Winning the top spot on a search page is more valuable than you might imagine.

That is according to research from Bill Barnes (pictured), co-founder or Enquiro Search Solutions. Barnes says that people using a generic search term, such as "fuel efficient cars," are 16% more likely to recall the brand name of the company that appears in the first "organic," or unpaid, search result.

Even when they search using a brand name, such as Honda, they are 7% more likely to be drawn to the company if its Web site appears as the first listing, Barnes said Wednesday at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose.

One big reason is that people often spend remarkable little time on search pages. For simple searches, people can spend less than 3 seconds a page, said Larry Cornett, vice president of consumer products at Yahoo! Search.

They say "don't make me do so much work," for the requested information, Cornett said.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at large.