Top Web Sites Keep Visitors But Overlap Service
A new release from Nielsen//NetRatings announced that, among the three key Web categories, search providers had the highest visitor retention rates, with an average of 71 percent of June visitors at home returning in July. Google Search led, followed by Yahoo! Search, and MSN/Windows Live Search. Visitor retention rates were slightly higher among the work audience.
Audience Retention Rates and Competitive Overlap for Search Providers | |||
Site | Home Retention Rate | Work Retention Rate | Audience Overlap |
Google Search | 79% | 85% | 63% |
MSN/Windows Live Search | 65% | 72% | 84% |
Yahoo! Search | 69% | 70% | 78% |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2007 |
A substantial portion of visitors went to more than one of these three search sites in July, says the report. MSN/Windows Live Search had the highest audience overlap, with 84 percent of its unique visitors also going to Google Search, Yahoo! Search, or both.
Ken Cassar, chief analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings, said "These search providers are doing a good job of bringing their visitors back month after month... an important sign of the health of their customer relationships and... (with) significant financial implications, given the expense of acquiring new customers."
The top three sites in the career development category, CareerBuilder Network, Monster and Yahoo! HotJobs, had an average month-over-month audience retention rate of 38 percent at home, and at work, it was 44 percent.
Audience Retention Rates and Competitive Overlap for Career Development(U.S. Sites, July 2007) | |||
Site | Home Retention Rate | Work Retention Rate | Audience Overlap |
CareerBuilder Network | 43% | 55% | 34% |
Monster | 37% | 47% | 50% |
Yahoo! HotJobs | 35% | 31% | 45% |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2007 |
Compared to the other two categories, the top sites in multi-category travel, Expedia, Orbitz Worldwide Network and Travelocity, had the lowest average month-over-month at home visitor retention rates, at 31 percent.
"Career development and travel sites are used less frequently, so their challenge is to be top of mind when it comes time to look for a new career opportunity or plan a trip," said Cassar.
Audience Retention Rates and Competitive Overlap for Travel (U.S. Travel Sites, July 2007) | |||
Site | Home Retention Rate | Work Retention Rate | Audience Overlap |
Expedia | 34% | 34% | 51% |
Orbitz Worldwide Network | 27% | 32% | 59% |
Travelocity | 32% | 39% | 58% |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2007 |
For more information, please visit Nielsen-netratings here.