FT.com increases web search traffic
New search technology helps web publisher increase subscriptions
Internet news site FT.com has used new technology to achieve a 150 per cent increase in online search traffic, leading to increases in subscriptions and advertising revenue.
The web site deployed software from supplier Fast to increase the response time of searches and their relevancy for its five million weekly visitors. Successful searches have also increased by 50 per cent, improving site performance.
Lee Wilkinson, head of business products at the Financial Times, says the company chose Fast to enhance its service, maximise the value of its content and provide greater contextual information for advertisers.
‘We invested in search technology six or seven years ago but the challenge was to look at improving performance, which meant deploying next-generation search technology,’ he said.
‘The site has been growing in terms of unique users, but search technology underpins a lot of content providers. When people think of search they think of Google, so the use of the search tool has suffered from attrition.’
The firm examined several aspects, including performance at retrieving articles, technology architecture and stability.
Wilkinson says giving users what they want and future-proofing the site will increase loyalty to FT.com.
‘Google is held up as a yardstick. Our search technology must perform well and work quickly if users keep revisiting the site,’ he said.
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