Tag Archives: Search Activity

Top Search Terms and Visited sites for 2010

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Experian does an annual study on the top search terms for each year and the top ten visited URLs for each year. Below you will find a graphic for 2010 versus 2009. Facebook found itself at the top of both lists – showing you the power that brand and property has become. There is a reason why Mark Zuckerberg was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and there was a movie made about the Facebook story. As you will see, FOUR of the top ten search terms were all facebook.

Analysis of the search terms revealed that social networking-related terms dominated the results, accounting for 4.18 percent of the top 50 searches so you social media doubters needs to stop doubting.

New terms that entered into the top 50 search terms for 2010 included – netflix, verizon wireless, espn, chase, pogo, tagged, wells fargo, yellow pages, poptropica, games and hulu.

The combination of Google properties accounted for 9.85 percent of all U.S. site visits. Facebook properties accounted for 8.93 percent, and Yahoo! properties accounted for 8.12 percent. The top 10 Websites accounted for 33 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010, an increase of 12 percent versus 2009.

One of the next questions becomes, will Facebook be able to be knocked off it’s perch from either list? You would think at some point there would be something else that needs to get searched for more than Facebook just because “everyone” will already be a user right? But when does that happen? 2011? 2012? When the next great social media invention comes along? It will be interesting to watch this over the next couple of years.

Some other fun facts and top searched items :
Athlete: Still Tiger Woods – Dallas Cowboys were the team
Destination: Disney World and Disneyland was #2
Movie Title: Star Wars
Company: Bevelwise (just making sure you are paying attention, lol)
Music Artist/Band: Justin Bieber mania was BEAT by Lady Gaga
TV Show: Dancing with the Stars beat Amercian Idol…
Personality: Kim Kardashian has passed Oprah and Rush was third…

We just thought it was very interesting how powerful Facebook as become. Let us know if you think any of these numbers/spots will change for 2011 and why. We’d love to hear your opinion.

Local Search and the Multi-Platform Approach

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I was just reading this article from Search Engine Land about the topic above. While their “case study” method left a bit to be desired (why would you ever go from your own Facebook page to the yellow pages and put them in front of ALL of the competition make absolutely NO SENSE!), you do need to have multi-platform strategy to effectively keep your presense in a local marketplace.

You do need the local search methods, the directories, and your web content all to help you maintain your presence and potentially “own” the local listing, I just don’t see yellow pages being the answer. Social media would be more effective than that. I cannot tell you the last time I personally looked in a phone book. I also don’t go to online yellow pages unless there is something specific that I am not finding through Google/Bing/Yahoo. You can tell the writer definitely came from the Yellow Pages world.

As these mediums, try to revamp to become more relevant in an Internet driven world, there could be some value here, as web strategy is the “sum of all parts”. Local Search is something that needs a trained professional to help you with in order to maximize effectiveness and ensure you are getting your ROI. If you are interested, find someone (like Bevelwise) who understands it, can explain it, and has no reason to be bias to any one media – only to produce the results you desire.

The Obama Effect: Google Says President Changed Search Activity

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The first five minutes of my local TV newscast last night was spent showing how much local interest there was in President Barack Obama’s inauguration. People watched on TV in schools, sports bars, department stores, dentists’ offices, nursing homes, and just about anywhere else a TV could be turned on.

Google says that interest was also reflected online. In a late-night blog post, Google shares some interesting facts and figures about inauguration-related search activity:

  • popular queries during the inauguration ceremony included “live inauguration coverage,” “inauguration day 2009 streaming,” and “listen to inauguration live”
  • search activity spiked as people looked for information on other participants, such as Dr. Rick Warren, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, and performers Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, and others
  • 12% of inauguration-related queries came from outside the US

To me, the most interesting sign of online interest in the inauguration is a chart Google provided that shows a dramatic drop in search activity while the President was giving his speech:

chart

As I sat in front of the TV with my laptop, I noticed something similar: While I usually get a never-ending stream of incoming email, I only received two during Obama’s 20-minute speech. I don’t recall him promising to help reduce Inbox Clutter, but that might be a platform to think about in 2012.