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Editor: Matt Paines

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Brands lose 13% of searches to hijackers

Shrewd search marketing or pulling a fast one? A new Hitwise report has revealed that around 13% of all brand searches end up elsewhere.
 
The research looked at 30 leading e-commerce brands in the airlines, insurance, appliances and electronics industries and revealed that on average 87% of queries on their branded search terms sent visitors to their own websites.
 
Heather Hopkins of Hitwise said that pay-per-click rules meant that competitors could pay to appear in the results for a search on their rivals' brand names and urged businesses to protect their brands adequately.
 
The problem of brand hijacking is particularly prevalent among queries where searchers misspell keywords or include other terms.
 
Losing this proportion of visitors is sure to impact on a company's revenue and for many brands the percentage of visitors landing at other websites is considerably higher.
 
Search marketers are warning brands about the extent of the problem and calling on them to look into the best ways to counter the threat.

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