Online Traction

Comscore is a trusted authority on internet traffic patterns. Their press release from yesterday reveals the findings of an analysis of data from July and accompanying surveys (U.S. only).

Summary:

- Local search is growing very fast: 63 percent of U.S. internet users (approx. 109 million people) performed a local search in July (an increase of 43 percent from July ‘05)

- 60 percent of these searches were shared more or less equally by Yahoo Local and Google Maps

- Around 60 percent of local searches are for a restaurant, movie theater or entertainment-related

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Don’t misinterpret the title as suggesting that there exist search engines for cults and radical groups. Though that may be true, Pandia.com has a great article on the alternative search engines. The essential idea is that although Google, Yahoo and MSN command over 90% of search engine searches there is a significant wedge of market occupied by smaller fish namely ask, gigablast, factbites, exalead and snap that deserve our attention.

For website owners it is smart to submit your sites to these search engines and monitor your traffic. This probably won’t generate significant traffic but there is a possibility of hitting a rich seam of market where your competitors may not exist, yet.

Also, now that Google Adwords is costing more and more, check out the pay-per-click advertising systems of these smaller search engines.
Personally I’m finding that I use a few different search engines for more obtuse searches. I still start at Google but for example I use Jux2 (a meta search engine ie. aggregates and weights search results from yahoo, google and msn) if I can’t find the object of my search in Google.

While I’m at it I’m noticing more and more search engine pollution caused by webmasters who publish multiple websites to take advantage of affiliate marketing and Google Adsense.

• SEO Egghead summarizes (”21 Great SEO tips from Google“) the latest statements from Google on the good, bad and ugly of site optimization and how the Google ranking algorithym is changing. A must read for beginners and contains such gems as :

“Google is against selling/buying links, and Matt indicates they are good at spotting them — both algorithmically and manually.”

• Windows “Live Search” launches. Remarkably similar to Google: crisp interface, similar functionality and is personalizable and can be integrated to the suite of MSN products and services: IM, Local, News etc. Will be interesting to see how pay-per-click ad costs compare and how fast it will gain traction in the search market. Let the battle commence.

• Yahoo adds new functionality to its Site Explorer service. Find out about your site: pages indexed, number of links etc and other factors that influence the ranking of your site.

• slightly off topic…somebody went to the trouble of compiling a page of hot Web 2 companies. Some are really interesting, some are faddish and most won’t be around in 5 years. If you don’t know Web 2 this is a good primer.

…more soon

I received this cry for help yesterday from a web design firm:

So, we did this website in flash, and now the client is completely freaked out that he is not registering on search engines….now what? This is so f**ked up!, I hate not being educated on the pros and cons of why [to] do something!

Its a common complaint and harks from the late 90s and early ’00s when flash was fashionable with web design firms, clients and web users.

Its important to note that Flash does have appropriate uses particularly for sites that are essentially brochure-ware, where branding is as important as sales. Such sites include major brands such as Nike (the keywords ‘running shoe’ do not result in a 1st page listing in google) or web-design firms who use their sites to present their skills and abilities.

However, for the lions share of sites what matters is organic search engine ranking and visibility. In the early days of the mainstream web, way back 8 or so years ago the mantra of ‘build it and they will come’ seemed to be pervasive. This is no longer applies for two main reasons:

1. Sites programmed completely in Flash are largely invisible to search engines and prevent organic ranking in search engines. That said, sites programmed in Flash aren’t necessarily a disaster because a good link strategy and other ‘offsite factors’ can offset the damage caused to search engine ranking due to Flash. But that takes time, ingenuity and $.

2. Flash tries to entertain, which is appropriate for brochure-style sites, but all too often Flash is used inappropriately on sites where users are trying to accomplish something: locate a product, find information, make a purchase. In these cases Flash can be annoying and hinders the user.

Add to that the fact that web users are both fickle and sensitive particularly when they are in search mode. They typically visit many sites, make comparisons of products and often make decisions based on their experience of a site. So its not hard to imagine why a site that has an effective interface will be chosen over a site that imposes a short movie before taking you to where you want to go. Lesson: don’t take control from the user, make it easy for them to accomplish their objectives.

In fairness, Adobe, who own Flash, is trying rectify the situation but opinion varies as to its effectiveness in SEO terms.

The solutions or alternatives for sites using Flash obviously depends on the site’s commercial objectives and budget. In simple terms:

- a good solution is to build a hybrid site that blends animation with standard html content and tags. Some good examples here and here. Another liability in this situation is that the site visitor doesn’t have flash installed on their computer or has an incorrect version. Either way the user needs to go to Adobe and download software, the net effect of which may be interruption, inconvenience, and possibly a lost site visitor.

- alternatively, give the user the option of choosing the html version of the site or the Flash version in the first page of the site. This still isn’t optimal in terms of SEO because search engines put a premium on the content of the first page and are said to devalue sites with index pages with little content, and you still have the possibility that the user will be directed to Adobe.com to download software.

- or build a text-rich site with cascading style sheets (CSS - apologies to the non-techies). This is the preferred SEO solution and can also be done very effectively while creating a strong branding impression.

As always, you can’t manage what you can’t measure so base your design on what users actually do. Analyze and interpret your site data. A good way of determining the effectiveness and conversion capacity of your index page is to create two versions of it (1 version in Flash, the other a hybrid as described above). Then measure the front page bounce rate and other metrics described here to decide what works for your site visitors.

Online Real Estate Ad spending to nearly double by 2010 ($2 billion to $3 billion).

Real Estate is one of the most competitive online markets (in the US at least) particularly in local and regional markets. Add to that the slowing demand in property sales, and the increase in the number of realtors in recent years.

Its also an industry known more for postcards in the mailbox rather than innovative use of new and existing internet sales and marketing tools.

Here are some salient facts and observations:

Unless they adapt, the agents with longer histories in the industry are going to lose out as younger/newer agents fill the demand created by consumers using the web to find homes.

Free and almost free online RE listings and information services will have an increasing impact on how RE is conducted: Google Base, Trulia, City Cribs, Curbed, Ooodle, Yahoo Real Estate, Move, Zillow. The most significant user benefit is the improved user experience and added value of these services.

additional reporting thanks to Borrell Associates and Clickz

A recently released study from the reputable Pew Group reveals some interesting gems on internet usage in the US:

• 73% internet penetration among US adults (over 140MM people) - up from 66% in ‘05. This is comprised of 71% women and 74% men

• Three-quarters of white adults (74%) go online, compared to 61% of African-American adults. Fully 80% of English-speaking Hispanics go online

• Of all home internet users 34% use dial-up connection while 62% use a high-speed connection

• 80% of adults under 30 go online regularly, compared with 32% for those 65 and older

• 79% of internet users research a product or service before buying it

• 67% buy a product

• 1 in 6 Americans read blogs (small decrease from previous Pew survey). This amounts to 40% the size of the talk radio audience or about 20% of the newspaper reading audience

• 1 in 20 have created blogs

• Only 13% of those surveyed had a “good idea” of what a podcasting is

• 91% use a search engine to find information

• 43% bank online

• 38% pay bills online

• over one quarter participate in online auctions

Perhaps most surprising for me is the number of people who are conducting transactions (bills, publishing blogs, auctions) as opposed to just reading and browsing. This indicates not only a significant degree of trust but also a degree of reliance. Also I can’t believe that over one third of the country is still using dial-up while the Republic of Macedonia is installing the infrastructure to enable country-wide wifi.

Finally business leaders are connecting the dots. A recent series of articles (thank you Tracy) in the New York Times (free registration required) and elsewhere point to an emerging realization of the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). Face it. We are now in a world where more and more of our interests and activities can be conveniently solved by search engines: real estate, driving directions (and send to your cell phone), calendar, and news.

The fact is that getting found on the web is mostly thanks to marketing combined with basic site optimization. Onsite optimization in the form of keyword-rich content and html tagging and offsite optimization in terms of strategic linking, site submission etc. are only the essential ingredients in what it takes to getting ranked in search engines today. Staying found is a lot more nuanced, has more to do with usability, reliability, relevance and facilitating user goals and objectives.

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Google Analytics is probably the best free way to measure web site traffic. It provides probably more information on visits, visitors, frequency, content performance etc. than you’ll need or use. It also links in to Google Adwords and Adsense.

The downside is that it has been so popular that demand has exceeded supply. Sign up here to be on the list for the next wave of invitations.

I wrote the following for a friend and editor of a new rip-roaring Irish blog. As such it has a commercial slant, is not very refined but thought it worth sharing for bloggers and more traditional websites alike. What I have outlined here is pretty high level; there’s a lot more to good blogging not least compelling content, style and strategic linking. So, jump on the tip of the iceberg (before it melts)

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This is the first in a series of articles on strategies and tactics to attract pre-qualified traffic to your website. The advice is a mix of how to attract the right traffic, how to convert this traffic into a steady stream of customers and how to out-maneuver your competitors.

Some of the steps will yield fast returns while others are focused on the longer term. Its in summary form so contact me if you need more detailed information or advice on any of the information I provide here.

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