iPad 2 still going strong: Makes up 60 percent of iPad web traffic in the U.S.

Is it a sign that people are holding back on upgrading to the new iPad? Or a measure of the success the discounted iPad 2 is seeing here in the U.S.? Schools purchasing iPads were a key driver of Apple’s record-breaking iPad sales last quarter.

Though the new iPad continues to break tablet sales records for Apple, some new data from Chitika Insights shows that here in the U.S., last year’s iPad model remains incredibly popular. In a report shared with GigaOM on Friday, Chitika says that based on data gathered from its extensive ad network in the U.S., web traffic coming from the new iPad accounts for about 18 percent of all iPad traffic, while 60 percent still comes from the iPad 2.

Chitika think that’s a sign that people are holding back on upgrading to the new iPad, and points to “the perceived minute differences between the iPad 2 and iPad 3, discouraging users of older iPads to upgrade.”

But, Apple sold 17 million iPads this past quarter, a record for the company, and Apple CEO Tim Cook specifically said that the most popular iPad sold was the lastest, third-generation iPad. There is a data discrepancy here, however: Chitika is talking about web traffic from iPads in the U.S. only, and Cook is talking about global sales.

I think this can also be explained by how important the iPad 2's discount, starting in March, has been to that model’s success here in the U.S. Discounting the iPad 2 by $100 to $399 was smart for a couple of reasons. Yes, it put the iPad in the hands of more consumers who weren’t excited about spending $500 on an iPad, but it’s also opened the floodgates for schools to be able to buy them for students. (And that coincided with a bigger push from Apple in general toward education apps and books.)

Apple said last week that between April and June this year, it sold 1 million iPads to schools — a quarterly record for the company. It has had a record-breaking quarter for Mac sales to schools, yet it sold twice as many iPads as it did Macs.

On the company’s earnings call with investors, Cook said pricing was a big part of the iPad 2's success last quarter: ”We priced the iPad 2  to $399 and did very well but, the most popular iPad is the new iPad. But iPad 2 was key in the K-12 area. We have been very aggressive in this space and I don’t see changing that.”

Apple’s very savvy about how it prices its products and simultaneously squeezes profits out of them. Its success with the iPad 2 even since the introduction of the brand new iPad shows that. That’s why this fall is going to be so very interesting in the tablet world. With Google, Microsoft and Amazon undercutting or trying to undercut the iPad on price with smaller but compelling tablets, Apple’s decision on how to price the still-rumored smaller iPad is going to have a significant impact. Not only on its competitors, but on its own profits as well.

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Hastings was right: Olympics drop Netflix traffic 25%, study says

ISP technology provider Procera Networks reports that Netflix streaming was down a quarter from normal levels in the U.S. Sunday, even though overall streaming video traffic was way up. Of course, last week, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said there’d be days like this.

Forget Mad Men reruns. The individual mixed dressage events are on tonight!

As predicted by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings last week, interest in the London Olympic Games seems to be sapping away significant viewership on his streaming service.

Also read: Netflix stock down 25 percent as investors lament return to red ink

A study issued Wednesday by Procera Networks, which sells packet sniffing gear to internet service providers — research first reported Wednesday by entertainment trade publication Variety – revealed that Netflix streaming traffic was down 25 percent on Sunday from normal levels.

Usage stayed normal in Canada, Procera also found.

“This matches expectations, as the U.S. is much more involved in the Olympics than Canada, and with the peak levels that we mentioned earlier for Olympics streaming, something had to give, and in this case it was Netflix,” wrote Cam Cullen, the Boston-based VP of global marketing for Procera.

Of course, media companies vested in coverage of the Olympics on digital platforms, such as Comcast/NBCUniversal and Yahoo, 9s YHOO) are seeing big usage spikes, Procera adds.

“In the U.S., several networks peaked as high as 34 percent of overall bandwidth and increased volume by over 100 percent over the initial two days of events,” Cullen wrote.

Meanwhile, in the U.K., usage on BBC iPlayer was up 100 percent on all platforms Sunday during coverage of soccer events.

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Finding Keywords to Build Your Web Site Traffic

What are web site keywords and how do I go about finding keywords that will work for me?

You may have the dandiest web site with eye popping text and graphics, but if you have missing keywords then you are going to be out of business quick.

Web sites revolve around traffic. No traffic = no sales. It's a simple equation but one that many web site owners are unable to resolve. The good news is that it's reasonably easy to select your web site keywords and deploy them, and I'm going to show you how.

Web site keywords are the words that people will use to search for your product or service. These are the words that people actually type into a search engine to find your site - so you can see how important they are.

So how do you go about selecting your keywords?

Selecting and finding keywords and phrases most likely to drive targeted traffic is THE single most important exercise that you can undertake when planning your web site deployment. Omitting this step will result in a marketing failure. Choosing good keywords is the basis on which all of your future traffic will flow.

You may have your own ideas about the specific keywords that people will use to find your site, however I can tell you from experience that if you are the business owner or proprietor then you are probably well wide of the mark.

Don't believe me! Write down the top five keywords or keyword phrases that you think people will use to find your site now! Go and grab a paper and pen and scribble them down. Then compare them to what you are going to end up with at the end of this article.

Firstly ask your customers how they would search for your product!

This is important because these are the real human beings that will search for your product, service or information. Draw up a list of ten of the most popular keywords and keyword phrases that your customers tell you they would use to discover your web site and then put them into a spreadsheet.

2. Expand Your Keywords into a List of Key Phrases

Starting with the obvious keyword build your spreadsheet like this:

search

search engine

search engine optimization

search engine optimization Birmingham

search engine optimization Birmingham UK

3. Got to word tracker.

Sign up for the free trial and enter your one word keyword. In this case "search". When you press the search button you are returned a list of related terms. The first term is the same as the keyword followed by a list of related terms - search, search engine, etc. Choose your main term "search" and in the right hand pane you will see the associated terms for your keyword.

4. Organize your workload

You can now see that you are beginning to build up a sizable list of keywords, keyword phrases and search terms. Compare the results of your word tracker research with the results from your customer polling.

The Word tracker results are fact. These are the terms that are actually used in Real searches. Hopefully these should closely match. But they are probably different to the terms that you initially wrote down yourself!

Five keywords is a good workload to start with. If you are a beginner and you attempt more you will likely end up confusing yourself. Five keywords and keyword phrases is a good start.

Take the first keyword and then make a keyword phrase so that it looks like this:

search

search engine

search engine optimization

search engine optimization Birmingham

search engine optimization Birmingham UK

5. Priorities your terms

There is a huge amount of competition for your primary keyword "search" but much less for the fifth ranked. Your word tracker results will tell you how popular each term is and how many searches are carried out for each keyword phrase.

It's unreasonable to expect to get top search position for "motorcycle" as the competition is just too intense. However it's perfectly possible for the last term and if you are serious about search engine traffic then you should be able to achieve good results for all of your other keyword phrases.

List your terms in REVERSE order and go to work. The reason I suggest doing them in reverse is that you should get good results from the less searched for terms and this will give you the encouragement to be more adventurous when you repeat the process for another keyword set.

Another keyword set!

Ah yes, I omitted to tell you that building traffic is a tedious and time consuming pastime, but hey! Someone's got to do it!

6. Putting your keyword phrases to work

OK, so now you have your keyword phrases you can put them into action. Allocate each keyword phrase to a specific page and build the content around them.

What do I mean by this?

There are "hotspots" on your pages that search engines look for when they are indexing your pages.

These hotspots are the page title, the page description and the page heading. By incorporating your keyword phrase into these hotspots you are telling the search engine what your page is all about. Sprinkle in some eye-popping copy with your keyword phrase repeated once or twice and you are well on your way to receiving copious amounts of search engine traffic.

7. Repeat the dose

As I mentioned above, you need to build on your basic five keyword phrases and build up a stack of "keyword sets" Once you get to five or more keyword sets then you should be well on your way to a successful web site By allocating each keyword phrase to a page you will know that you need five pages for each keyword set. So five keyword sets will give you twenty five pages of search engine content. That's a good target for a small web site

Summary

Finding keywords is a process that you simply can not afford to leave out of your marketing mix. It's important that you target the correct keywords and build your content around them to induce good search engine traffic.

If you miss this vital step then all of your marketing efforts will crumble around you.

Start with five keywords and keyword phrases to make a keyword set. Use word tracker to sanitize your own research findings. Allocate each keyword phrase to a page and fill the hotspots. Sprinkle liberally with good, quality content and repeat your keyword phrases within the main body text.

Now go and service that traffic!

About The Author

Tony Cooper is a full time webmaster Website Promotion Building web sites that achieve tangible and accountable results. tony@storebuilder.co.uk

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