direct navigation

money well spent?

[paisley]

I have had a zillion calls from companies selling keywords for direct navigation. Each claims thier company has the most users.
To my surprise, I read that 64% of a sites traffic comes from direct navigation. That makes me think I should be purchasing some of the keywords for direct navigation. I would like some input if this would be money well spent? I have a retail site. I would also like to know which company truely does have the most to offer?

[tedster]

All the companies I know of (and, yes, there does seem to be a flood in recent months) have a solution that only works if the user has their plug-in installed. Shoot, the old RealNames was better than that, and it was pretty much a flop even though they had partnerships with major search engines.

Now there's all this added fragmentation (as you've noticed) and each offering requires a proprietary plug-in -- I can't see how that would be worth the expense for my sites.

All in all, it is an ROI question for each business. If you get profit beyond the expense, then obviously it would be worthwhile. I'm waiting to hear about that kind of success.

[paisley]

Thank you for the reply. I have been checking into this matter for a several months. Many sites that advertise for the same terms I do on Overture have started buying up the keyword terms in direct navigation. It made me wonder if I was missing something, I should be doing. I have been taking a pole over the past 6 months, trying to find out who uses direct navigation. I have not been able to have one person answer they even know what it is or have installed the patch on thier computer.
I did not want to jump and buy terms just because sites similar to mine are buying the terms, and at the same time I did not want to miss something that works.

[tedster]

I have not been able to have one person answer they even know what it is or have installed the patch on thier computer.

I've had the same experience, but many people do not know what they've downloaded, and some of these direct navigation plug-ins come included in something else a person downloads.

They don't even realize they have installed the plug-in because that detail was not made obvious when they intentionally chose to download something else they wanted. Many people question this practice, but that's the way it is right now, and I intend this as just a bit of information to add into your decision making process.

So there may be a significant installed user base for some of these services that doesn't KNOW they are part of that user base. And some direct navigation servicesmay deliver traffic to the keyword owner that makes sense at the bottom line. However, I do not anyone who has told me that particular story.