As popularity of dotcom brands falls SEO for retailers becomes essential tool

6 March 2011

Despite the probability that they had sophisticated internet marketing strategies and SEO for retailer campaigns, pure dotcom brands which flourished in the early noughties are being encroached upon by web names which have a real-world presence, according to a new report.

Research conducted by Nielsen and UK Online Measurement (UKOM) has revealed that traditional brands such as Tesco, Argos and BT are fast becoming some of the most popular internet destinations for web users.

The top 50 list reveals which sites were most visited in January 2004 and compares that with the number of visits in the corresponding month of 2011.

Certain made-for-web brands, such as Lycos, Freeserve and LastMinute.com, which featured prominently in the 2004 chart, have disappeared from the top 50 having been usurped by real-world brands making use of the internet – such as traditional retailers, banks and media companies.

However, the chart's top five is still dominated by web-only brands such as Google (up from number three in 2004 to head the chart in 2011), Yahoo (remaining constant at number four) and Facebook (leaping in at number three - although it's February 2004 launch date precluded it from the original chart).

UKOM general manager James Smythe said, "Over the last seven years, we see two broad developments: first, huge growth in the use of sites built on social content, where we mostly find contributions from people we trust; and second, websites with a high-street or 'real-world' presence translating the strength of their offline brands into online audiences.

"Seven years ago, only 18 of the top 50 sites had an established offline presence, such as Argos and the BBC; this has now increased to 25. The web has always made it easier for people to feed their fundamental desire to socialise, but the critical element of trust in social online environments has now become mainstream. Likewise, traditional brands have successfully harnessed the trust and confidence consumers have had with their established businesses offline, by migrating them to their sites on the web."

These figures suggest that shop owners, whether they be one unit businesses or nationwide chains, can harness the power of their off-line presence and turn this into increased revenue by utilising SEO for retailers to help them feature prominently in the search engine ranking pages (SERPs).