• July 7, 2005

Online search advertising terms across a broad array of categories rose an average of 3 percent last month to $1.72--from $1.67 in May, according to the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index. Overall, keyword prices were up approximately 25 percent since last September, when Fathom began publishing the index, which tracks average cost-per-click rates in eight categories--cars, consumer retail, consumer services, travel/hospitality, investing, mortgages, broadband, and wireless. Keywords related to wireless services jumped by 19 percent to $1.19--the highest rate for such terms since the index started. Retail keywords rebounded to 53 cents--9 percent higher than last month's 49 cents, but still less than the November average of 60 cents. Terms in most other categories were up only slightly (investing--5 percent; consumer services--3 percent; mortgages--3 percent; cars--2 percent; and travel--1 percent), while keywords related to broadband fell by 2 percent to $1.97. -- Wendy Davis