A search on the top three search engines with the keyword ‘Football 2010’ displays an interesting mix of results.

Google results

• fifa.com
• fifa.com/worldcup/matches/index.html
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup
• News-The Guardian
• Video results
• footballmanager.com
• itv.com/sport/football/fifaworldcup/
• southafrica.info/2010/
• news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/5179512.stm
• store.steampowered.com/app/34000
• guardian.co.uk/football/worldcup2010
• excely.com/football/2010-fifa-world-cup-schedule.shtml

Yahoo! results

• fifa.com
• football.skyworldcup.com
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9310…
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Football_League_Cup_Final
• nfl.com
• store.ovi.com/content/20119
• africanfootball.ning.com/profiles/blog/list
• kuathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/…/kan-m-footbl-sched.html –
• soccernet.espn.go.com
• blogs.bettor.com/fifa-world-cup-2010

Bing results

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Football_League_Cup_Final
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_Football_
• football-manager-2010.en.softonic.com
• michigansportscenter.com/football/2010-michigan-football-
• footballmanager2010.it/en
• twitter.com/football_2010
• football2010live.com
• airlanesfc.com/football.cfm
• fifa.com/worldcup/index.html
• operationsports.com/?filter=Football&SPORTID=4

A quick glance through the results shows us that all the three search engines have fifa.com and wikipedia.org in the top ten search results. Both of these sites are authoritative sites for football 2010.

As for the other positions in the top ten results, all the three search engines have completely different results. The search engine keyword placement varies for each search engine. While Google displays a mix of results ranging from the official football site to news sites, videos on football, and simulated games on football, Yahoo! also has the same essence in its results except for video results. Bing includes twitter in its results as well but not videos.

We do not know exactly what the searcher is looking for. ‘Football 2010’ could indicate quite a few things; the searcher might be looking for the official football site, latest news on football or they could be looking for simulated games on football 2010. It could be anything.

Based on the key search words, the search engines try to display a mix of sites that can be broad as well as focused. Thus helping searchers find what they are looking for. If for instance, another key term or key phrase was added to the search word ‘football 2010’ like, ‘football 2010 final’ or ‘football 2010 teams’ or anything that makes the keyword more specific, the search engines would definitely come up with the exact match in one of the top ten results.

While searchers are getting more specific and demanding with their search, as internet marketers, while working on SEO or search engine keyword optimization, it really is worthwhile to promote your products and services through various other means like social networking sites, PR sites; rather that get limited by promoting only on search engines.  (Since search engine now display results from a combination of sites) Including long term keywords in your SEO and SEM, online search engine marketing campaigns  will increase visibility and since it is extremely focused, the keywords will bring you higher converting traffic.