Comments on: GoCompare at Number 1 for Car Insurance

By: Sarah Coles

Sarah Coles — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:00:01 +0000

Thanks for providing this information on Car Insurance.

By: David Crofts

David Crofts — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:50:14 +0000

SEO is such a competitive business, it not surprising a well known company has been caught, using paid for links as part of its link building campaign. I wouldnâ€™t be surprised if other big named business have taken part in similar techniques.

By: Maurice

Maurice — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:32:50 +0000

lol nice to see the big boy swho dont play fair get hit by penalties

By: Robin Goad

Robin Goad — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:31:56 +0000

Here are Hitwise stats, both pre and post the recent ‘blacklisting’:

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2008/02/google_blacklists_gocompare.html

Thanks, Robin

By: ABC

ABC — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:10:04 +0000

Yes – noticed it this morning, they dont even rank for their name!!

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:05:54 +0000

Anyone noticed that GoCompare have gone from the SERPS? Their link profile was very spammy and it comes as no surprise that Google may have pulled their site. Maybe it’s just a Google glitch and they will pop back up?

By: Ernest

Ernest — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:05:35 +0000

@An insurance seo guy

The only issue then is the long term damage to reputation in the eyes of Google – about as difficult to measure as any Google statistic!

By: An insurance seo guy

An insurance seo guy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:16:46 +0000

I'm wondering how long term GoCompare's strategy really is; Google have expressed their desire to penalise sites that sell rankings, although it doesn't seem to be keeping up with its policy so far. They made the move against the directories last year, its really only a matter of time before they do the same thing with paid blog posts. Really, if its as easy as doing a Google search for "gocompare payperpost, its a matter of "when" not "if" they act. Of course, GoCompare are probably making so much money from their artificial position the money spent on the links will be money well spent.

By: Tron

Tron — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:32:56 +0000

Ok, looking at Hitwise… Go Compare had a market share of 0.007% week ending 29/12/07. If we check now, that market share is at 0.014, so in effect doubled.

It is hard to try and apply real term figures here, but I would cautiously estimate that we are look at going from 350k sessions per week up to 700k sessions per week.

That is some pretty impressive growth, but how and where was it achieved? To my mind there are three big factors that need to be considered.

1. In or around top spot of Google
2. Seasonal uplift
3. Just had some figures that would suggest a Â£500k TV spend for the period 01/01/08 – 08/01/08

All in all it is shaping up to be a pretty hot January for Go Compare!

By: Clive

Clive — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:35:41 +0000

As I post MSM shares are at 100p – down a whopping 13.6% today

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/shares/3/40800/default.stm