|
| Friday,
November 24, 2006 |
Art imitates life, and vice versa, they say. But in the 21st Century, search behavior
may be a better mirror. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving - the face-stuffinest
holiday - and to Black Friday - the shoppinest one - searches are what you might
expect: all pumpkin pie and Playstations.
Editor's Note: Thanksgiving is boosting searches for all things
pumpkin pie related. But what after that? It's all Playstation and Wii, books
and music, clothing and accessories, electronics and software. SEO accordingly.
Speaking of, how would you target the upcoming holiday season? Let us know at
WebProWorld.
Hitwise drops us a line to say that visits to websites in the Food and Beverage
category, which includes recipe sites, increased by 17.5 percent the week ending
November 18, compared to data taken a year ago.
That week in 2005 belonged to the recipe search, jumping nearly 66 percent, with
a strange tilt toward the butternut
squash.
"Online recipe research continues to be a last minute activity," said Bill Tancer, general manager of research at Hitwise. "This week's increase in market share of visits to the category when compared to the same time last year indicates that turning to the Internet for holiday recipes is an increasingly popular tradition."
This year, the most popular recipe-related searches centered on things you can
do with Jack-o-lantern guts. Last week, [pumpkin pie recipe], [pecan pie recipe],
[pumpkin cheesecake recipe], [pumpkin roll recipe], and [sweet potato pie recipe]
were the highest recipe-related search gainers.
AllRecipes.com, an example of straightforwardness in Web address, controlled this
niche, scooping in almost 37 percent of traffic from those terms.
Food Network was a far second, pulling in 13.1 percent, followed by Kraft Foods
with 8.2 percent.
So, what's everybody doing after riding the Type 2 Train on the Diabetes Express?
Oooh! Oooh! I know! (raising my hand) "They go jogging!"
Sorry, no. If they manage to get their hands on one, they'll be ogling a Playstation
3. While retail visits are up seven percent overall, searches for [playstation
3] spiked 112 percent over the previous week.
Together, the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii control 40 percent of product-related
searches leading to the Shopping and Classified sites.
We saw this last year with the Xmas-box 360, sending eBay prices into the thousands. You can buy a PS3 now for just $4,000. Or you can, like the rest of us playing the poor-man's console, spend up to $600 for the Wii.
A recent Zogby poll, commissioned by AOL, reveals online holiday purchasing habits
steering would be recipients to even more sedentary pursuits. Sixty percent of
respondents said they'd be looking for books and music online.
Thirty-five percent said electronics; 31 percent are looking for toys and games;
29 percent are seeking clothing and accessories; and 23 percent are searching
for software.
About
the Author:
Jason Lee Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
|
,
Inc. 2549 Richmond Rd. Lexington KY, 40509
