The survey of 2,369 people from a US online consumer panel by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect, found that not only did a third of the users link companies in the first page of results with top brands, but that 41 percent of consumers changed engines or their search term if could not locate their topic on the first three pages.

Robert Murray, president of iProspect, said that the study had shown that companies needed to take action to ensure that their company is found in the top search results.

"They [users] know what they want, and they want to find it immediately, and the majority want to find it on page one. It should be clear that to be effective, marketers need to take action to ensure that their company is found in the top search results on a broad range of search terms and not just single word generic terms," the BBC quoted him, as saying.

"It’s time that companies that are refreshing, re-designing, or launching a new website start with the end in mind. If no one can find it, no one will use it," he added.

The survey also found 62 percent of the people clicked on a result on the first page, and that around 90 percent of searchers clicked on a link in these pages itself.