MSN Referrals

% Up or Down?

[Liane]

Looking through my log files, I was trying to figure out the impact, if any, that MSN "locking out" specific browsers might have had on individual site referrals.

(You all probably remember this happened back near the end of October. It was done in an effort to force people to download the newest version of IE.)

My search results or rankings in MSN have not changed in the least in the past 8 or 9 months. I thought this poorly considered move by MSN would have had a huge impact on searchers and thought many would jump ship and use other search engines instead.

Apparently I was mistaken and in fact, my referrals actually increased dramatically during the same time frame. However, December seems to be down drastically. Has anyone else noticed a dip in December or have any explanation as to why? Is this an anomaly or have I missed something big? When all other engines are showing an increase, MSN is showing a decrease.

MSN referrals

September = 11% of total referrals
October = 16.7% of total referrals
November = 19.7% of total referrals
December (as of yesterday) = 8% of total referrals

Lowest % ever for MSN referrals.

[minnapple]

Speculation-
Holiday buyers could have an affect on what search engine usage. The clutter of LookSmart and Inktomi listings could drive them to say (hey, I want to buy not find information!)and move them to more commerce driven sites.

How is Google and Oveture fitting in during this period?

[Liane]

Search results in Google and Yahoo have been improving over the past few months as I have been tweaking the site, so increases in referrals from both is not surprising. Despite good rankings in Overture (many in top 5) ... I have never had any traffic to speak of from GoTo/Overture. In fact ... less than .5%. Perhaps big ticket items just don't sell on that engine? (Maybe some else can confirm or deny for me). I am always surprised at the interest in Overture. For me, it is a non-entity and always has been ... even when it was free and I had many number one positions for targeted keywords and keyword phrases.

MSN on the other hand has always produced qualified buyers. It may be an anomoly, but perhaps this is an indication that Google is gaining users from MSN?

My site enjoys 1st to fifth spot placement on almost all keyword phrases targeted on MSN and is getting there on Google. Overall though, search results are slightly better on MSN than on Google.

Google Referrals

September = 34.4% of total Referrals
October = 36.2% of total Referrals
November = 43.9% of total Referrals
December = 51.9% of total Referrals

Yahoo and Google/Yahoo Referrals

September = 17.6% of total Referrals
October = 18.1% of total Referrals
November = 16.7% of total Referrals
December = 20.4% of total Referrals

AOL

September = 3.5% of total Referrals
October = 5.2% of total Referrals
November = 5.5% of total Referrals
December = 2.7% of total Referrals

Does anyone else in the travel/vacation or big ticket sales have similar stats ... or is it just me. Naturally, I am worried about having all my eggs in one basket ... but what am I supposed to do?