EVENT TICKETING

EVENT TICKETING
Digital Insights Report
NOVEMBER 2015
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Contents
1. SEARCH VOLUME OVERVIEW
2. SEASONAL TRENDS
3. KEYWORD COMPETITIVENESS
5. NUMBER OF KEYWORDS
6. VISIBILITY YEAR ON YEAR
7. SHORT TERM POTENTIAL
8. RATE OF LINK ACQUISITION
9. AUTHORITY OF LINKING DOMAINS
10. VISIBILITY VS AUTHORITY
11. VISIBILITY VS INDEXED
12. UNDERPERFORMING SITES
14. SOCIAL INFLUENCE
15. CONTENT PERFORMANCE
16. CONTENT EXAMPLE
insideonline
EVENT TICKETING Digital Insights Report

See the world like we do
In the world of SEO & digital marketing, data defines us, data measures us and data
drives us. We see past the physical appearance of campaigns and look straight to
the core of the data to build a view of the online landscape.
We wanted to show you a view of the Event Ticketing market. Having access to data
has been a constant passion of ours for years and we have acquired data from a
huge array of sources in order to build our reports.
Within this report we will share sets of data we have created for your sector and
explain the implications of this information on the Event Ticketing industry.
I hope you find the insights useful and we would love to hear what you think.
Andy Cooper - Managing Director
DDI: 01244 564505
ANDY@INSIDEONLINE.CO.UK
insideonline
EVENT TICKETING Digital Insights Report

Search Volume Overview
According to Ticket Script, online ticketing is the preferred choice for 83% of event goers. 70% of respondents prefer
to buy tickets direct from the promoter or venue, leaving traditional ticket agencies well behind in the popularity
stakes. Growth in social commerce is highlighted by the fact that 62% of the coveted Millennial Generation is keen
to buy tickets through social media. Results are backed up by ticket script’s sales data which shows that ticket sales
through social channels have grown 520 per cent in two years.
BRAND SEARCHES PER MONTH
DESKTOP VS MOBILE SEARCH
ticketmaster 1000000
see tickets 135000
gigs and tours 40500
get me in 40500
atg tickets 33100
skiddle 33100
stub hub 27100
live nation 27100
eventim 22200
twickets 12100
the ticket factory 9900
gigantic 6600
event brite 6600
tickets-scotland 6600
ticket line 3600
we got tickets 3600
ticket web 2900
ticket arena 2900
seat wave 2400
ticket source 2400
song kick 1900
scarlet mist 1900
the ticket sellers 1600
via go go 1000
def tickets 880
event genius 720
eticketing 480
ticket abc 480
yapsody 320
stereo board 210
seat geek 170
gig wise 90
bradsons 70
alt-tickets.co.uk 40
DESKTOP 52% | MOBILE 48%
Note: these figures are approximate search
volumes taken from Google.
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Seasonal Trends
The graph below shows how the UK weekly search volume for ‘Event Ticketing’ compares between 2013 and 2015.
The data has been normalised, therefore the trend lines show the percentage of peak search volume (y axis). The
trend lines are designed to give some insight into what has been a turbulent year for online retail as a whole.
‘EVENT TICKETING’ SEARCH VOLUME TRENDS
2013 2014 2015
The data above is taken from Google UK search only.
The trends take into account searches from desktop
and mobile devices.
It is important to highlight that the above seasonal trend
is just for a single keyword. The trend shown is unlikely to
represent the overall search volume within the industry.
If the search volume for the keyword above is down year
on year, it may be that the search volume within longertail
queries has increased.
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Keyword Competitiveness
The chart below shows how monthly search volume for each specific keyword compares to the organic
competitiveness of each keyword. Such analysis helps to identify “low hanging fruit” within the industry: keywords
which have substantial search volume, but with limited competition in the search results. An effective search strategy
will constantly review keyword strategy, examining short, medium and longer-term goals. How does your keyword
strategy compare?
KEYWORDS:
*closely related statistics
1. cheap tickets
2. tickets
3. event tickets
4. buy tickets
5. gig tickets
6. concert tickets
7. music tickets
8. sell concert tickets
9. *sell tickets online
9. *family day out
9. *festival tickets
10. ticket websites
11. buy tickets online
12. *sell gig tickets
12. *tickets for sale
13. book tickets
14. sold out tickets
15. *ticket resale
15. *cheap concert tickets
16. selling tickets online
17. ticket hub
18. ticket seller
19. get tickets
20. book tickets online
21. buy and sell tickets
22. tickets now
23. sell my tickets
24. sport tickets
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Search engine algorithms are a series of complex data interactions.
Using powerful technology and expert consultancy, Inside Online align
your website’s search engine visibility to your business goals.
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Number of Keywords
When we analyse the websites within these reports we also take into consideration the size of the sites. Some sites
rank for keywords because they cross multiple markets, where some operate in more niche areas. This chart gives an
indication of how large these sites are or how many keywords they rank for overall.
This data is taken from Search metrics where every keyword that a site ranks for is take into account. this is regardless
of position or amount of traffic. It represents your current standing within the search engines.
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Visibility Year on Year
So what does this mean? Every market has a level of growth and opportunity, here we can see how domains have
fared compared to the whole market. A domain may have increased over the year, but if the market has grown by a
greater margin - has there been an opportunity lost?
ORGANIC SEARCH
NOVEMBER 2015 NOVEMBER 2014 DIFFERENCE VARIANCE
ticketmaster.co.uk 179081 209626 -15% -16%
atgtickets.com 52998 52682 1% -2%
seetickets.com 41123 38771 6% 4%
skiddle.com 35532 30543 16% 14%
songkick.com 30376 19370 57% 53%
stubhub.co.uk 21463 13335 61% 57%
gigwise.com 20071 11705 71% 68%
eticketing.co.uk 19702 14226 38% 35%
livenation.co.uk 17743 18558 -4% -6%
ticketline.co.uk 17673 20432 -14% -15%
seatwave.com 16886 16439 3% 0%
viagogo.co.uk 16875 22309 -24% -26%
eventbrite.co.uk 13530 10517 29% 26%
theticketfactory.com 13366 10860 23% 20%
gigsandtours.com 13237 12278 8% 5%
getmein.com 11399 13296 -14% -16%
axs.com 10610 6452 64% 61%
stereoboard.com 9803 7222 36% 33%
eventim.co.uk 6514 11415 -43% -44%
ticketweb.co.uk 4845 4409 10% 8%
gigantic.com 3417 3409 0% -2%
ticketabc.com 3017 1060 185% 178%
ticketarena.co.uk 2089 1248 67% 64%
ticketsource.co.uk 2009 1382 45% 42%
eventgenius.co.uk 1436 382 276% 268%
tickets-scotland.com 1431 1326 8% 6%
wegottickets.com 1376 1697 -19% -21%
seatgeek.com 949 1430 -34% -35%
theticketsellers.co.uk 929 1155 -20% -21%
alt-tickets.co.uk 850 473 80% 76%
bradsons.co.uk 27 34 -21% -22%
AVERAGE GROWTH 2.22%
2014 saw fewer updates than in previous years from
Google, however the updates themselves were larger,
incorporating more of the core algorithm. Penguin 3 in
October and Panda 4.1 in September were the biggest
updates and are the most likely to have had an effect on
a domains visibility.
Other factors such as site changes (expanding or reducing
site size for example) or making significant structure
changes are other common reasons for observing big
increases or decreases in organic visibility.
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Short Term Potential
The graph below shows the number of unique organic keywords each website has ranking on page 2 or 3 of Google
(positions 11 to 30). This is one way of measuring a sites short-term potential, as such keywords are unlikely to be
generating much traffic (if any) in these positions. With a little push, it is entirely realistic to push many of these terms
from page 2 or 3 onto page 1.
In order to make the most of the short-term potential each site has, it is essential to know which keywords are ranking
just outside of the traffic generating positions. Once this is known, some simple onsite tweaks may be required to give
these terms the push they need to begin attracting organic traffic. Alternatively, if all possible onsite tweaks have been
exhausted, the primary focus should switch to increasing the overall authority of the domain.
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Rate of Link Acquisition
The greater the number of links a site has pointing towards it tends to correlate with the authoritativeness of the
domain, which in turn tends to correlate with organic visibility. Therefore, not only is the current state of a domains
link profile important, it is also vital to understand who is building new links the quickest (and how they are doing it!).
The graph below shows the average rate at which each domain has acquired new links over the last 11 months. The
source of this data is Majestic SEO.
As a general rule, the larger brands manage to obtain the highest number of links per month due to their ability to
naturally gather links. If smaller brands are managing to gather links at a higher rate, it could be that aggressive link
manipulation is taking place.
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Authority of Linking Domains
In light of recent Google updates, the quality of linking domains has never been more important or under as much
scrutiny by Google. The graph below shows the number of unique linking domains each site has pointing to it, broken
down by the authority of each linking domain. Such factors carry significant weighting within the Google algorithm,
and are likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Very Authoritative Domains 70-100 Above Average Domain Authority 50-69 Average Domain Authority 30-49
Low Domain Authority 10-29 Very Low Quality Domains Under 10
The ultimate goal of any link acquisition drive is to
achieve links from domains within the 70 – 100 range. 1
or 2 of these links have the potential to rapidly increase
a sites organic visibility.
Sites which have a large number of lower quality links
are advised to do a full review to ensure none of the
links are in breach of the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
Action should be taken immediately on any links which
are found in breach of these guidelines.
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Visibility vs Authority
As a general rule, there is a positive correlation between the number of inbound links and domain authority. Likewise,
there is usually a positive correlation between domain authority and organic visibility – the greater the authority, the
greater the potential the site has to rank for organic keywords. The scatter graph below shows how each site’s organic
visibility score (as measured by Searchmetrics) correlates with its domain authority score (as measured by SEOMoz).
URL:
*closely related statistics
1. ticketmaster.co.uk
2. eticketing.co.uk
3. songkick.com
4. seetickets.com
5. livenation.co.uk
6. atgtickets.com
7. *gigwise.com
7. *ticketline.co.uk
8. skiddle.com
9. seatwave.com
10. stubhub.co.uk
11. eventbrite.co.uk
12. ticketweb.co.uk
13. axs.com
14. gigsandtours.com
15. viagogo.co.uk
16. eventim.co.uk
17. gigantic.com
18. getmein.com
19. theticketfactory.com
20. stereoboard.com
21. wegottickets.com
22. seatgeek.com
23. ticketsource.co.uk
24. alt-tickets.co.uk
25. ticketarena.co.uk
26. *eventgenius.co.uk
26. *tickets-scotland.com
27. theticketsellers.co.uk
28. ticketabc.com
29. bradsons.co.uk
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Visibility vs Indexed
All the work that a website does to increase its domain authority is worthless without a well built out site, including a
number of different pages to target each of the important relevant keywords and keyphrases within that niche. A high
number of indexed pages would generally correlate with a high level of organic visibility – as there are more pages
that could rank for any given keyword query.
URL:
1. ticketmaster.co.uk
2. atgtickets.com
3. seetickets.com
4. skiddle.com
5. songkick.com
6. stubhub.co.uk
7. eticketing.co.uk
8. livenation.co.uk
9. gigwise.com
10. ticketline.co.uk
11. seatwave.com
12. viagogo.co.uk
13. eventbrite.co.uk
14. theticketfactory.com
15. gigsandtours.com
16. getmein.com
17. axs.com
18. stereoboard.com
19. eventim.co.uk
20. ticketweb.co.uk
21. gigantic.com
22. ticketabc.com
23. ticketarena.co.uk
24. ticketsource.co.uk
25. eventgenius.co.uk
26. tickets-scotland.com
27. wegottickets.com
28. theticketsellers.co.uk
29. seatgeek.com
30. alt-tickets.co.uk
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Underperforming Sites
Sites which are underperforming organically have an obvious major common factor – they have a limited number of
unique linking domains (almost a quarter of that of the performing websites). Each of the sites listed ranks reasonably
well for one or two of the generic organic keywords, but rarely more than this. In a lot of these cases, organic visibility
is limited by poor onsite optimisation and poor long-tail strategies.
URL
ORGANIC VISIBILITY
UNIQUE LINKING
DOMAINS
DOMAIN AUTHORITY
deftickets.co.uk 49 201 30
yapsody.com 32 142 43
scarletmist.com 41 402 34
twickets.co.uk 200 96 29
Average of Underperforming Sites 81 210 34
Average of Visible Sites 526 286 29
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Social Influence
Social Influence is starting to affect the search engines more over time. We’re seeing a shift from basic “how many
likes does a page have” towards engagement with the user. Active pages that promote great content and engagement
have higher performance metrics than those who build pages purely with the motivation of having a well liked page.
This data shows who has been the best at promoting engagement through the social channels.
TOTAL INFLUENCE RETWEETS FACEBOOK VOTES GOOGLE+ STUMBLEUPON
ticketmaster.co.uk 104616 34116 66987 1647 1866
stubhub.co.uk 49594 771 3925 44897 1
seetickets.com 58072 27731 28392 1936 13
getmein.com 12995 4084 5899 306 2706
eventim.co.uk 14408 3597 9087 1684 40
seatwave.com 18427 0 86 366 17975
viagogo.co.uk 5578 1577 3022 941 38
eticketing.co.uk 64 0 63 0 1
eventgenius.co.uk 188 0 188 0 0
ticketline.co.uk 33864 3230 30302 324 8
ticketweb.co.uk 72202 29679 42201 287 35
skiddle.com 32204 12289 19129 646 140
livenation.co.uk 26411 10648 15353 187 223
songkick.com 42251 4789 16715 389 20358
stereoboard.com 9847 5887 2091 1823 46
gigantic.com 1524 793 433 297 1
gigsandtours.com 29881 0 29529 351 1
theticketfactory.com 2087 0 1817 270 0
axs.com 93160 0 78778 14382 0
gigwise.com 3208 0 1005 213 1990
atgtickets.com 7439 1047 6090 291 11
ticketarena.co.uk 1686 356 0 1176 154
tickets-scotland.com 5544 89 5451 2 2
eventbrite.co.uk 37071 2110 2061 32897 3
ticketsource.co.uk 1372 0 1340 32 0
alt-tickets.co.uk 3049 1127 1921 1 0
seatgeek.com 16551 1958 3739 5921 4933
wegottickets.com 40651 11272 29122 257 0
ticketabc.com 111 0 110 0 1
theticketsellers.co.uk 28922 9993 18806 26 97
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Content Performance
Understanding how existing content is performing is an integral part of building an effective content strategy. Here
we look at the top engaging content produced by the top brands within this report and measure how effective it
has been at gaining social media shares. This gives an example of the type of content which is most engaging to the
‘Event Ticketing’ market. When this analysis of competitor content is produced at scale it is a powerful resource for
content idea generation.
TOP 10 SHARED CONTENT FOR ‘EVENT TICKETING’
FACEBOOK GOOGLE+ TWITTER LINKEDIN PINTEREST
Skiddle Mix 081 - Mark Jenkyns (Hot Creations) - skiddle.com/news
2154 0 29 0 0
Total = 2183
Weekends Matter August 2015 - Guest Mix Futuristic Polar Bears - skiddle.com/news
1156 0 13 0 0
Total = 1169
Providing the tools for the next generation with John ‘00’ Fleming - skiddle.com/news
1007 0 27 0 0
Total = 1034
Dimitri From Paris: It’s cool to be underground, but where is it going? - skiddle.com/news
953 0 61 0 0
Total = 1014
Joining the dots with Bella Sarris - skiddle.com/news
922 1 18 0 0
Total = 941
Vote for the AIM Best Live Act 2015 Now! - blog.songkick.com
10959 0 1178 0 0
Total = 12137
The Hardest Working Bands of 2014 - blog.songkick.com
3499 1 3276 9 0
Total = 6785
Win VIP Tickets to V Festival! - blog.songkick.com
22 0 1963 0 0
Total = 1985
Songkick and CrowdSurge join forces - blog.songkick.com
988 0 105 77 0
Total = 1170
Review: The Jam - About The Young Idea (film) | Gigwise - gigwise.com/blogs
4077 0 54 0 0
Total = 4131
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Content Example
‘the psychology of music’ - Infographic
FACEBOOK
LIKES
LINKEDIN
SHARES
TWITTER
SHARES
PINTEREST
SHARES
GOOGLE+
SHARES
TOTAL
SHARES
5.5K 202 282 198 15 6.2K
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