As a follow-up to our original insights on the overall impact of the recent Google “Farmer” update (see:Google Panda Update Impact on Coupon Sites ), this insight focuses specifically on coupon sites.
For the purpose of this analysis we took the top keywords related to coupon sites (by search volume – everything <500 was excluded). Each of the phrases selected had to have one of the following words as part of it – coupon, discount, promo(tion), code, deals or free.
The set used in the analysis came out to be ~6000 keywords and the top 10 domains for each keyword – resulting in a total count of 6794 unique domains analyzed. Similar to our last insight report, we compared the data for 02/22/2011 with the data for 02/24/2011 to put together the insights below.
ClarityInsight #1
Top 10 Sites with greatest decline in Top 10 Rankings
(Sorted by count)
| Domain | 2/22/2011 | 2/24/2011 | Change | %ge | |
| 1 | Couponmountain | 2,256 | 751 | (1,505) | -67% |
| 2 | Couponalbum | 1,508 | 331 | (1,177) | -78% |
| 3 | Ultimatecoupons | 1,574 | 613 | (961) | -61% |
| 4 | Couponsnapshot | 1,314 | 394 | (920) | -70% |
| 5 | Dealtaker | 2,703 | 1,868 | (835) | -31% |
| 6 | Mycoupons | 1,088 | 366 | (722) | -66% |
| 7 | Momsview | 998 | 295 | (703) | -70% |
| 8 | Savings | 896 | 239 | (657) | -73% |
| 9 | Tjoos | 1,306 | 654 | (652) | -50% |
| 10 | Gogoshopper | 527 | 146 | (381) | -72% |
Despite the dismal picture for the coupon sites listed above, it seems Dealtaker and Tjoos came off least unscathed – with losses of 31% and 50% respectively of their Top 10 rankings. A deeper analysis into the search volume of the keywords lost would be more informative on the true impact of this loss of rankings rather than just the raw counts.
Clarity Insight #2
Top 10 Domains with greatest gains of Top 10 rankings
(Sorted by count)
| Domain | 2/22/2011 | 2/24/2011 | Change | %ge | |
| 1 | Bestonlinecoupons | 827 | 1,431 | 604 | 73% |
| 2 | Dealspl.us | 1,445 | 1,984 | 539 | 37% |
| 3 | Freeshipping.org | 314 | 836 | 522 | 166% |
| 4 | Goodsearch | 820 | 1,300 | 480 | 59% |
| 5 | Couponcabin | 2,751 | 3,224 | 473 | 17% |
| 6 | Retailmenot | 4,546 | 5,017 | 471 | 10% |
| 7 | Dealio | 317 | 633 | 316 | 100% |
| 8 | Techbargains | 973 | 1,255 | 282 | 29% |
| 9 | Couponwinner | 305 | 583 | 278 | 91% |
| 10 | Couponchief | 399 | 676 | 277 | 69% |
Surprise! Large jumps by BestOnlineCoupons.com, FreeShipping.org and Dealio.com (from a percentage and total count perspective).
Clarity Insight #3
Top 10 Sites with greatest declines in Top 3 Rankings
(Sorted by count)
| Domain | 2/22/2011 | 2/24/2011 | Change | %ge | |
| 1 | Dealtaker | 1,240 | 473 | (767) | -62% |
| 2 | Couponmountain | 511 | 78 | (433) | -85% |
| 3 | Ultimatecoupons | 458 | 84 | (374) | -82% |
| 4 | Tjoos | 473 | 137 | (336) | -71% |
| 5 | Mycoupons | 280 | 56 | (224) | -80% |
| 6 | Couponsnapshot | 291 | 73 | (218) | -75% |
| 7 | Momsview | 175 | 39 | (136) | -78% |
| 8 | Couponalbum | 157 | 46 | (111) | -71% |
| 9 | Savings | 137 | 27 | (110) | -80% |
| 10 | Promotioncode.org | 169 | 60 | (109) | -64% |
Dealtaker and CouponMountain seem to have taken the biggest hit in Top 3 rankings. From a percentage perspective though, Dealtaker has fared the best by retaining 38% of their Top 3 rankings compared to CouponMountain that retained only 15% of its Top 3 rankings
Clarity Insight #4
Top 10 Sites with greatest increases in Top 3 Rankings
(Sorted by count)
| Domain | 2/22/2011 | 2/24/2011 | Change | %ge | |
| 1 | Retailmenot | 3,789 | 4,384 | 595 | 16% |
| 2 | Couponcabin | 1,274 | 1,860 | 586 | 46% |
| 3 | Dealspl.us | 348 | 570 | 222 | 64% |
| 4 | Bestonlinecoupons | 146 | 333 | 187 | 128% |
| 5 | Goodsearch | 79 | 251 | 172 | 218% |
| 6 | Techbargains | 323 | 484 | 161 | 50% |
| 7 | Couponchief | 89 | 182 | 93 | 104% |
| 8 | Freeshipping.org | 52 | 127 | 75 | 144% |
| 9 | Couponwinner | 45 | 111 | 66 | 147% |
| 10 | Promotionalcodes | 62 | 115 | 53 | 85% |
RetailMeNot and CouponCabin have both made significant gains in the Top 3 positions – beyond the total increase in keywords they had in Top 10 positions, indicating a jump in existing rankings from positions 4 – 10 into the Top 3.
From a percentage perspective, the gains by BestOnlineCoupons.com and GoodSearch are particularly interesting.
As with any analysis, there are some important caveats to note.
1) This analysis is by no means a comprehensive look at all keywords in the coupon space –but is still indicative of the trend in rankings given that TOP coupon related keywords were selected in the analysis.
2) A deeper analysis into the search volume of the keywords lost or gained would be warranted to inform on the true impact of the loss of rankings rather than just the raw counts of changes.
3) The universe of coupon keywords is heavily skewed towards “Brand + Coupon/Promotion” etc. variations – the money words. When looking at this data, it is important to note that generic keywords such as “mp3 deals” etc. are not well represented if those are important for you.
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