Paid search 'claws back rankings for GoCompare.com'

18th April 2008

Blacklisted car insurance comparison site GoCompare.com has used paid search to edge its way back up the Google rankings, a new report claims.

According to Hitwise, the website has steadily improved its position for searches on the term 'car insurance' since a penalty from the search giant saw its position plummet from second place to ninth.

Robin Goad observes on his blog for the web traffic monitoring service that the past four weeks has seen the comparison service climb back up to seventh place.

But the site still has a long way to go and is compensating for its lower organic position with paid search activity, he states.

"GoCompare.com's paid search activity for the term shot up and although this is now declining as the site's organic ranking recovers, it is still well above the pre-blacklisting levels," asserts Mr Goad.

Figures released earlier this year by comScore showed that the number of car insurance policies purchased online grew by 37 per cent between 2006 and 2007, reaching two million.