Q: In looking at my Analytics data, I’m starting to see a spike in Yahoo traffic. Any idea why?
A: This could very well be attributed to the fact that, back in November, Yahoo announced that they have entered into a partnership with Mozilla and would no longer be using Google as the default engine for mobile and desktop devices. As a result, Yahoo’s search share among Firefox users has seen a considerable increase, from 9.6% to 29.4% in only 2 weeks. Sure, any user who is savvy enough can certainly change their default browser on their computer, but this upsurge is an indication that many people are loyal to the default settings on their devices. In addition to this new partnership, Yahoo has also recently announced its acquisition of the video ad company, BrightRoll, which could eventually make Yahoo’s video ad platform the largest in the US. Yahoo also has recently entered into a partnership with Yelp, Inc. to help boost its local search results. All of these moves indicate that Yahoo is on a mission to compete with Google as the most visited search engine on the web. So when looking at Google Analytics, study the audience technology report to see what network your visitors come from and continue to look at referral data to see if it makes sense to launch initiatives, or expand your current efforts, in Yahoo, as there may be unforeseen opportunities.
