Forum Moderators: open
From the Lycos Top 50 [50.lycos.com]:
Tuesday's terrorist attacks led to a massive search for information never before seen in the history of the Internet. Half of the subjects on this week's Lycos 50 are new this week, and of those subjects all except one are related to the attack on America.
While Lycos never publishes specific numbers of searches, the info they posted seems to suggest that the raw numbers for the terms that usually hold the top spots didn't decline. Instead, there was just a huge surge of NEW search activity.
If that's true, then where did it come from? Were all the new searches being conducted by a large number of people who were using the web for the first time?Or was it simply the large chunk of web users that that use search engines on a regular basis to search for the millions of terms that don't ever make it on the top lists? (i.e. the types of consumer related terms that are the focus of most SEO projects).
Obviously, in the big picture, search behavior isn't that important. However, part of the process of trying to get back to our "normal" routines is taking the time to assess the total impact of last week's events on our little corner of the world.
I personally think that Sept. 11, 2001 could have a substantial long-term impact on how and what people search for.
When you take into consideration that the U.S. economy has taken a serious hit that will likely get worse before it gets better, and that the "story" itself won't be going away anytime soon, the impact to the SEO industry could be substantial. Especially for those that use a pay-per-click business model.
I'm very interested in hearing what trends, if any, WebmasterWorld members are seeing in their keyword referral data.
Specifically, I'm would like to know the following:
* What types of keywords do you target? {I'm only looking for general topics. I'm not looking for response like "We rank #1 at google for the term <insert keyword here>")
* What has your referral data looked like over the last 10 days? Was it unaffected? Did it drop of briefly and then return to normal? Or has it dropped and stayed down?
* If it has fallen off, (and your search engine positions haven't changed)what specific engines have dropped off the most? (With many search sites adding prominent links to news/support information, I have found myself on several occasions, visiting a search engine and never actually conducting my search because I ended up following the news links)
* If you sell consumer products, has any drop in search referrals effected your actual sales?
* If you work for, or operate an SEO company, have you had any clients alter or postpone their projects inlight of last week's events? (Again, I'm not looking for any specifics. Please don't include any company/client names).
<sidenote>
I don't want this thread to stray off-topic into a general discussion about the attacks. There are, and have been many threads for that purpose.
</sidenote>
>What has your referral data looked like over the last 10 days? Was it unaffected? Did it drop of briefly and then return to normal? Or has it dropped and stayed down?
>
Massively affected. Even seasonally adjusted, traffic fell by 40 to 50%. It has slowly started to return.
>If it has fallen off, (and your search engine positions haven't changed)what specific engines have dropped off the most?
>
Ranking has stayed rock-solid... top 5 across the majors. AV, already small, seemed to disappear entirely. Excite (yes, Excite is a good referrer for my network of sites) also dropped off the charts. Google and google.yahoo fell and is now returning. MSN was the most stable.
>If you sell consumer products, has any drop in search referrals effected your actual sales?
>
WaaaaAAAaaay off, disproportiately larger than the traffic drop. Transaction revenues (hotel bookings) fell probably 60%. There are signs of it returning now.
Again, I'm trying to make adjustments to this to compensate for season and competition, but I think the above is pretty close.
I agree. Some things force people to finally sit down and grind out new web synapses, something they are loathe to do. Hurricanes (and the failure of NOAA servers as they approach land) are probably the best examples to date of events that make the average person aware of the need to boost their web IQ.
This event was even more focused on the capabilities of the web as news groupware. In several instances, I've heard significant announcements on TV citing a website as the only resource.
Piece of the puzzle:
Have you seen this article? Gov't Web Sites See Record Traffic After Attacks [news.excite.com]
<<What has your referral data looked like over the last 10 days? >>
Compared to the previous 10 days:
MSN down -37%
AOL down -29%
Google down-25%
Yahoo down -18%
Excite down - 18%
<<If you sell consumer products, has any drop in search referrals effected your actual sales? >>
This shocked me, but no. Except for Tuesday, sales have been pretty decent compared to the rest of the month. I have no explanation for this at all.
You can have an idea comparing your historycal LOGS (Unique visitors graph, compared with sales graph).
Hobbyist - search engine referrals off 50%; total traffic off 30%
Food Specialties - search engine off 35%; total traffic off 50%
Event Planning - search engine off 80%; total traffic off 50% (very hard hit)
Health Care - near normal after 2 day dip
All the areas that went way off are still way off.
Search engine fall-offs have been pretty much even across the board, with no SE holding on better than any other.
Actual sales are off much worse than the traffic fall-off.
Two clients have postponed work indefinitely: one located in lower Manhattan, the other promoting international tourism.
My feeling is we will see some significant but samll change on what peeople search for. With events like this, people start to use search engines more, get more experience in searching, and start seeing it as a useful tool, especially as now search is more effecient and relevant than a few years back.
"sex" and related terms will reduce steadily, slowly but significantly, just the same as photograhers suddenly realised that they could do more with this new camera gizmo thingo than take pictures of what the Butler saw.
* What has your referral data looked like over the last 10 days?
Slight drop on the 11th, has bounced back and has even increased sinec then.
* what specific engines have dropped off the most?
no change in either traffic or search terms
* If you sell consumer products, has any drop in search referrals effected your actual sales?
Not applicable, directories only, no sales.
Onya
Woz
* What has your referral data looked like over the last 10 days?
Very slight drop on the 11th, otherwise normal.
* what specific engines have dropped off the most?
No change in either traffic or search terms
The Web has come into its own during the last 10 days, but not because it rose to the occasion. It came into its own by default, simply because TV coverage has been so pathetic. There is no context on TV, just endless, jingoistic pundits, stories of heroes in the rubble, etc. No historical perspective, because it takes too long to dig out appropriate video clips to present it.
TV has been soundbite hell for the last 10 days. It has dumbed-down an entire population.
The Web, by contrast, has some very good stuff on it. Much of it is from outside the U.S. Google Groups is quite a powerful way to find this stuff if you know how Google searches work. Unfortunately, I suspect that most of those turning away from TV and turning to the Web for information in times like this, are poorly educated in how to find what they are looking for. Search engines have a long way to go in this regard.
We can all see how the major media "spin" the situation. Instant "polls" never mention that huge numbers of people refuse to answer, and these are generally the most intelligent people. Everything gets shoved into a certain approved "line" by the hair-doo news anchors.
The problem is this: as we ask search engines to improve their ease-of-use, we also hand them the keys to the kingdom. Techniques such as user profiling, which might improve ease-of-use, also open the door to ease-of-ABUSE on the part of the engine. Couch potatoes always get the worst information. It takes persistence, education, and intelligence to get good information these days.
One site I looked at today that is in the stocks/mutual funds area went from their average of 1500 visitors a day to having only 6 visitors on 9-12. From that point on, it showed a slow, but steady climb back up to normal. Seeing it graphed out, you couldn't draw a more perfect looking stair case.
B2B marketplace- buyer traffic remained stable, new seller activity spiked higher.
Gold coins- *major* spike in traffic and sales.
<commentary>Glad to see words other than those in the "adult" realm reach the top of the keywords traffic lists. I'm hoping that some folks have re-arranged their personal priorities through this tragedy and that the trend will continue.</commentary>
