This data shows that effective site search is becoming one of the most critical conversion drivers in online commerce.

The best conversion rate still comes from good old-fashioned branding and customer loyalty, where visitors either bookmark your site or type your URL directly into the address bar.

For several years now, search engine marketing and optimization has dominated online marketing, and this data shows why: it's far more effective at converting visitors into buyers than most other acquisition sources taken as a whole. But as this data also shows, the best conversion rate still comes from good old fashioned branding and customer loyalty, where visitors either bookmark your site or type your URL directly into the address bar.

It makes sense that search engine users, who arrive at sites they may not be familiar with, are much less likely to purchase a big-ticket item, such as a computer or television, than they are for a toy.

Search engine marketing is a very effective means to reach customers who have made up their minds about what product they're looking for, but don't necessarily know you. Search engines are a very effective channel to reach these visitors who are in research mode.

These data show that there's a lot of value to branding. A lot of times when you're trying to promote your product, you may not see immediate results, but in the customer's mind, that campaign may be contributing to some of these bookmark conversion rates later on.