Different types of direct navigation and type-in traffic
Tom Hall breaks down type-in traffic into solicited and unsolicited. It reminded me of my article on different types of traffic, where I tried to address the different types of Direct Navigation Traffic by breaking it down into type-in traffic and typo traffic. I like the approach to take a look at how the user comes up with the domain in order to help categorization, but maybe in the end two types is not enough, since this would only address the initial visit. And then there’s of course the technical challenge of tracking this information, since it all almost looks the same in the logfiles.
Basically the breakdown OptimizedDomains is taking looks at the difference between a domain that represents a brand (i.e. myspace.com) and a descriptive domain that describes a service or product (i.e. shoes.com). If we look a bit closer, there are a couple of more details we could add:
- brand type-in traffic (solicited)
- generic type-in (unsolicited)
- return visit
- word of mouth (solicited)
- typo
In the comments Stephen Douglas points out that access via a bookmarks can often not be differentiated from type-in traffic, especially since there is no way to measure the difference. He also points out that we should consider re-branding the direct navigation term, since it leads to confusion with nautical navigation tools etc. Suggestions I’ve seen so far are: Direct Navigation, Type-In, Direct Search, Browser Searching and Name Direction. What do you think, is there a re-branding needed, and what is the best term?
I personally am not so fond of the term “Browser Searching” since it sounds to me like searching via a search engine would be included in it - after all you would be using a browser to access the search engine. I actually like “Direct Search”, which as far as I know was first used by NameMedia, even though it appears there might be some potential confusion as well, as a quick Google search reveales.
[via OptimizedDomains]
Frank,
I completely agree, in the current domaining vocabulary there aren’t enough ways to accurately describe type-in traffic….and you seem to have the best short list going right now!
I did make some comments on OptimizedDomains.com about how I appreciate the term “browser searching” for its succinctness in definition. (From a domaining perspective, It may be helpful if we change the paradigm that all searching is primarily done through engines.)
Maybe the list could look like:
FORMS OF TYPE-IN TRAFFIC (aka DIRECT NAVIGATION)
*Brand (solicited traffic using marketing dollars)
*Buzz (solicited traffic using word of mouth)
*Browser Searching - (search related direct navigation)
*Return (incl. bookmarks, favorites, etc.)
*Typos (errors and such)
Tom, I think we are getting there ;-) Thank you for your comment.
Breaking down the types of “URL directed” or “typein” traffic is a much-needed area of semantic description for our industry, since as Tom pointed out, not all searching for something on the net isn’t done through search engines. I like his breakdown of these type of “natural” traffic sources:
BRAND, BUZZ, BROWSER SEARCHING (direct navigation), RETURN, TYPO
>>>
(B, B, BS, R, T) >>>> BBBSRT >>>>> “BSRT>>>> “Buzzert” ;p)
So the word “Buzzert” would cover all of Tom’s definitions for “direct navigation”, and hopefully we could replace that term “Direct Navigation” that most domainers use to describe directly typing in the domain name into the URL locater of the browser, or “browser bar”.
For a simple example of why “direct navigation” is not original to domaining and would be fairly confusing in educating the public, make the phrase a google “alert” and see how many google news stories show up on your home page or are emailed to you. Main root topics for “direct navigation” are GPS locators, moving about a website, and at times directing your boat across a lake. Of course, comments about Marchex will show up enough times to keep direct navigation “on course” for domainers. ;-)
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