Hitwise releases its UK Online Search Report
How much of the search market does Google control? Do internet users search differently on different search engines? Are there still search term gems out there that won't cost me an arm and a leg?
The recently released Hitwise UK Online Search Report answers these questions, reporting on share of the search market held by each of the leading engines, the audience profile of the various search engines, consumer search behaviour and the degree to which search terms continue to be underutilised.
Click here to request a copy of Hitwise UK Online Search Report.
Key findings of the report are:
- The combined forces of Google UK and Google.com account for two-thirds of internet searches.
- Different search engines attract a different audience profile. Understanding these differences will help you understand where to apply your search marketing budget based on the audience you are trying to attract to your website.
- Not only do the search engines attract a different profile of user, but they also search differently on the various search engines. More than half of searches on MSN.co.uk Search are one word search phrases while searches on Ask tend to be more specific than average.
- Consumers also search differently depending on the industry sector they are trying to reach. For example, consumers shopping for fashion and accessories search most often for high street brands. However, these firms are much more reliant on visits from searches on their brand than their pure-play competitors.
- 95% of search terms are underutilised - which means that retailers are either not optimising to or bidding on terms for products that consumers are searching for and that are sold on their site. The analysis considered search terms sending visits to the top five Apparel and Accessories sites and found that the average gap (i.e. missed search opportunities) was 95%. This means that on average only 1 in 20 search terms sending visits to these sites represent an overlap.
Search Terms Analysis
Traditional retailers missing out on online opportunities
High street brands enjoy greater online brand strength than their pure-play competitors in the UK, but are missing significant opportunities for customer acquisition from search.
Using its Search Intelligence tool, Hitwise analysed search terms sending visits to retail websites in the UK and the volume of visits the sites receive. The results show that high street stores have a significant online brand advantage but squander opportunities to acquire customers online by missing key search term opportunities.
Nearly half (49%) of search terms sending visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites in the UK are searches on clicks and mortar stores (traditional high street retailers that also have an online presence). By contrast, brand strength is not as strong among pure-play providers of shopping search engines who rely much more heavily on visits from product searches.
Top 10 high street brands searched on, for the 4-week period ending 11/6/2005.
| Search Term | Market Share (%) |
|---|
| 1. | argos | 0.83 |
| 2. | tesco | 0.49 |
| 3. | currys | 0.37 |
| 4. | b&q | 0.34 |
| 5. | debenhams | 0.33 |
| 6. | comet | 0.32 |
| 7. | pc world | 0.27 |
| 8. | john lewis | 0.25 |
| 9. | homebase | 0.23 |
| 10. | ikea | 0.21 |
Travel companies could profit from on-pitch events
Hitwise analysis of two recent football matches (the Champions League and FA Cup finals) provides an insight into the timing of consumers' searches - and ultimately, reveals how travel companies are failing to optimise to, or bid on, relevant terms in a timely enough manner.
Searches on "flights to Istanbul" ahead of the Champions League final were seen to peak in the week ending 7th May, two and a half weeks before the actual final. This was the week in which Liverpool beat Chelsea in the semi-final, when Liverpool fans would have then gone online to search on flights. This also explains why "flights to Istanbul from Manchester" had a 100% success rate (i.e 100% of searches resulted in a visit to a Travel website).
Further evidence of the importance of timing in search marketing can be seen with the FA Cup final in Cardiff. Searches on "hotels in cardiff" peaked in the week of 21st May, the same week as the FA Cup final. Interestingly, websites who benefited from this last minute surge in activity were not dominated by the leading hotel chains but instead local websites such as www.cardiff.world-stay.com and www.walesdirectory.co.uk who were quick off the mark. This indicates that the leading hotel chains were slow to optimise to or bid on this particular search term.
Category Spotlight: News & Media
The News and Media category includes websites of magazines and newspapers, and news relating to the computer and IT industry. The category includes e-zines of a general nature, covering a variety of subject areas. The following data is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 18/06/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
|
Local Competitiveness Index
80.0%
of traffic to this category
was directed at domestic sites.
|
Traffic Distribution
The chart above illustrates the distribution of this category's traffic for the week among sites in various rank ranges.
|
| Top 10 Upstream Categories |
|---|
| 1. | Computers and Internet | 43.1% | | 2. | Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories | 26.8% | | 3. | News and Media | 21.6% | | 4. | Entertainment | 15.4% | | 5. | Sports | 6.5% | | 6. | News and Media - Print | 5.6% | | 7. | Business and Finance | 5.1% | | 8. | Shopping and Classifieds | 4.7% | | 9. | Entertainment - Television | 4.3% | | 10. | Computers and Internet - Email Services | 3.5% |
|
| Top 10 Downstream Categories |
|---|
| 1. | News and Media | 25.5% | | 2. | Computers and Internet | 21.2% | | 3. | Entertainment | 19.3% | | 4. | Sports | 11.4% | | 5. | Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories | 9.3% | | 6. | Entertainment - Television | 9.0% | | 7. | Business and Finance | 8.3% | | 8. | News and Media - Print | 8.1% | | 9. | Shopping and Classifieds | 7.6% | | 10. | Lifestyle | 4.5% |
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Fast Mover: Live 8
www.live8live.com
Position on June 4: 1,048
Position on June 15: 169
Positions jumped: 879
As competition lines opened on Monday 6th June to win one of 150,000 tickets for the LIVE 8 concert in Hyde Park, the official website was inundated with traffic. www.live8live.com leapt to #1 in the online Humanitarian sector with a 33% market share, and it also achieved an overall ranking of #195 amongst all sites tracked by Hitwise - claiming more than 0.04% of all UK traffic.
On the same day, the site also reached #3 amongst online Music sites. The Live 8 website has links to the various bands and artists playing in the 5 locations around the world, and clickstream data reveal the most popular artists clicked on were Robbie Williams, Coldplay, U2, Muse and The Killers.
The site reached a peak of #169 on June 15 when winners were notified by text and then went on to visit the LIVE 8 website to claim their free tickets.
News In Brief
Sudoku craze sweeps the UK
Hitwise Search Terms data reveal that although searches for 'sudoku' increased significantly in early March, they saw by far their biggest spike in the week that the Sun began publishing the puzzles. UK searches for 'sudoku' doubled between May 7 and May 14, and also increased significantly in the week ending May 21. 'sudoku' is now the 4th most searched-for term within the Entertainment - Games industry, making up 0.65% of all online searches.
Searches for the less popular spelling variation 'su doku' - favoured by The Times - also more than doubled from April 30 to May 7. The top downstream destination for 'su doku' searches is The Times website (www.timesonline.co.uk), followed closely by several other news sites, including BBC News and The Independent. Meanwhile, 'times su doku' is one of the top 10 variations on the search term 'su doku', highlighting the newspaper's success in aligning its brand with the popular puzzle.
Online rush for Michael Jackson news
In the lead-up to the jury's decision on the Michael Jackson trial last week, millions of people across the globe were anxiously awaiting the outcome, with UK Internet users swamping online news sites and Jackson fan sites to get the latest updates.
For the week ending 11th June, online searches relating to Michael Jackson were at their highest level since the trial began on February 28: more than 1 in 9,000 searches were for the term 'michael jackson', a 29% increase on the term's previous peak (for the week ending 12th March). Searches for the second most popular Jackson-related term, 'michael jackson trial', also shot up, doubling their share of searches from June 4 to June 11.
Google News (news.google.co.uk) was the top destination for people searching for 'michael jackson' with more than 10% of downstream traffic, whilst CNN, NBC, Reuters, BBC News and ABC News also featured in the top 10 downstream sites. Both Reuters and the Washington Post targeted Google AdWords advertising at searches for the term 'michael jackson', leveraging traffic from the intense online interest in the case.
Media queries at Hitwise
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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, June 2005
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Hitwise United Kingdom Newsletter - June 2005
Real-time competitive intelligence