Google Drives Web Traffic to Automotive Industry
Among the top three search engines, Google’s upstream Web traffic grew for the automotive, shopping and travel categories, according to Experian Hitwise, an online intelligence service.
Among the top three search engines, Google’s upstream Web traffic grew for the automotive, shopping and travel categories, according to Experian Hitwise, an online intelligence service.
Google also accounted for 72.25 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Jan. 2, 2010. Yahoo! Search, Bing and Ask.com received 14.83 percent, 8.92 percent and 2.54 percent, respectively. The remaining 66 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.48 percent of U.S. searches.
Percentage of U.S. searches among leading search engine providers | |||
Domain | November 2009 | December 2009 | Month-over-month percentage change |
www.google.com | 71.57% | 72.25% | 1% |
search.yahoo.com | 15.39% | 14.83% | -4% |
www.bing.com* | 9.34% | 8.92% | -4% |
www.ask.com | 2.65% | 2.54% | -4% |
Note: Data is based on four-week rolling periods (ending Nov. 28, 2009, and Jan. 2, 2010) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Figures are for web searches only. | |||
*This includes executed searches on Bing.com, Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com. | |||
Source: Experian Hitwise | |||
Google is greatest source of traffic to key U.S. industries
Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing December 2009 with December 2008, automotive, business and finance, entertainment, news and media, social networking and sports categories showed double-digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.
Google was sending the most visits to the four categories below among the top three search engines. Google’s percentage of upstream traffic grew for the automotive, shopping and travel categories. Bing saw double-digit growth among all four categories and Yahoo! Search saw double-digit growth in the shopping category, as seen in the table below.
Percentage of U.S. upstream traffic from search engines among verticals | |||||||||
| Yahoo! Search | Bing* | |||||||
Domain | Dec. 2008 | Dec. 2009 | YOY % change | Dec. 2008 | Dec. 2009 | YOY % change | Dec. 2008 | Dec. 2009 | YOY % change |
Automotive | 18.77% | 21.13% | 13% | 4.30% | 3.82% | -11% | 1.27% | 2.26% | 78% |
Health | 31.91% | 31.09% | -3% | 6.31% | 4.73% | -25% | 1.70% | 3.29% | 94% |
Shopping | 18.36% | 19.95% | 9% | 4.26% | 4.73% | 11% | 1.31% | 2.25% | 72% |
Travel | 27.09% | 29.55% | 9% | 4.99% | 4.02% | -19% | 1.88% | 2.78% | 48% |
Note: Data is based on monthly upstream traffic from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Figures are for web searches only. | |||||||||
*This includes executed searches on Bing.com, Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com. | |||||||||
Source: Experian Hitwise | |||||||||
Shorter searches are flat this past month
Shorter search queries, averaging searches of one to four words in length, were flat between November and December 2009. Searches of one and two words increased 1 percent. The same time period showed that longer search queries — those averaging five to more than eight words long — were down 2 percent from month to month. Searches of one word comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 24.34 percent of all queries.
Percentage of U.S. clicks by number of keywords | |||
Subject | November 2009 | December 2009 | Month-over-month percentage change |
One word | 24.13% | 24.34% | 1% |
Two words | 23.14% | 23.41% | 1% |
Three words | 20.37% | 20.32% | 0% |
Four words | 13.84% | 13.79% | 0% |
Five words | 8.13% | 8.02% | -1% |
Six words | 4.43% | 4.37% | -1% |
Seven words | 2.43% | 2.37% | -2% |
Eight or more words | 3.54% | 3.38% | -5% |
Note: Data is based on four-week rolling periods (ending Nov. 28, 2009, and Jan. 2, 2010) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. | |||
Source: Experian Hitwise | |||
More F&I
AI: Facilitator, Not Fixer, in F&I
The dealerships that thrive in the years ahead will be those that embrace technology while continuing to invest in the people who make customer interactions count.
Read More →
Modern Technology Objection Handling
In this video, Trent White shares how to confidently handle technology-based objections by helping customers understand the value of protection, even with modern vehicle technology.
Read More →
Consistency at Scale: Driving F&I Performance
With 75 rooftops across the Sunshine State, Morgan Auto Group has proven to Floridians that it knows a thing or two about driving performance in a competitive market. But it didn’t start at the top.
Read More →
Gitty Up on GAP
The foundational finance-and-insurance product hasn’t kept up with the latest conditions for auto dealers. Is the time ripe?
Read More →
How AI-Powered Coaching Is Transforming F&I Performance
See how AI-powered coaching can turn F&I customer conversations into actionable insights that support compliance, performance and profitability
Read More →
Sell Value, Build Trust
In this video, Trent White explains why selling on value, not fear, builds lasting customer trust, reduces cancellations, and drives long-term success.
Read More →
F&I Sales Give Dealers First-Half Lift
Product business shored up total profits to avoid an overall revenue tanking as product penetrations held steady, StoneEagle reported.
Read More →
Targeted Training Drives Results
Today’s technology, instead of threatening F&I managers, can actually make them better, according to an industry veteran who’s watched market setbacks roil the unprepared.
Read More →
Double the Change, Double the Chance
When an F&I manager gets a customer refusal, it’s a wise move to tweak more than one thing in the product offering.
Read More →
Just Do It
F&I managers need training, but instead of resisting application or expecting perfection, they should improve by simply acting on what they learn.
Read More →