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| How much paid search traffic is going to the leading websites in your industry? |
Hitwise recently conducted a study on the paid and organic traffic of leading websites in major online commerce industries. The Hitwise Search Intelligence™ 4.0 tool breaks website search traffic into its paid and organic components to the keyword level, allowing marketers to gauge their competitors' Search Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies.
Findings from the study show that while Australian marketers in the Travel - Destinations & Accommodation space lead against other online industries in terms of paid search, the average paid traffic volume for the top 10 websites in this industry lags the UK travel industry by a margin of over 27%. Paid traffic accounts for 15.8% of visits to the top 10 Australian Travel - Destinations & Accommodation websites, week ending 7 October 2006. This compares to 43.5% for UK Destinations & Accommodation websites as visited by UK Internet users, indicating a much more competitive SEM space.
Paid traffic volumes measured were similar across a number of Australian online commerce industries, including Employment 14.3%, Property 11.5% and Shopping & Classifieds 13.8%, for the 4 weeks ending 7 October 2006. Hitwise found a significant difference in the UK online retail sector, where paid traffic generates 27.7% of visits to the top 10 UK websites in Shopping & Classifieds.
Banks and Financial Institutions online paid traffic lagged significantly behind other online commerce industries in Australia, with 2.3% of visits to the top 6 corporate banking websites coming from paid traffic, 4 weeks ending 7 October 2006. The online banking industry has a significant component of branded search terms driving visits to the industry (93 of the top 100 terms). It remains vital for marketers in this industry to instigate effective SEO strategies as the pool of generic terms diminishes, and secondly to leverage SEM to acquire potential customers on the generic search terms that are available for legitimate SEM traffic.
In this study, Hitwise also observed that websites that have increased their market share substantially in the previous year have aggressive paid search strategies. Australian examples include DealsDirect.com.au, which is the leading Australian website in the Department Stores industry and has increased its market share by 309.8% year ending 7 October 2006. Homehound.com in online Property has increased its market share by 88% year ending 7 October 2006. Both websites have competed against traditional brands to gain significant online market share, where both web properties have received paid search traffic well above their respective industries' averages.
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| Industry Search Term Report for Entertainment - Games |
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The following report lists the most popular terms typed into a search engine over the 4 weeks ending 21/10/2006 that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Hitwise within the 'Entertainment - Games' industry. For example, the most popular search term was 'games' representing 2.06% of all search terms that delivered users to websites classified by Hitwise in the 'Entertainment - Games' industry.
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| 1. |
games |
2.06% |
| 2. |
runescape |
1.68% |
| 3. |
miniclip |
1.52% |
| 4. |
neopets |
0.93% |
| 5. |
funny games |
0.84% |
| 6. |
free games |
0.45% |
| 7. |
free online games |
0.38% |
| 8. |
stardoll |
0.35% |
| 9. |
online games |
0.33% |
| 10. |
club penguin |
0.32% |
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| Make Up Your Own Mind - www.makeupyourownmind.com.au |
Position week ending Saturday 16th September: 16,447
Position week ending Saturday 14th October: 1,284
Positions jumped: 15,163
Make Up Your Own Mind is a consumer education website by McDonald's Australia encouraging consumers to "make up their own mind" about McDonald's Australia, especially the nutritional content and quality of the food served at McDonald's Australia restaurants.
It was the 16,447th most popular Australian website for the week ending Saturday 16th September and by the week ending Saturday 14th October it was the 1,284th - an increase of 15,163 positions. Among Lifestyle and Reference websites for the week ending Saturday 14th October www.makeupyourownmind.com.au was the 3rd most popular website.
Hitwise Australia lifestyle data shows that www.makeupyourownmind.com.au's primary users by Mosaic Australia Group are Domestic Appliance users, who generated 25.52% of the website's market share (based on data for the 4-week period ending Saturday 14th October), and who can be best described as "better-off families in core suburban and rural fringe locations". Community Challenge users generated the second-highest market share to the website with 14.84% and they can be best described as "disadvantaged peripheral urban and country neighbourhoods", which shows that McDonald's Australia is not only engaging a significant proportion; but also, a wide and varied cross section of the Australian public in their education campaign.
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| Sports - Motorsport |
| The Motorsport category includes all sites related to automotive or motorcycle competition, including online motorsport publications. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 21/10/2006 » Ranks by 'Visits'. |
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| 52.9% |
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of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.
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| 1. |
Computers and Internet |
45.2% |
| 2. |
Computers and Internet - Search Engines |
28.2% |
| 3. |
Automotive |
19.9% |
| 4. |
Sports |
18.4% |
| 5. |
Automotive - Motorsport |
14.4% |
| 6. |
Sports - Motorsport |
14.1% |
| 7. |
Entertainment |
9.9% |
| 8. |
News and Media |
6.6% |
| 9. |
Computers and Internet - Portal Frontpages |
5.5% |
| 10. |
Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat |
5.2% |
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| 1. |
Automotive |
27.8% |
| 2. |
Sports |
24.1% |
| 3. |
Computers and Internet |
22.9% |
| 4. |
Automotive - Motorsport |
20.8% |
| 5. |
Sports - Motorsport |
20.1% |
| 6. |
Entertainment |
11.2% |
| 7. |
Computers and Internet - Search Engines |
7.8% |
| 8. |
Shopping and Classifieds |
6.9% |
| 9. |
News and Media |
6.5% |
| 10. |
Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat |
5.4% |
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