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The Second Long Tail: Internal Search Terms
December 16, 2009
From Tim Keelan, Senior Account Manager at Hitwise:
Our savvy clients use Hitwise Search Intelligence to expand on their keyword lists using their competitors search term traffic. Each week they examine the long tail of searches and make sure every term is captured for SEM/SEO. Despite their best efforts, they must take for granted that search terms as they are typed in search engines make up only a portion of all searches that are important to a site.
Why is that? Well, for one, not everyone uses a search engine to get to a website. In fact, for the month of November, about 73% of retailer traffic came from non-search engine sources, including brand-loyal users who navigate directly to their favorite sites. On top of that, when they do come through search engines, many times they arrive by searching for branded terms. While knowing your competitor is getting branded traffic might be interesting, it doesn’t help you to expand on your keywords. To find what I call the second long tail of search, we need to look at internal search term traffic.
Hitwise's Custom Internal Search Reports allow us to see the internal searches within a website. These searches are agnostic to the origin of the visitor. Using the data we are able to see the product search patterns of visitors, regardless of the source – branded external search, bookmarks, and e-mail to name just a few. Because so many visitors come in from brand searches and direct navigation, the internal search data is often broader and deeper than external search. Let’s take a look at Target.com.
Target.com Search Term Breakout
When looking at Target.com’s internal search data I’m first struck by not only the depth of the data, but also the fact that few of the terms are shared with external paid and organic search (only 979 terms). Here we are seeing the true long tail of search terms in the internal data. In the internal search list, there are barely any Target related searches, just products that people want to find and buy.
The differences between the product choices of internal vs. external are also stark. Below you’ll find the top 10 internal product searches for the week ending November 28th and in parenthesis where those terms rank in the external search list.
Top 10 Internal Product Searches (External Search Rank)
1. Wii (116)
2. zhu zhu (No External Search Traffic)
3. cartoons network games (12)
4. ipod touch (15)
5. ipod (34)
6. psp (1822)
7. math games for kids (1444)
8. wii games (228)
9. tv (No External Search Traffic)
10. brain fun (13221)
While the iPod touch may be important driver of external search, Target.com visitors are more interested in Wii consoles and games. Oh and the lovely “Zhu Zhu” is the #2 internal search but doesn’t appear in that form externally (“Zhu Zhu Pets” does drive substantial external traffic though).
You can read a lot into the contrast between the two types of searches. Did a circular promotion drive internal searches for “Brain Fun”? Was the term “Zhu Zhu” too expensive for Target to bid on? Should Target.com be featuring Wii since it’s obvious that’s what many of their visitors are looking for? All these are important questions, but the value of this data is clear – you now have 17,770 terms you didn’t know were important to your competitor. Ask your account manager about how you can get these reports on your own competitors.
Lastly, do you know which Target.com internal search term was more popular than Wii in the first week of November? “Target Job Application”. I expect that term to return to the top of the list as soon as everyone gets their holiday credit card bills.
Posted by Anita Gandhi at 10:42 AM
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In Categories Product
Welcome to Experian Hitwise!
September 09, 2009
We couldn’t be more pleased about the launch of Experian Hitwise, our new brand that incorporates the identity of our parent, Experian. This is the exciting culmination of a process that began a little over two years ago with the acquisition of Hitwise by Experian. Since then, we’ve found innumerable opportunities that would not have been available to Hitwise as an independent entity.
Experian is the global leader in providing information, analytical and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions. Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service, measuring the largest worldwide sample (25 million internet users) and reporting on the most online businesses (over 1 million).
For clients, this integration brings several benefits:
Global reach. Employing 15,000 people in 40 countries, the Experian global network provides local knowledge and resources to support expansion into new markets - as with recent Hitwise launches in Canada and Brazil.
Data and analytical expertise. More than 100,000 clients worldwide tap into Experian’s expertise across Credit and Marketing Services, Decision Analytics and Consumer Interactive offerings. This expertise is leveraged in ongoing enhancements to Hitwise products and processes.
Financial strength. As one of the top performing stocks on the FTSE 100 with revenue of nearly US$4 billion, Experian has the resources to reinvest in the people, data and technology that drive product innovation and greater client value.
Product synergy. Combining complementary Experian Marketing Services products such as CheetahMail, Simmons, MOSAIC, INSOURCE, QAS, FootFall and others leads to offerings that help our customers improve their marketing and grow and protect their market share.
We are looking forward to working with clients, partners, industry bodies and Experian colleagues to expand on the strength of Experian Hitwise. We hope you will join us.
Marc Johnson
Chief Marketing Officer
Experian Hitwise
Posted by Marc Johnson at 05:55 PM
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Use Mosaic to Understand the U.S. Hispanic Online Audience
August 28, 2009
As the largest ethnic minority in the U.S. and the fastest growing segment of the population, it is becoming essential that companies understand the U.S. Hispanic community and how best to market to them.
Subscribers to the Mosaic Lifestyle segmentation tool in Hitwise have a head-start. It's as simple as this:
Step 1: Navigate to ‘Find’ ‘Websites by Mosaic USA Characteristics’.
Step 2: Identify the ‘Hispanic Race’ segments you wish to target.
Step 3: Check off the Mosaic USA Types with the greatest relative strength for your audience.
Results: A list of sites that have the highest percentage of visits from the heavily-Hispanic Mosaic Types you chose. These sites can be great advertising partners, affiliates, or guides for great content.
Advanced: Scroll to the bottom of the results page and choose to only look at sites in certain categories (i.e. categories where you might want to place advertising, like the "Entertainment" category). Or switch from "by percentage" to "by volume" to find bigger sites.
Want more? Listen to our recent webinar on the subject: Online Trends in the U.S. Hispanic Community
Posted by Anita Gandhi at 10:24 AM
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In Categories Product
Find the Most Relevant Social Networks and Blogs
August 21, 2009
With the multitude of Social Networks, Forums and Blogs available to web-users, you can find sites devoted to almost any possible interest and activity.
This is great news for marketers, whether you’re building a media plan, looking for a promotional partner, or trying to find link partners for SEO. These sites offer the epitome of contextual relevance. However, the sheer abundance of these sites makes it difficult to identify the ones that are the best fit for your business. Hitwise can help you cut through the clutter.
Step 1: Navigate to the Rankings Report.
Step 2: Select the Industry Rankings Report.
Step 3: Select the Industry most relevant to your audience (e.g. Health and Medical, or Lifestyle – Pets and Animals).
Step 4: Click on ‘Filters’.
Step 5: Within ‘Include Industry’ select Computers and Internet – Social Networking and Forums and/ or Lifestyle – Blogs and Personal Websites. Click on ‘Generate Report’.
Results: A list of Social Networks, Forums and Blogs that are focused on your audience, products and issues. These sites can be great places to target your audience effectively and efficiently.
Posted by Anita Gandhi at 11:58 AM
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In Categories Product