Search Vendors and Web Traffic
April 4, 2012
I was fiddling around with Compete.com, a Web analytics outfit. One of the company’s services is to provide usage statistics for urls. I have no idea if these data are in line with the vendors’ Web logs, but one can look at a number of sites’ traffic and do some rough comparisons. You can try the service at www.compete.com. The tables below present some of the data I examined. Vendors, don’t write to tell me Compete data are incorrect. We are looking at data generated by a method. I am not selecting data to make your Web site magnetism weak.
| Company | Traffic (2- 2012) | Comment |
| Attensity | 974 | Conferences and news releases |
| Attivio | 973 | White papers |
| Autonomy | 12597 | Full court press method |
| BA Insight | 0 | Microsoft and webinars |
| Brainware | 857 | News releases |
| Concept Searching | 0 | Webinars |
| Connotate | 5025 | News releases and analyst support |
| Content Analyst | 321 | Some conference participation |
| Coveo | 2034 | Traditional PR |
| Dieselpoint | 1880 | Web site |
| dtSearch | 5208 | Free downloads |
| Easy Ask | 472 | News releases |
| Endeca | 3900 | Analyst support |
| Exalead | 20494 | Full court press method |
| Exorbyte | 11486 | News releases |
| Funnelback | 2640 | News releases and conference partici- pation |
| Hakia | 7891 | News releases |
| Lexalytics | 710 | News releases |
| Linguamatics | 0 | Web site |
| MarkLogic | 1088 | Full court press method |
| Recommind | 3964 | News releases aimed at trade publications |
| SearchBlox | 0 | Web site |
| Sinequa | 0 | Web site |
| Vivisimo | 7324 | News releases |
| ZyLAB | 0 | Full court press method |
| X1 | 5589 | Web site |
| X1 Discovery | 2575 | Web site |
Here is this sample’s alleged traffic from most traffic to least traffic:
| Company | Traffic (Feb 2012) | Comment |
| Exalead | 20,494 | Full court press method |
| Autonomy | 12,597 | Full court press method |
| Exorbyte | 11,486 | News releases |
| Hakia | 7,891 | News releases |
| Vivisimo | 7,324 | News releases |
| X1 | 5,589 | Web site |
| dtSearch | 5,208 | Free downloads |
| Connotate | 5,025 | News releases and analyst support |
| Recommind | 3,964 | News releases aimed at trade publications |
| Endeca | 3,900 | Analyst support |
| Funnelback | 2,640 | News releases and conference partici-pation |
| X1 Discovery | 2,575 | Web site |
| Coveo | 2,034 | Traditional PR |
| Dieselpoint | 1,880 | Web site |
| MarkLogic | 1,088 | Full court press method |
| Attensity | 974 | Conferences and news releases |
| Attivio | 973 | White papers |
| Brainware | 857 | News releases |
| Lexalytics | 710 | News releases |
| Easy Ask | 472 | News releases |
| Content Analyst | 321 | Some conference participation |
| BA Insight | 0 | Microsoft and webinars |
| Concept Searching | 0 | Webinars |
| Linguamatics | 0 | Web site |
| SearchBlox | 0 | Web site |
| Sinequa | 0 | Web site |
| ZyLAB | 0 | Full court press method |
Several observations:
- There is little correlation between having a Web site and traffic. If you build it, no one may come. Search engine optimization experts are not able to deliver the chunky granola bar stuffed with sales leads I surmise.
- Traffic, even for the leaders Exalead (Dassault Systèmes) and Autonomy (Hewlett Packard) is modest when compared to the traffic to the main Dassault and the HP main Web sites. Dassault’s traffic is reported as 56,164 and HP’s, 13,856,775. My thought is that search and content processing is not the home run some folks assume it will be. I don’t think effective search is a commodity. I think search is not hot as other fields; e.g., analytics.
- The different marketing methods in use work in some cases and in others not at all. A good example are those companies with Web site traffic so low that Compete.com reports zero traffic. The little known Exorbyte generates an alleged 11,486 while the marketing calisthenics of Webinar centric marketing (BA Insight and Concept Searching) and the open source approach (SearchBlox) yield little traffic. What happens when one marketing method doesn’t perform? Most vendors just try something else. When something works, vendors just keep doing it until it no longer works. Rinse, repeat.
More work needs to be done to figure out what generates traffic to a group of companies which appear to have modest traction even with the backing of major companies (e.g., Endeca is owned by Oracle). Some of these companies have expensive public relations programs in place. I don’t know how much firms such as MarkLogic and Recommind spend on the flow of news releases, special events, and trade publication by lined articles, but the traffic seems to be an issue.
My thought is that most of the vendors in the search and content processing space face what I would characterize as a “crisis” in marketing. None of the activities produce blockbuster traffic. Obviously, if a Web site has a single unique visitor and that visitor places a $20 million order, the Web site worked. My hunch is that some of these companies are going to kick into what I call “desperation marketing” mode. I see this when I get mindless faux “news” announcements from PR firms stuffed with failed middle school teachers, unemployed socialogy graduate students, and “real” journalists whose magazine or newspaper nuked itself.
“Desperation marketing” is the outcome of watching costs for each sales contact go up without a comparable increase in the close rate. If sales come only when there is cost cutting to win the job, then the financial situation becomes increasingly charged. Desperation marketing leads to rich search engine optimization consultants and white paper work for the “pay to play” consultants. (Yes, this is the coloring agent for the azure chip consulting herd.) Have you heard of webinar fatigue? I have it. How many SharePoint webinars do I need to sit in on to know that SharePoint is a complex and often irritable beastie? Webinar fatigue is what causes a potential attendee to sign up, listen for five minutes, and then move on to checking a Facebook page. Some companies would do better to put the thing on video and go with a YouTube channel with a “register to win a bagel” inducement on a special landing page.
Search and content processing vendors need more than hit-and-miss marketing activities. If I were responsible for a search and content processing company, I would be looking for different ways to generate visibility and sales leads.
A Web site alone won’t do the job. Traditional PR seems to work in some cases and does not work in others. The variable, of course, is the talent of the PR professional and the value proposition the company sets forth. Get the PR wrong or the message wrong, and PR becomes a hit and miss investment. SEO appeared to me to be part of each of these companies’ Web presence. I also have a tally of which of these companies make use of blogs and social media like Twitter, which I may summarize in another blog post. But the data suggest to me that social media is no panacea either. Traditional marketing and PR are expensive, unreliable, and an okay reaction to competitors’ actions.
Is there another path? We think there are some new methods. One interesting one is the Augmentext service. It is worth a quick look.
In the meantime, if you are trying to close deals using a Web site and some old fashioned methods, you may find yourself under increasing pressure. Replacing company presidents, hiring a Mad Ave agency, or signing on with a slick self appointed expert—these are standard methods. The issue becomes making them work in a tough economic and competitive environment.
Stephen E Arnold, April 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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