This may surprise no one: Google is the leading source of traffic for 23 of the top 30 websites. That's according to Citi analyst Mark Mahaney in a document released yesterday to clients. Based on underlying comScore data, the report analyzes visits to the top five websites in several verticals: Media, Retail, Travel, Auto, Finance and Health. It doesn't discuss the impact or relative position of Facebook at all, possibly because Facebook is not yet a public company. Mahaney points out that Google's retention of the position of top traffic referrer is an accomplishment in a marketplace t [...]

Related Topics: Google: Web Search | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size | Top News

A new eMarketer study says that search ad spend is expected to grow 27% from 2011 to 2012, up from $15.36 billion to $19.51 billion. And by 2016, it is expected to reach almost $30 billion annually. Google will also retain dominant share of the search ad spend at 77.9%, up from 74.4% share in 2011. By 2014, Google's search ad share is expected to grow to almost 80%. Microsoft is expected to grow from 7% share in 2011 to 8.7% in 2014, while Yahoo is expected to drop from 6.7% share in 2011 to only 3% in 2014. The chart below shows overall search ad spend growth in dollars and as a perc [...]

Related Topics: Stats: General | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Are you tracking search-related conversions that come in by phone? Perhaps you should, when 43% of them are estimated to come in that way. Ads that contain phone numbers are also said to have a 10% increase in clickthrough rate. These stats on search and phone calls, along with some general statistics about ad spending, measurement and ROI, are covered in this infographic from phone tracking service IfByPhone: [...]

Related Topics: Infographics | Stats: General

SEO: one channel to rule them all? A new "merchant confidence survey" from lead-gen company MerchantCircle/Reply.com, among 2,500 US small businesses, finds that search engine optimization is the marketing channel they would choose if they could choose only one. The question asked was: "If you had to put all your marketing time and budget into only one channel, what would it be?" The list of choices included SEO, paid search, mobile, social and traditional media. As you can see below SEO beats everything else by a mile. What's also interesting is how high "traditional media" ranked. [...]

Related Topics: Google: SEO | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | SEO: General | SEO: Local | Stats: General | Stats: Popularity | Top News

The busy shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost upon us. If last year is a guide, retailers have upped their search advertising, shopping by mobile phone will rise, women will be doing most of the online shopping searching and shoppers are after offers, promotions and especially free shipping. Audience targeting service Bluekai has assembled an infographic with these stats and more based on last year's activity. Will the trends continue? Want this infographic for yourself? You'll find it here: The Future Of Online Holiday Shopping (note, the site is currently down [...]

Related Topics: Infographics | Stats: General