Hitwise always comes out with it’s top searched terms for the month, and I know this sort of information can always help the Leadpile publishers with generating traffic. Getting as targeted traffic as you can will always help with the conversions of clicks to converted leads. For example, people selling items to generate income is a very important term consumers are searching for on the internet. Here are some examples of what consumers are searching for when trying to “sell” something.

Previous months Top 10 Search Terms by Category (April 2009) (%)
Automotive Manufacturers

Search Term/Search Volume

Honda 1.50
Toyota 1.37
Ford 1.37
Harley Davidson 1.04
Oreilly auto parts 0.98
Nissan 0.87
Dodge 0.69
Chevrolet 0.67
Kia 0.67
Honda motorcycles 0.66

If you are wanting to generate auto finance leads with Leadpile, these might be some terms to utilize when setting up your PPC campaign or trying to be indexed in the search engines (SEO). Keywords should be relevant to the products or services represented on your website being optimized. Keywords, should include single- and multiple-word phrases.

Net Communities and Chat

Search Term/Search Volume

Myspace 5.00
Facebook 4.28
Youtube 1.83
Myspace.com 1.61
Facebook login 1.23
Facebook.com 0.90
www.myspace.com 0.61
My space 0.56
You tube 0.40
Twitter 0.36

In many potential ways, social networking sites are a part of lead generation. Utilizing sites like Hitwise, helps with knowing more information about the consumer and where they are looking on the internet. Do your research, and know more about the consumer you are trying to attract to the website.

Craigslist took over the top spot for the most searched term that Internet users clicked through to in the United States, during the week ending March 14. Myspace had held the top spot as the most popular term since March 2006.    According to Hitwise, “U.S. searches on the term “craigslist” have increased 105 percent for the week ending March 14, 2009, compared with the same week last year.”  Why is this?  Could this increase in searching “craigslist” be a result of the economic position many consumers are in?  Either way, this is positive for Craigslist!  

So, who will be the next king of the hill?

Publishers in The Leadpile Lead Exchange certainly look at Craigslist as a place to promote their websites and the Leadpile offers. Those that are not, should maybe look into this site as a potential source of traffic.

The longer the internet has been around, the more people become “internet savvy” with finding exactly what it is they are looking for.  According to DMNews, generally consumers would conduct searches with one, two or three words. However, queries with four to eight words are becoming more and more popular. Consumers are getting smarter on knowing they would want a more specific search result, therefore entering in more words is providing them more specific results to choose from. In previous years, consumers would enter in a brand they were looking for and then have to navigate through the site for the information they were looking for. Because of this, experts state that brands need to have some sort of way to extract that traffic by having things such as a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page and blogs. This would allow that brand’s site still to come up in the consumer’s search results. Leadpile Lead Exchange also understands this, therefore we are always looking for ways to optimize the traffic of those that are looking to purchase or sell internet leads. How is your site? Are you optimizing it effectively to get the most out of the search engines traffic?

Much has been written and spoken about Twitter recently.  Some people love it, and others view it as a waste of time.  Also, the lack of a business model that produces revenue has been discussed.  Does Twitter act like email, search, and/or social networking?  The answers currently appear to be no, no, and yes.

This week, the people at Hitwise came out with some research on where people are going after visiting Twitter.  Indications are that Twitter is acting more like social networking than search or email.  Two out of five visitors are visiting social networks or entertainment sites after visiting Twitter.

At this point, very little Twitter traffic is visiting retail sites (search activity) nor is the traffic visiting finance, business or dating sites (email activity).  It appears to be more about social networking and distributing content, especially photo-sharing, than on selling products or services.

Things are sure to change rapidly, but it appears that the monetization of Twitter and its growing traffic is a work in progress.  This potentially huge opportunity is still there for the taking.

I know it is tough going for many people and companies right now.  So, I am writing about the major search engines.  Let’s take roll call… Yahoo are you here?  Good.  How about you Ask.com?  Ok…maybe a little louder next time.  Google, I’m sure you are here… of course you are, you are everywhere.  Lastly, MSN are you out there?  Ok, everyone is accounted for. 

Now, let’s have everyone who increased their market share during this tough year take one step forward.  Ok, anybody else?   If anyone lost market share, please sit down.  Well, as you may have guessed there is only one search engine standing.  Times are tough, but there is only one company weathering the storm, and their dominance is growing.

In February, over 72% of all search queries were done on Google.  An 8% increase from a year ago.  The other three major players (can we call them major anymore?) accounted for over 26% of search activity.  Yahoo accounted for 17% of the search activity (down 17% from a year ago) and isn’t really trying anymore.  Ask.com is also shrinking (down 10%) with little effort to improve.  MSN (down 20%) is at least trying, and may still acquire Yahoo to a form a decent second option to Google.

When we assemble this same group a year from now, will Google have over 80% of the search market?  Don’t bet against it.

According to internetnews.com, “A new forecast from research group IDC is projecting that in the first quarter of 2009, online ad spending will see its first real decline since the dotcom implosion in 2001. ” In addition, the fourth quarter e-commerce spending had declined, compared to 2007 e-commerce spending. Consumers spending less could certainly have an impact on the overall online ad spending, however it appears paid search has been the best performing. This article also points out the correlation between the US economy (recession some call it) and the overall online advertising being down. Companies don’t have as much money to spend on this aspect of their business, compared to when sales are up they can afford to spend more on things such as advertising.

Leadpile Lead Exchange deals with all sorts of online activity. Paid search is a very common way of driving traffic to our lead generation websites, however there is also a lot of others that seem to be performing well too.  I am not sure I really see the decline in ad spending, but time will tell.

Ask.com has closed a deal with Symantec (Norton software), where ask.com will provide the consumers a toolbar with search feature, displaying Ask results. So far, no matter how inovative Ask.com tools were, they couldn’t get a major market share in the Search space. With this new deal, it will become more interesting to watch their evolution. They seem to follow the same approach as Yahoo, when they signed a deal with McAfee.
The consumers will have the search tool integrated inside their toolbar, provided by Norton in their new release due Tuesday.

Google Search has improved the Search, and frankly they’ve done a great job. If you are using your iGoogle, now you can personalize the listings you see inside the Google SERP: add comments, pick results (which you can share publicly), or remove your “pick”. 

These tools are only available for the organic results though, which is great. I am wondering if this will be available soon for the Sponsored listings, which could be included in the formula for the Quality Score. I doubt that it would work, but you will never know. 

The bottom line is that Google has done this very nicely. 

A large portion of online advertising is done through search engines. However, getting ranked HIGH on the search engines is every company’s goal. Unfortunately, it is easier said than done to get ranked well.
According to onlineadvertisting.net, there are some facts regarding search engine ranking:

1. 80% of consumers click on the first 3 listing in the search engine listings.
2. 54% of consumers will only look at the first page of results.
3. 19% of consumers actually click through to the 2nd page of results.
4. 10% of consumers got to the third page of search results.

To really be effective you have to be listed well on the major search engines. However, businesses sometimes do not have the resources or money to get there. The key is to do your research. Search engine optimization companies are out there to help businesses understand how to get ranked higher. Unfortunately, like what makes up a credit score….. EVERYTHING that makes up your search engine ranking, is an unknown.
Search engine rankings are a key factor when dealing with lead generation and Leadpile Lead Exchange. The advertisers often times don’t want to deal with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click campaigns), so they turn to a more effective source for potential customers. They turn to Leadpile’s lead sellers. Many of our sellers are experts on getting ranked well on the search engines and other forms of online advertising. We are a common place for both sides to come together.