12th July 2005, 07:07 PM
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#1
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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New Article - Hitwise Offers Online Intelligence for the Small Business
Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/005026.html
Some Snippets:
"Hitwise has announced the launch of Keyword Intelligence, an online tool designed to help marketers discover the best keywords and keyword phrases to use in their search marketing campaigns. "
"Access to Keyword Intelligence starts at just under $90 a month..." |
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13th July 2005, 12:30 PM
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#2
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Reno, NV
Posts: 859
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$90/month is still a pretty hefty sum of money. Has anybody done a comparison between the benefits of hitwise data over wordtracker? It must be considerable for the vast pricing difference.
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13th July 2005, 01:41 PM
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#3
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
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I've not yet played around with the lower level of service that they are offering via the new program, but as I mentioned in the article, I have spent some time using the actual Hitwise informaiton.
As an interenet marketer, I must admit, it was the things that lead to drool-soaked keyboards. The data is outstanding, including fairly detailed information on who the actual market leaders are, what drives traffic to their site and the clickstreams that users are creating when researching different products.
I'm not sure that the average small business owner can justify the expense, but a small agency should certainly give it consideration, especially if they specialize in a particular vertical or industry.
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13th July 2005, 06:13 PM
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#4
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Administrator
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 3,403
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by St0n3y
$90/month is still a pretty hefty sum of money. Has anybody done a comparison between the benefits of hitwise data over wordtracker? It must be considerable for the vast pricing difference.
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I had credit card in hand ready to purchase the service. But, after reading through their site, I wasn't convinced that they offered anything I couldn't get from Wordtracker at a much cheaper rate. Of course, I have not used the service, I just wasn't sold on their presentation (even though I went there specifically to purchase it). |
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14th July 2005, 08:59 AM
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#5
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
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The offerings are not the same as Wordtracker, though they fall within the same vein. I'm not sure it's really fair to compare the two in the greater sense of the word.
That said, while I think this is a valuable service for a certain sub-set of marketers, I don't see it being something that I'd give a blanket recommendation of. It's not a "must-have" SEO tool the way that I think Wordtracker is. It's a "this is handy" tool for SOME marketers.
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14th July 2005, 09:30 AM
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#6
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Reno, NV
Posts: 859
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Which says to me that the pricing is somehow off. Must-have tools I'm willing to pay more for than I am just "handy" tools. I'm sure many would consider HitWise to be must-have but I'm not convinced.
Nor will I pay $90 to try to be. I remember reading somewhere that to get an API key you were also looking at a bunch more money. I could be wrong on that, though.
I use a WT api to integrate stats with my client reporting... and I pay about $10 a month for all the searches we do.
Of course, I wish WT would add some new features, like estimating search volume monthly and access to keyword stat history to analyze seasonal keywords.
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14th July 2005, 10:47 AM
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#7
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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The thing I think that you (and to some extent Robert) are missing is that this isn't JUST a keyword research tool.
I think that's where they are making a mistake in their marketing...most of the folks that I've talked to think that it is just a keyword research tool.
I don't think that's the case at all.
Think about this...with Wordtracker, you can find out what phrases people are searching for.
With this tool, you can find out what phrases are driving traffic to your competitor's web sites. Not just what they rank for, but what they get traffic for. Sure, you can know that competitor X ranks #5 for this phrase, but did you know that it sends him 45% of his traffic?
You can find out what paths people follow. For instance, 35% of so-and-so's visitors come from site X. 14% of them leave and head to competitor Y.
Is that making more sense?
Again, I see it as handy for larger firms, firms that are big enough to have a budget for some serious competitive research, but not big enough to be able to afford the full scope of Hitwise services.
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14th July 2005, 12:19 PM
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#8
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Reno, NV
Posts: 859
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Maybe you need to do their marketing! 
I can see those as great stats, but what would interest me more, and maybe they provide this, is knowing now what drives the most traffic, but what converts the best.
Plenty of sites get loads of traffic for terms that convert very little. That doesn't make me want to go out and target those same terms. What I want are terms that convert.
Not dogging the HitWise here, just pontificating about other important bits of info that would be great to have. |
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15th July 2005, 03:59 PM
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#9
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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No, I totally agree with you... 
But think about it...what company in their right mind is going to give anyone outside of their marketing firm access to the conversion rates that they see on certain keywords?
Now if you can find a company that offers that data, I'm betting you'd be faced with paying a *tad* bit more than $90 a month. |
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