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Since we live in an online world full of PPC, SEO, Facebook Ads and Social Media, why not add Direct Navigation into the mix. Direct Navigation has been getting a lot of attention lately, especially with the emergence of Mobile Devices and Conversion Tracking Capabilities. It’s obvious that traditional search marketing can be highly effective if executed properly, but with the many different generations of searchers and overall exposure, it’s not a bad idea to throw some testing Ad Dollars to see how it performs.
What is Direct Navigation?
There are a couple different Perspectives on Direct Navigation
According to Trellian’s Direct Search Platform, they describe Direct Navigation as “Direct navigation describes the method individuals use to navigate the World Wide Web in order to arrive at specific websites. Direct navigation is a 10 year old term which is generally understood to include type-in traffic. Direct navigation traffic was first discovered circa 1996. The few lucky domainers who had premium names and analyzed their traffic found people were typing in their domain names and bypassing search engines. Many of them immediately realized the potential of these domain names. At that time the direct navigation segment of the World Wide Web was born.“
In a more recent Press Release from Scott Alliy President of eComInvestments.com, he states that “Direct navigation begins with owning one or more domain names that contain search keywords which Internet users are likely to type in when searching for your business products or services. Leveraging the power of Direct Navigation Traffic provides Internet business owners more control over their business and marketing budgets.“
Why Should we use Direct Navigation Services?
Low-Cost + High Volume: In many ways that can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your goals. However, Direct Navigation offers another way to find visitors looking for your product/service. Now, the biggest concern is obviously Conversions and Conversion Tracking. Recently Trellian has enabled an ROI Tracking code option to be placed on the websites “confirmation pages” just like with other platforms. This is significant because it eliminates the guess work and the “going back and forth” with Google Analytics or any other Web Analytics service.
So Where is Direct Search Headed?
To help reinforce this idea, according to DirectNavigationSchool.com, they state “… In consequence of it’s tremendous growth, the Direct Navigation business model is becoming a multimillion dollar business in online advertising industry. Online advertisers and other entrepreneurs tend to invest more into creative domain names.“
Impact of Mobile Devices and Direct Navigation:
The ability to search for something on a typical computer is much easier than trying to do it on a mobile device like an iPhone or iPad. The benefit of this inability to easily search for something is a great option for Direct Navigation. However, Morgan Linton of MorganLinton.com, he states a different but very interesting suggestion. “Fast-forward to 2011 and now just about everyone has a smartphone with a browser built-in and the data is clear, smartphone users are searchers not direct navigators. Couple this with an already increased focus on searching vs. typing-in what you’re looking for and it’s easy to see why direct navigation might be declining.”
In Conclusion:
Whatever your opinion is of Direct Navigation, it’s just another piece of the online advertising pie. With the emergence of mobile devices, cross-generational searching behaviors, low cost traffic and conversion tracking, it appears to be more appealing to “give it a shot and see what happens”.