| Google websites account for over one-third of all UK Internet traffic |
Hitwise data for March revealed that Google Internet properties send over one-third of all Internet traffic to websites in the UK: a custom category consisting of the 100 most visited web properties in the UK that are owned by Google Inc. accounted for 36.55% of upstream traffic to All Categories of websites, up from 30.19% in March 2007.
The most visited Google property in the UK was Google UK (www.google.co.uk); with a market share of 7.77% of all UK Internet visits in March 2008, it was also the most visited website in the UK. Google UK was also the website that sent the most traffic to other websites during March, accounting for 27.48% of upstream traffic to All Categories. This was followed by Google (www.google.com), which had a market share of 1.70% and accounted for 4.43% of all upstream traffic.
Video sharing website YouTube (www.youtube.com), which Google purchased in 2006, was the third most visited Google property, accounting for 1.31% of all UK Internet visits in March. The UK version of the website, (uk.youtube.com) was the sixth most visited Google property, accounting for 0.30% of UK Internet visits in March.
Google is also benefiting from other areas of Internet search that are being driven by the growth of so called 'universal search' - the process of integrating video, image, news and other content in traditional search results. The fourth most visited Google property was Google Image UK (images.google.co.uk), which accounted for 0.58% of UK Internet visits in March. However, this website is even more important as a source of traffic, accounting for 1.27% of all upstream traffic sent to other websites in March, making it the third most important Google property in terms of sending traffic to other websites. Other Google search websites in the top 10 include Google Maps (maps.google.co.uk) at 8th position and Google News UK (news.google.co.uk), at 10th.
In light of Google's recent trademark changes, Hitwise clients can view our recent webinar on "Using Hitwise to Manage Your Brand" by clicking through to the Training and Tools section of Hitwise University.
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| All inclusive holidays popular in a weak economy |
The combination of a weakening economy, falling house prices and a rising cost of living thanks to inflation mean that many British consumers are looking for ways to cut their expenditure. Add in the impact of a strong Euro (although not Dollar), and it seems likely that one area facing a cutback in consumer spending will be travel. One interesting trend we have noticed which indicates that this may be the case is an increase in searches for 'all inclusive holidays': the amount of traffic that travel websites are receiving from this price-sensitive / budget-conscious search term has increased by 24% compared with last year.
To read more about how consumers are searching for travel faced with an ailing economy, click here.
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| Disasters Emergency Committee - www.dec.org.uk |
Position for week ending 26 April 2008: 221
Position for week ending 10 May 2008: 3
Positions jumped: 218
Traffic to the Disasters Emergency Committee website (www.dec.org.uk) jumped dramatically in the week ending 10 May, after Cyclone Nargis caused massive destruction in Burma.
Just over a third of all upstream visits to the website came from a search engine, with 18 of the top 30 search terms that drove traffic to the DEC website Burma-related. News & Media websites were also very active in pushing traffic, sending 35% of upstream visits to the DEC website.
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| Matching consumer behaviour – ‘hotels’ vs. ‘accommodation’ |
Using Hitwise data removes the guesswork around terms that may be commonly used in an industry, but are not necessarily used by the consumer. A good example of this from the travel industry is: should you focus on 'hotels' as a term, or 'accommodation'?
The term 'accommodation' covers a number of options, such as villa and bed & breakfast in addition to 'hotels', but how does this compare to searches for each of the individual terms? Hitwise Search Intelligence™ reveals that searches for 'hotels' are on average seven times higher than searches for 'accommodation', so it would be better to use specific terms such as 'hotels' and 'villa' within the content of your web pages rather than the generic term 'accommodation'.
For Hitwise clients who would like to discuss this application further, please contact Hitwise Customer Support, or visit Hitwise University and review the Best Practice Guide for SEO.
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| Sunny weather raises interest in camping |
Recent research from Hitwise UK shows that searches for 'camping' and 'camping sites' increased by 70% and 75% respectively for the week ending 10 May, as sunny weather played out across the UK. A quarter of visits from searches for 'camping' visited ukcampsite.co.uk, an online guide to camping and caravanning, resulting in the website entering the top 10 Destination & Accommodation websites for the first time.
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