RetailMeNot is having
remarkable SEO success. According to an analysis by Priceonomics, RetailMeNot is first for
numerous coupon-related and “promo code” searches — an amazing 71 percent of
the time.
This is what the
company said based on an analysis of nearly 300 coupon-related keywords:
RetailMeNot ranks
first in Google search results for an astounding 187 out of the 263 keywords we
track. Dealcatcher.com, the next closest company, only ranks first for 7
keywords. Coupons.com, another recent IPO in this space, only has the number
one spot in the Google rankings a single time.
RetailMeNot is now
public and has a market cap of $1.7 billion. The company was started by two
Australians and acquired by WhaleShark Media in 2010. WhaleShark
then rebranded itself (wisely) as RetailMeNot and went public in 2013.
RetailMeNot claims
more than 450 million consumer visits to its sites. It made more than $200
million in affiliate revenue in 2013, driving visits to retailer sites. Basically
it does a much better job of optimization and ranking for “retailer name +
promo code” than the retailers themselves do.
The reason that
RetailMeNot, originally a crowd-sourced coupon aggregator, climbed to the top
of the online coupon mountain and was acquired is SEO. The following chart from
Priceonomics visually illustrates how dominant the site is on Google for
coupon-related keywords (RetailMeNot is in red).
While RetailMeNot has some name
recognition it doesn’t really qualify as a brand. Most visitors to the site are
searching on Google rather than visiting it directly. Its most engaged and
loyal users are those of its mobile app.
As the Priceonomics
analysis points out a company this dependent on SEO is potentially highly
vulnerable to Google algorithm changes. If future updates bump RetailMeNot from
its top slot across coupon keywords it would immediately hit the company’s
bottom line.
How long can RetailMeNot
stay on top?
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