JupiterReseach recently published a report on direct navigation, that fancy term for the act of typing a domain name directly into a Web browser’s address bar. Lead analyst Kevin Heisler writes that direct navigation is the largest untapped market for paid search advertisers and ad agencies.
They are starting to see it but still missing major key points, but hey, it’s a start. Some things they are missing:
1. Direct navigation is stable (years of track records show that)
2. Direct navigation IS the web
3. Direct navigation, once domains acquired, come back at a very low cost (domain renewals) year after year
4. Direct navigation, once domains acquired, make competition entry higher
5. Direct navigation protects your brand
6. Direct navigation, domains, can be re-sold after use. They carry higher value then traffic itself
the list goes on and on. One day they will get it, but I personally don’t care when. Their loss, our gain. Life is good.
A little, Ok WAY behind the ball, but it’s nice to see this information hitting the mainstream more and more. Direct navigation and targeted traffic/domains will be the mainstay of the future and will be shaped around this. Your dead-on with your list. The stampede hasn’t even started yet. The future looks very bright!
I think a lot of people see direct traffic and type in traffic as one and the same. Imo there is a big difference, I see type in traffic as the constant trickle Frank always talks about and would put this in a category of people that actually type in a domain name in the address bar. This traffic probably mostly consists of people trying their luck (like the I’m feeling lucky google button) typing in a name and hoping to find relevant content. Like Frank said once “today it’s you typing in the name tomorrow it’s another person”. Exceptions of course are great generic names like travel.com, hotels.com etc, cause I assume almost all of those names have already developed relevant content and people typing in names like that will not have a luck factor associated with these type in names. Direct traffic however can be a mix of bookmark traffic and type in traffic, maybe it’s 100% bookmark traffic established through pure marketing. Bookmark traffic will consist of people who found the content on your site interesting enough to come back for more, so they bookmark it. I myself have a lot of sites book marked that are not really type in domains. So taking the stats of direct traffic and presenting them as being type in traffic??? Frank also mentioned one of the best definitions I have seen out there about type in traffic: “type in traffic are the uniques you see the moment the domain goes live”?. When you put good content on your site it will get very hard in time (if not impossible) to distinguish type in traffic between direct traffic. That is why I myself don’t see them as one and the same. But hey in the end traffic is traffic is money. If there is anyone out there who knows of software that can make a clear distinction between direct and type in traffic I would be interested knowing about it. Sahar maybe you have software like this, are you able to see the difference if someone reached this blog through a bookmark or reached it by typing in conceptualist.com?
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Oh god, I’m really bad at tracking traffic on this blog. I’m mostly writing it, I know I have few hundred subscribers, but I never really paid attention to anything more then that.
Not sure if you can see know if a click came from bookmark or not but I will find out with my partner later today and update here probably tomorrow.
Did your partner “know if a click comes from a bookmark or not”? Or forgot to ask him
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Ah, my apologies. He didn’t know, I forgot to update here.
finally. when business.com sells for 300 mill and gets a major facelift overhaul from dow or nytimes all us domaineeers will all be considered true visionairies. Never surrendered to the dot com crash, ignorant main stream media or negative impressions from peers. Destiny my friends is Ours. And for those who think that this is a bubble. It is. it is a bubble of destiny and prosperity for an established few of relentless visionaries. The Premium Vertical Land grab of the 21st century is over. Time to let these vacant lots turn into skyscrapers of strategic vertical location. the speed of social change and search as we know it will be unfathomable.