Marcia - 1:39 am on Jun 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

All that is excellent for some sites coburn, but yet there are sites that can have an excellent conversion rate and up to a 21% bookmark rate with none of that. And I mean - none of it.

A site can be a consistently good perfomer going out the gate with nothing more than MSN listings (white hat organic search, without being a linkwhore), with every single site in the top 20 right on target for what consumers are looking for and not one authority site in the lot. But they've got the stuff people are looking for, and apparently it's pick and choose among them based on other factors, both objective and subjective. In the eyes of the target demographic, such a site is a quality site, and is authoritative for their purposes - and that's who counts, the consumer who's out to buy.

If the searchers are happy, the search results are good and the search engine has done their job. The proof is in pulling out the plastic.

MSN Search and Conversion [webmasterworld.com]

Demographics.