Top Sites Set Benchmark For Paid Search Mix - Hitwise Study Results. 

                                                      High Growth Websites Leverage Paid Search 

Melbourne, 18th October 2006. Hitwise, the world’s leading online competitive intelligence service, recently conducted a study on the paid and organic traffic of leading websites in major online commerce industries. The Hitwise Search Intelligence^TM 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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See below

Paid Search Traffic Average to Top 10 Websites in Selected Hitwise Industries

Source: Hitwise

Period: 4 weeks ending 7 October 2006