Why BankRate is so (G)RATE
Written by Paul Zeckser (contact - e-mail) -- September 26th, 2008 |
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I admit it – I love using Bankrate.com to find the best savings account rates and to use their online calculators. I’m not the only one, between 3 and 4.5 million Americans use the site every month and that number is growing steadily, up 20% year-over-year.
But my love for the site, has not necessarily translated into universal love for the stock on Wall Street - RATE is down about 27% year to date. But Compete data shows that the company has given investors something to smile about. Recently, Bankrate.com announced the acquisition of CreditCardGuide.com for $44 million in total consideration ($34M in cash, $10M in a two-year earn out). Part of the reason that Bankrate.com management cited for acquiring the company was “CreditCardGuide.com has succeeded in developing a strong organic traffic stream to its site.” Indeed they have.
CreditCardGuide.com has consistently been increasing their SEO traffic (natural search referrals) over the past six months. In August, 90% of all search traffic to the site was from natural search. This is right on par with Bankrate.com standards, which is also around 90% SEO / 10% SEM.
Additionally, CreditCardGuide.com receives nearly 30% of all its traffic from Google, a percentage considerable higher than many sites, including Bankrate.com, which receives about 20% of its site traffic from Google.
Based on these metrics, it seems CreditCardGuide.com - which attracted about 180,000 unique visitors in August, growth of 80% year-over-year) was a strong acquisition for Bankrate.com and will continue to help it strengthen its search-based visitor acquisition strategy.
Note: come back next week for our take on RATE’s Bankaholic.com acquisition!
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September 28th, 2008 at 1:46 am
BankRate is a very good site
i use them all the time….
September 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
BankRate has been actively acquiring banking websites. It’s a great space to be in with all these economic woes. A couple of us got together and created a site that we hope will offer something to consumers looking to find a new bank or just shop for the best rate.
Actually, in my opinion we have a much better list of bank rates than BankRate. (but I’m a bit biased… haha)
We haven’t fully released the site yet. We are still in the process of adding features, but I urge you to check it out sometime.
http://www.mybanktracker.com/
September 30th, 2008 at 10:40 am
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September 30th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
CreditCardGuide.com practices blackhat SEO to gain rank. (Well known in the SEO industry). I can’t believe Bankrate didn’t do their homework before they decided to spend a ton of money to buy them. One example is: http://www.lucidscreening.com/2006/06/ . Tons more can be found. Literally hundreds. Bad move to buy a website that relies solely on blackhat techniques to drive traffic. Bankrate isn’t so (G)rate.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Looking forward to your analysis of Bankaholic, a very smart site. Bankrate is (G)rate to keep their core site relatively undisturbed, and growing instead by acquiring sites that can capture more traffic using new techniques.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Ruh-roh. (G)RATE paid $30 million cash for a site that’s fallen from 1st to 41st in Google, due to its well-known black hat SEO behavior?
MC, you called it. I imagine their traffic and revenues both are inverted hockey sticks.
Paul, like Sarah Palin, you ought to be droppin’ a G.
December 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
They’re back!!!!!!!
Check the ranks again. Black hat wins again!
December 19th, 2008 at 5:11 am
I like Bankrate because of their calculators.
February 24th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Great info, BankRate is a good source for anyone trying to find out where they can get the most for their money in terms of banking.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
thanks
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