Facebook being the most searched brand in the UK? Yeah no surprise I hear you say.
Hitwise (our favourite webstats company) released their figures yesterday and here are the figures for the last quarters UK most searched for brands in UK 2008.
1. Facebook (2.39%)
2. YouTube (1.57%)
3. eBay (1.25%)
4. Bebo (0.96%)
5. BBC (0.86%)
6. Amazon (0.47%)
7. Argos (0.44%)
8. Sky (0.27%)
9. Tesco (0.26%)
10. Yahoo! (0.26%)
A few stats that interests me is that Yahoo is number 10 in the search for brands names, even thou it is actually a search engine, begs the question do the general public need a quick web lesson or do they find using search engines (namely Google in the UK) easiest way to find branded websites, rather than putting .com or .co.uk at the end of the brand name?
I think the likes of Argos and Tesco must be impressed with their brand presence via search engines, especially Argos with most other department style stores struggling or falling victim of the credit crunch/recession. Or maybe it is to avoid the ridiculous wait in their stores? Tesco will also be happy as not only dominating the shopping sector but appearing in the top ten brand search also shows how influential Tesco’s services are. (One thing pointed out by a colleague is more people are ordering online so could be an upward trend)
Another stat that did actually make me stop was – if facebook is the number one searched for brand, how many searches on search engines are actually just for brand names and not searches for mortgages or how to beat the credit crunch etc?
If I were a search analysis for a big search engine I would give the option for brand searching and going straight to the required domain, so like in Google’s own web browser Chrome, if you enter a word or term into the address bar it takes you to your favourite (defined) search engine it may offer you the chance to go straight to the site (yes to those Chrome users I do understand that the top x thousand allow you to go to the site as it does give you options however if it is not one of the top x thousand you are taken to the SERP’s)
Alternatively certain sites you type into firefox it will actually take you to the nearest version. The likes of Firefox and Chrome could offer real services to bypass the search engines and help users search for the brand name they actually would like. Internet Explorer could also use this approach to help their users especially as the majority of users will choose Google as their search engine of choice. Microsoft even with their Kumo search engine (this new service is currently being tested internally) need to pick up the pace and challenge Yahoo and obviously Google with new features – I suggest if someone searches one word namely yahoo it takes you to the geo-targeted site (so if in UK it takes you to yahoo.co.uk)
There are of course a number of ways stats and information like this can be read and interrupted, but I believe this shows how important social networks have become in the UK, with Facebook at 1 and Bebo at 4 and everybody’s favourite video site at number 2 YouTube.
What is slightly worrying is that Google are currently putting weight behind brands in more complex searches, this spells trouble for hard working web site owners, webmasters and SEO’s. Check out my post from yesterday on Google’s lean towards brands
Danny Denhard
Betalabs