Case Study: Groupon uncovers hidden search traffic with BrightEdge

Groupon finds 60% of direct traffic is actually search with BrightEdge

Groupon, working with the SEO platform BrightEdge, faced a challenge in accurately attributing its website traffic. Their analytics suggested a significant portion was "direct" traffic, but they hypothesized that much of this was actually misreported organic search traffic due to unreliable referrer data, potentially undercounting search's true value.

To solve this, Groupon's Director of Search, Gene McKenna, implemented a drastic test using BrightEdge's capabilities by temporarily de-indexing the site from search engines. The results confirmed that up to 60% of what was labeled direct traffic on interior pages was actually search traffic, with the figure rising to 75% for some Internet Explorer users. This BrightEdge-supported study proved that organic search was an even larger driver of business than standard analytics reported, highlighting the critical need for a robust SEO platform.

Groupon