Hitwise Internet Ratings Newsletter

Hitwise Internet Ratings Newsletter

Students Start the Year Online

The start of the new academic year has resulted in a flurry of online interest in university websites. As students enrol online and check the web for information, the official websites of New Zealand universities are witnessing significant increases in traffic. The most popular Education website in New Zealand is The University of Auckland (www.auckland.ac.nz), the perennial number one boasts 4.25% market share of the Education category. In the latest weekly rankings, the site is the 58th most popular website in New Zealand, compared with 74th last week, and 97th position for the week ending February 9.

In this week's rankings the University of Auckland also clinched the number 2 spot in the Education category. Rising from 12th last week, and 16th the week before was Cecil (cecil.auckland.ac.nz), the web based information system at the University of Auckland. The site also made impressive leaps when compared against all sites, claiming 79th position this week, a jump from 252nd one week ago, and 298th position two weeks ago.

The Massey University's Massey News (masseynews.massey.ac.nz) was knocked off second place this week in the Education category, but still made strides of its own online. The site, which provides news for students, staff, alumni and visitors of Massey University, rose from 146th in all sites two weeks ago, to claim 108th position this week. Massey University websites also round out the top five of Education sites, with Massey University (www.massey.ac.nz) at 4th place, and Massey University - myMassey (www.mymassey.com), a resource for information across campuses, at 5th position.

This increased traffic to university related sites has been seen across the board, with most sites enjoying increased success online. The online presence of the University of Otago (www.otago.ac.nz) is another example of this. The site was the 133rd most popular website this week, a small increase from 139th the week before, but a significant jump from 188th place in the week ending February 9. While the University of Waikato's website (www.waikato.ac.nz) achieved 165th place this week, a noticeable rise from 208th place for the week ending February 6. Similarly, the E-Learning section of Massey University (webct.massey.ac.nz) made online progress rising to 168th place this week, from 273rd position the week before.

When analysing traffic to university websites, it is clear that most of New Zealand's Internet users are looking at local sites. The week ending March 5 saw international sites account for 16.3% of traffic share, with the remaining 83.7% of traffic to the Education - Institutions category directed at local sites. The result is increased success for the websites of New Zealand's universities, as both students and the universities themselves increasingly rely on the Internet for processes, resources and information.

Fast Mover - Consumer Online

www.consumer.org.nz

Position January 19: 98
Position March 5: 70
Positions moved: 28

In the latest weekly data, Consumer Online was the 70th most popular New Zealand website, a rise from 97th the week before, and 98th two weeks ago. The Consumer Institute of New Zealand is an independent, non-profit organisation working on behalf of consumers to provide useful, accessible consumer information. This is the website of their publication, Consumer, offering news, reviews, and online subscriptions to the magazine. Consumer Online is the most popular Community - Organisation website, and ranks 8th against other News and Media - Print sites, behind the likes of The New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz) at 1st, Stuff (www.stuff.co.nz) in 2nd place, and Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) at 3rd position.

Not surprisingly, Google NZ (www.google.co.nz) and Google (www.google.com) occupy the top two positions in sites visited before Consumer Online, accounting for 33.35% and 5.52% of traffic share respectively. Making a healthy appearance in sites visited after Consumer Online are a range of news and media sites. This includes The New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz) at 4th place, TVNZ (www.tvnz.co.nz) at 9th, Stuff (www.stuff.co.nz) in 16th place, and Google NZ News (news.google.co.nz) in 17th place. Also represented are consumer related sites, with the Government site Consumer Affairs (www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz) at 1
Bookmark data also shows visitors indicating their intentions to return to the site in March, with 13.20% of them adding this website to their bookmarks in the month of February. While the month of January saw bookmark statistics registering an impressive 14.42%.

Search Terms Analysis: Aviation - Commercial Airlines
This month our Search Term analysis focuses on the Aviation - Commercial Airlines category, offering an insight into how New Zealanders are searching for, and finding, airline websites.

Dominant category leader Air New Zealand (www.airnz.co.nz) featured prominently in the Aviation - Commercial Airlines category's Search Terms data. The site boasts five of the top 10 category's search terms, with 'air new zealand' ranking 1st with 12.94% of market share. Collectively, these five Air New Zealand search terms account for 23.53% of market share of search terms in this category.

Qantas related search terms also make an impact, with 'qantas' appearing at 2nd place with 5.55% of market share, the typo 'quantas' at 11th place with 1.14%, and 'qantas nz' at 13th position.

Other popular search terms were 'freedom air' with 3.73%, 'origin pacific' with 1.88%, and 'singapore airlines' with 1.68% of market share.

Search Term Share (%)
1. air new zealand 12.88
2. qantas 5.57
3. air nz 3.96
4. freedom air 3.76
5. www.airnewzealand.co.nz 3.54
6. origin pacific 1.84
7. singapore airlines 1.66
8. airnewzealand 1.57
9. airnz 1.42
10. emirates 1.34

Case Study

How Yahoo! Singapore uses Hitwise to qualify leads and justify advertising spend.

For the Yahoo! Singapore sales team Hitwise is the ideal way to get an instant overview of all key prospects in an industry and report on the success of campaigns.

Hitwise rankings and ranking alerts advise the sales team of the performance of all online businesses by industry and alert them of new popular websites as soon as they arise.

While all advertisers on Yahoo! receive click-through reports to assess the effectiveness of online campaigns Hitwise clickstream reports are also used to show the total traffic Yahoo! sends to the advertiser's website as a percentage of all referring traffic. Clickstream data represents click-throughs from banners as well as people seeing a banner and typing the website address into the browser.

Using Hitwise, Yahoo! can demonstrate how a client's overall traffic has increased due to a campaign in comparison with competitors; another way the Yahoo! sales team is able to justify further advertising spend.

Richer than the click through rate alone, this type of information helps advertisers see the precise impact of their campaign, making return on investment calculations much easier.

Media queries at Hitwise

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Additionally - if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact James Borg at james.borg@hitwise.com.

About this Newsletter

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, March 2005 Real-time competitive intelligence

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