Moneysupermarket.com tops Greenlight’s Integrated Search Report for the Retail Banking Sector

LONDON - Greenlight, the UK’s leading independent search marketing agency has released its first quarterly integrated research for the retail banking sector. Each report consists of paid search as well as natural search analysis, to offer a fully integrated piece of research. The report determines the most visible retail banking websites in Google natural and paid search results and covers Q2 2009.

This latest research is based on more than 8.8 million searches that took place between June and August 2009 for retail banking-related terms, including keywords for savings, credit and debit cards, mortgages and loans. This data was then used to rank the most visible brands on page 1 of Google’s search results.

According to Greenlight’s report, the most visible websites in natural search results during June 2009 are Moneysupermarket.com, Fool.co.uk and Halifax.co.uk, reaching 67%, 28% and 27% visibility respectively. Of the top 20 sites, nine were direct providers and the other sites were aggregators or information sites. Only 17 of the top 60 sites in natural search achieved higher visibility than 10% in June 2009.

In all keyword searches for savings, debit and credit cards and loans, the aggregator Moneysupermarket comes out on top, reaching 73% visibility or above. However, in searches for mortgage-related keywords only, Halifax was the most visible bank with 54% share of voice, followed by aggregators Fool and Moneysupermarket in second and third place, reaching 52% and 49% visibility respectively.

The paid search section of the report determines an advertiser’s share of voice based on how often they appear on Google, which ad position they are bidding for and the search volume generated for the keywords they bid on. The ranking represents visibility across the top 120 keywords in June 2009.

Again Moneysupermarket has the greatest share of voice in paid search reaching 44%, achieved largely by effective bidding on 110 of the 120 analysed by Greenlight’s research at an average ad position of five. In the paid search league table, seven of the top ten advertisers were aggregators or information sites and only three were direct providers.

Greenlight currently produces quarterly research reports covering a broad cross section of industries including flights, gaming, hotels, insurance, fashion retail, holidays, car hire and brown and white goods, amongst others.

Please note: If you plan to run this story online, please link any references to Greenlight or the report via the following:

The complete retail banking market sector report is available at:

www.greenlightsearch.com/sectorreports/retailbanking.html

Notes to editors

Greenlight is the UK’s largest independent search engine marketing( www.greenlightsearch.com/) agency specialising in all search marketing disciplines including search engine optimization( www.greenlightsearch.com/seo/), paid search( www.greenlightsearch.com/ppc/) management, SEM training, consultancy and search marketing technology.

Founded in 2001 by Warren Cowan (CEO) the agency is headquartered in London with an office in New York.

Using both natural and paid search, Greenlight focuses on improving client positioning and website visibility across the top search engines, to drive qualified traffic to its clients’ websites.

Greenlight is an award winning agency, ranking in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2009 for the second year running and 14th in The Sunday Times Tech Track 2009, making it Britain’s fastest growing digital marketing agency.

The agency’s client roster includes FTSE, NASDAQ and NYSE listed companies as well as charitable organisations and government bodies. It works with top interactive agencies, SME’s and global brands across vertical markets as diverse as publishing, financial services, retail, travel, property and entertainment.

www.greenlightsearch.com

Additional Information

Other sector reports include the Greenlight Marketing flights market sector report(www.aviationtoday.com/pressreleases/Cheapflights-co-uk-Tops-Natural-Search-Results-in-Greenlight-Search-Study-Greenlight-Releases-First-Integrated-Research-_36188.html).

Greenlight Search(econsultancy.com/press-releases/4390-greenlight-scoops-idm-award-for-best-use-of-search-engine-marketing) scoops IDM award for Best Use of Search Engine Marketing

Greenlight Search(www.crunchbase.com/company/greenlight-search) on Crunchbase

iMedia Connection on Warren Cowan, Greenlight CEO( www.imediaconnection.com/profiles/iMedia_PC_Overview.aspx?ID=8529)

Source: Greenlight

Beatriz Bailey at Greenlight, T: +44(0020-3326-6233