Search: Big Business and Results

Adam Johnson - TVL

YOU hear a lot about how important search is for online businesses these days, but rarely do you get the level of insight provided by a couple of speakers at TRAVELtech recently.

Travel.com.au Managing Director, who is moving on early next year, told delegates SEM and SEO consumed 80% of the company’s A$2.5m marketing budget during the 06/07 financial year, while total marketing spend will likely increase to A$3.5m this year.

Meanwhile Yury Shar from hotelscombined.com, which lifted visitors from 61,000 in January to 450,000 during August, says 34% of this traffic was driven by paid search and 20% by free search. The biggest contributor, however, was affiliate marketing with 38%.

Search Engine Room: September 2, 2007