Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

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Search in the work place.
Employers are realising the power of the internet as a marketing and sales tool. So much so that a huge number of employees now have direct access to the internet from their desk. Whilst this has many commercial advantages to the employer, the use, or abuse, by employees whilst on company time continues to grow.

A typical B2B web site would see it's site traffic resemble the following curve. Virtually no traffic from midnight, starting to pick up slightly by around 7am and growing through the day. Between the hour of 12 and 2pm traffic reducing slightly only to recover after lunch and gradually fade away after 6pm. Visitor stats also suggest that Wednesday is the busiest day for traffic.

FIG.1 Visitor trends for a Business to Business web site by hour.FIG.2 Visitor trends for a typical Business to Business web site by day.

Given that B2B is what most employees should be doing during the working day, it is interesting to see the visitor stats for a typical holiday web site. Again traffic is limited during the night, gradually increasing through the morning. Not surprisingly the hours between 1 and 2pm are the peak hours of activity. The rest of the day remaining fairly constant with a small drop between 4 and 5pm and tailing off after 10pm.

FIG.3 Visitor trends for a typical Holiday web site by hour.

Similarly a typical curve for an automotive site shows a sharp increase at the start of the working day with the peak hours between 12 and 2pm. Again except for a slight dip ready for the rush hours the site activity remains relatively constant.

FIG.4 Visitor trends for a typical Car web site by hour.

Whilst employers may not be too happy about how their employees are spending their time, to search engine marketers the information shows that for B2B the prime selling opportunities are during the working day, within the working week. However companies offering B2C need to consider the working day ensuring resources are available at lunch times and well into the evening, meaning particularly if the service has to be supported by tele-sales.

M.P

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