by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, July 11, 2017

Until brands can determine how to get people looking for information to type a website address direct into a URL, they will remain dependent on search engine traffic from organic listings and paid search on Google and Bing, among others.

While the traffic source isn’t free, organic or paid search, it does provide an uptick to individual brand sites and marketplaces, such as Amazon, according to SimilarWeb, which analyzed non-branded keyword terms delivering traffic to amazon.com.

To demonstrate how the data identifies changes in search behavior, as products go in and out of style, SimilarWeb analyzed the most popular products of the past 12 months. It examined how traffic to amazon.com, via keywords, fluctuated throughout the year.

Spikes from search engine referrals to Amazon follow a path in consumer behavior and interests. Fidget spiked in May 2017, sending 3.5 million visits to Amazon. Echo hit 2.5 million visits in May 2017, up from about 700,000 in June 2016. Nintendo hit nearly 1.8 million, up from nearly 700,000.

During Pokemon’s peak in July 2016, searches for Pokemon-related keywords brought 350,000 desktop visits to Amazon. While keyword traffic from this broad-match search dipped in the following months, it remained relatively high, averaging 180,000 monthly visits through November 2016.

As the hype waned, traffic fell significantly, dropping below 50,000 visits since March 2017.

The data shows a similar adjustment as the personal smart-home hub, Amazon Echo, began to gain in popularity.

The product line launched in 2014, but the volume of broad-match searches for Echo resulting in visits to Amazon peaked in December 2016, with 2.4 million visits. That’s up nearly three times the number of visits for the same keywords in September of that year, per SimilarWeb.

Some of the popular Echo-related keywords driving traffic from search engines to Amazon included “amazon echo,” “alexa,” “amazon alexa,” “echo dot” and “amazon echo dot.”

Searches for drone-related keywords in January 2017 were driven mostly by DJI, which makes drones. Broad-match searches for drones and DJI peaked in January 2017. But an uptick in May 2017 suggests the spike in search engines and referrals will continue.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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