Domain Name News: “Huffington Post on the Importance of the URL & Domain Name and Direct Navigation Traffic”

Huffington Post on the Importance of the URL & Domain Name and Direct Navigation Traffic

Posted: 01 Aug 2013 11:00 AM PDT

In an article that was published by the Huffington Post Canada last week, the founder and CEO of RIWI Corporation talks about the importance of the browser URL bar and Direct Navigation. RIWI is a data analytics company

Citing a number of different sources, the article concludes that Direct Navigation is a continuous traffic that also helps the connection with the brand and create trust.

Two data points from the article that I hadn’t heard of before:

In 2010, Google was cited (notably in research by Amy Langville of the Mathematics Department of Charleston College) saying that 15 per cent of Web users use the URL bar to reach ads/buying decisions as opposed to hyperlinks. Note: this is not a statistic of the per centage of people who use the URL bar vs. search but rather a per centage of those who simply reach their ad destination via the URL bar as opposed to hitting on an ad hyperlink. Actual use of the URL bar thus has to be higher than 15 per cent if that Google figure is right.

Web and tablet access to sites is rising dramatically. Many mobile users prefer direct navigation URL bar search to searching in Google or Bing or other search sites. The reason is this: the URL is bigger and mobile phone displays are rising. Comparing across categories, (study by Marketing Land, 2012), the results are clear:

Travel:
Direct navigation: 43 per cent
Search engine: 24 per cent
Autos:
Direct navigation: 46 per cent
Search engine: 37 per cent
Restaurants:
Direct navigation: 44 per cent
Search engine: 33 per cent

Read the full article here.

[Hat tip to Sedo]