WebProNews

Hitwise reports paid search traffic was down 26 percent across the board over the past month. Overall, in the four weeks preceding May 9th, paid search delivered 7.25 percent of business traffic, compared to 9.84 percent this time last year.

Out of 17 categories only one didn’t experience a decline in paid search traffic: the education sector. But this category really didn’t have very far to go to get better. Last year, Education got 1.39 percent of its traffic from paid search, compared to 1.45 percent this year.

Insurance was down 22 percent, Travel was down 25 percent, Hitwise’s Retail 500 plummeted by 20 percent. Though Walmart, Travelocity, and Orbitz all saw sharp declines, Home Depot saw the largest dip. Just 0.83 percent of Home Depot searches led to a paid click, compared to 39.06 percent last year. USAA dropped from 28.88 percent to zero.

This is likely not due to fewer people clicking, however, and probably has more to do with marketing budget cutbacks. This same declining period corresponds with another report that showed over half of those companies surveyed planned to cut back on paid search and focus more on social media initiatives and email.

Don’t take it as bad news, then, smaller businesses, take it as an opportunity to grab the customers large retailers are leaving on the search table. Without major retailers bidding up prices, those keywords may be a bit cheaper than they were.

Those same retailers aren’t spending as much on social media advertising either, despite the Forrester report showing a shift in focus. Instead they must be focusing on the free aspects of social media marketing; eMarketer predicts a three percent decline in social media advertising this year.