The ongoing search for value in Google’s Metrics
It been 6 Weeks since I wrote those 3 posts discussing the sale of Techcrunch to AOL. If you missed the original posts then here are the links:
- TechCrunch Economics
- How TechCrunch could have achieved a higher valuation from AOL
- The new Plan A for online media: Get bought by AOL
You may recall that the day the sale was announced excapite had attained position 3 Page Ranks for both the search terms ‘TechCrunch Valuation’ and ‘TechCrunch Revenues’. (See More Real Time Google Performance Metrics)
In the days that followed the positions floated but by day 3 we had secured number 1 spot for the search term ‘TechCrunch Valuation’. Today we hold both 1st and 2nd spot for ‘TechCrunch Valuation’ and 6th spot for ‘TechCrunch Revenues’.
The TechCrunch sale to AOL was arguable one of the hottest topics on the Tech Blogosphere at the end of September and the first week of October so let’s see how Google’s ability to drive traffic measured up.
Today Google’s adwords Keyword Tool suggests that 46 searches for the key word ‘TechCrunch Valuation’ have been made over the past month. For the record excapite has received just 4 search engine referrals for that term over the past month and a total of 15 since the post was published.
For the term ‘TechCrunch Revenues’ Google’s adwords Keyword Tool suggests 140 searches have been conducted over the past month. Again excapite has received just 3 Search Engine Referrals over the past month for the term ‘TechCrunch Revenues’ and 7 in total since the post was published.
A few interesting trends emerge when you examine the raw data. Firstly, TechCrunch has a global audience of millions – some of whom are VC, Tech Investors and Entrepreneurs - but Google’s own stats indicate less than 200 searches have been conducted on Google over the pas month to discover TechCrunch’s revenues or valuation after the sale to AOL. I would have anticipated a higher level of interest than this from the TechCrunch audience – after all that is why I ran the experiment to try to secure (and then hold on to) a Top 10 ranking on Google. The metrics tend to suggest that Google was not the ‘sign post’ of choice for the TechCrunch faithful seeking answers to the questions of valuation and revenues.
Secondly there is the ongoing lack of correlation between Google’s adword keyword search metrics and the search engine traffic arriving here on excapite. This is somewhat less surprising because we have encountered this a number of times before. (see So what is a top page ranking on Google worth? and In search of the Social Google).
