Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Channel » SEO » YouTube, MSNBC Benefit From Quake-related Search Spikes, Hitwise Says

YouTube, MSNBC Benefit From Quake-related Search Spikes, Hitwise Says

Search activity spiked late last week in response to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the two sites benefitting the most in terms of web traffic were MSNBC and YouTube. That’s according to a series of tweets from Experian Hitwise this afternoon. As the image above shows, Hitwise says that the phrase “japan earthquake” […]

Matt McGee on March 14, 2011 at 6:03 pm

hitwise-tweet

Search activity spiked late last week in response to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the two sites benefitting the most in terms of web traffic were MSNBC and YouTube. That’s according to a series of tweets from Experian Hitwise this afternoon.

As the image above shows, Hitwise says that the phrase “japan earthquake” had more search activity than always-popular one-word brand terms like “google” and “mapquest.” In a separate tweet, Hitwise shared a chart showing that five of the top 20 search terms on March 11 were related to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

hitwise-top20

Where’d all this search activity lead? Hitwise says:

MSNBC.com received the most traffic, 13.66%, from the search term “japan earthquake” on Mar 11th. YouTube ranked 2nd w/9.17%.

And a day later, Hitwise says those two sites were still getting the most traffic from that term, though they switched placed.

On Mar 12th, YouTube received the most traffic, 12.17%, from search term “japan earthquake” & MSNBC was 2nd w/11.12%.

In addition, Hitwise tweeted out a couple other stats about Japan-related search activity:

  • The five fastest-moving search terms last week in the US were all Japan-related.
  • The top 15 — and 29 of the top 30 — fastest moving search terms that sent traffic to YouTube were related to Japan.

Twitter Activity & The Japan Earthquake

In its blog post today about activity levels, Twitter didn’t specifically call out the situation in Japan but, as I noted in our article, tweet activity was way up on March 11th (the day of the earthquake and tsunami), and new Twitter signups were up substantially on March 12th.

But Topsy’s new Social Analytics tool provides a snapshot of tweet activity, as Royal Pingdom pointed out today. Here’s what Topsy shows for activity related to three terms: japan, earthquake and tsunami:

topsy-twitter

The Topsy stats for those terms also reveals some of the most popular links and tweets related to the Japanese disaster. At the moment, that top content includes appeals to donate to the Red Cross, photos and videos from several news sources, and even Bing’s unfortunate tweet that some took as an effort to gain exposure in exchange for donations.

Postscript: What about Facebook, you ask? Well, there are no exact numbers in this, but All Facebook points out a series of world maps that Facebook has posted, which show the spread of Japan-related status updates.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


New on Search Engine Land

    Google releases May 2022 broad core update

    Spotify, Meta update political ad offerings for 2022 election cycle

    Take web hosting to the (NVMe) extreme

    How to audit your site’s backlink profile

    4 elements of good content, according to Google research 

About The Author

Matt McGee
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Related Topics

SEOSocialTwitterYouTube

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Webinars

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

Dominate Your Competition with Google Auction Insights and Search Intelligence

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.