized sites are using paid search.

Additionally, Oneupweb examined which of the companies had implemented an analytics tool to track and measure their website traffic and online campaigns. While Oneupweb found evidence of marketing analytics at every level (and at especially high rates with well-optimized sites), it found that sites with nominal optimization or no optimization were using analytics at 28 percent and 21 percent respectively.

“This study teaches us one important lesson: There’s still tons of opportunity for companies to realize substantial online gains by implementing search engine optimization and marketing,” says Wehr. “The search spark has matured into a steady flame and it’s only a matter of time until it’s a wildfire.”

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Download "There’s Still Money on the Table: Internet Retailer Study 2005"