Tag Archives: greater
Travel site traffic spikes for summer, presenting prime content marketing opportunities
As part of its Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for June, market research firm comScore found travel sites and others in related industries were especially strong performers in the month. The rise is expected given increased vacation time during the summer, and companies in the vertical can use content marketing and SEO campaigns to increase their visibility during prime travel season. According to the study, the travel industry saw a 9 percent increase in traffic in June, growing to 14 million total visitors Continue reading
Bing sees little change in search share, as Google inches forward
Despite major updates in May, neither Bing nor Yahoo was able to cut into Google’s dominance of the search market, according to comScore’s analysis for the month. The company’s search market report found, Google’s share jumped 0.2 percentage points to 66.7 percent, while Bing remained flat at 15.4 percent and Yahoo fell 0.1 point to 13.4 percent. The market share loss likely comes as a blow to Yahoo, which rolled out Axis in late May to move its search product forward. The browser plug-in and mobile app both operate Yahoo search, but the company’s continued losses show that few are actively interested in using the service. Similarly, Bing announced series of integrations and updates to its SERPs last month, but Microsoft’s search engine continues to see little improvement. While the 15.4 percent of the total market doesn’t move the company’s market share needle, it did field a higher volume of searches in May with 2 percent more than April. Still, it has not cut into Google’s dominance, and it doesn’t look likely to do so. Google also added to the overall search total in April, with 3 percent more queries being sent through the engine. With its market share growing 0.2 percent, Google search activity substantiates Amit Singhal’s recent comment that the Knowlege Graph is fueling more queries. As all of these new features are released, marketers may begin to brace their SEO campaigns for features that will improve SERP experience for Bing and Yahoo users. Marketers may be bracing their SEO campaigns to take advantage of new search features across engines that will help them provide the best SERP experience for Google, Bing and Yahoo users . However, Google’s continued dominance means that content marketing campaigns aimed at boosting search ranking are most likely to yield benefits when focused on Google searchers. Moving forward, local search and associated SEO practices will be critical for companies to focus on. In May, Google announced the development of Google+ Local, which replaced Google Places, and will emphasize Google+ data as a local ranking factor. Meanwhile, Brafton reported recently that Bing has partnered with Yelp to deliver content relating to a region’s businesses to those using its engine to find local results. Greater emphasis on local search could be especially useful for those that rely on prospect and customer phone calls to measure web leads. Brafton recently reported that one of local search’s greatest benefits for companies has been increased phone calls among other secondary actions after conducting a query. Continue reading
Brafton’s content marketing poll results: Marketers find frequent, high-quality website content drives lead generation
Brafton polled 103 marketers in various industries to assess their current and future efforts in creating content to improve their web presences. The dynamic nature of web marketing has resulted in organizations diversifying their custom content campaigns to include several different kinds. Adoption of every content type included in the poll will grow in the coming months, except for social media which will maintain its current use by 86 percent of respondents. Among the goals respondents found the most success in was lead generation, as 76.4 percent said that content marketing has positively impacted their ability to drive leads for their company. While Brafton maintains that news content marketing campaigns are for improving website traffic and relevant leads, we also believe comprehensive strategies that offer a strong mix of articles and lengthier pieces are most likely to result in quality leads – and data suggests we’re not alone. For example, Brafton has reported in the past that white paper marketing became more common in 2011, with 38 percent of companies using custom content developing the lengthier pieces compared to 30 percent in 2010. Continue reading
