Candy.com had just celebrated its 1 year anniversary since their $3 Million dollar investment in the category killer domain name and the official launch of its e-commerce website in July of 2009. I have been tracking the websites "search engine ranking" since the start and it has been interesting to watch the powerful keyword domain name march to the top!
As of at least July 19, 2010 the goal has been reached and Candy.com currently holds the #1 natural ranking position on Google.com for the matching search term candy!
This is a Big Deal for them!
Not only a two place jump since June 7th 2010 from the #3 spot on page 1 but going from no where to be found at time of purchase (on Google) to #1 is proving that exact match keywords are not only vital for your brand but for ranking well in the search engines. Domain names are not the "only" thing that matters, but it is the "engine"! Content is one wheel, links is another wheel and a mixed bag drive the remaining wheels!
CandyDirect.com has held the #1 spot for sometime and CandyWarehouse.com has always been in the game as well ranking in the top two spots as well as #1. These two sites hold the vital "candy" keyword in the domain but clearly Google is showing some love to the exact match domain now.
CandyDirect.com took the biggest hit. They where ranked #1 for the candy search term for a pretty long time. They now are #4, a fair amount below the fold!
Yahoo.com and Bing.com have never really showed much love to Candy.com but those two search engines also do not hold the massive amounts of searches Google does. Google holds a 70%+ market share. Bing is showing more love than Yahoo.
Recap for Ranking on Google.com
On Aug 12th 2009 I had reported that Candy.com ranked #2 on Page #4 for the search term candy.
By September 14, 2009 Candy.com continued to climb in the natural search engine rankings for the search term candy. On Google.com, Candy.com then ranked on Page 2, # 7!
By November 14, 2009 it seemed that Candy.com had hit a little bump in the road and dropped one spot on Google to Page 2, # 8!
By February 17, 2010 Candy.com was still stuck on page 2 at Google and even dropped another spot to Page 2, # 9! If it had dropped 2 spots total, it would have end up on Page 3!
By, June 7, 2010 Candy.com has made a HUGE leap to not only hit page 1 of Google for the matching search term candy, they are now in the top 3 natural ranking sites getting ever so close to # 1!
By July 19, 2010 Candy.com has reached a huge milestone and reached the #1 natural spot on Google for the candy search term.
Social Media
Candy.com is gaining followers on the social media scene as well. Facebook.com which I think is the best, has gained a large amount of "fans" since even in June 2010. Becoming a fan isn’t just "liking" a page, because when you are a fan, you see everything the Candy.com promotes on Facebook. This leads to sales and further "Likes". More "likes" = more Fans!
Feb 2010: 2,281
June: 5,738 Fans
July 2010: 17,179
Clearly Candy.com put a little bit more effort into Facebook promotion because as of today (July 19, 2010) 17,179 people are fans via Facebook! That is a 12K jump in about a month!
Feb 2010: 375
June 2010: 404
July 2010: 420
The numbers are "low" via Twitter but I’m not a huge fan of Twitter any more, so I don’t see it as a huge deal! Stuff is "lost" so easy on Twitter and not seen. Facebook does a much better job at this, because I see almost everything one of my friends writes.
Happy Anniversary to Candy.com and a bigger congratulations I think are in order for reaching the #1 spot at Google for the matching term candy!
If you would like to read past articles I wrote about candy, you can do here: June 2010, Feb 2010, Nov 2009, Sept 2009, July 2009
Rick Schwartz
#1 Domain
#1 Spot
#1 Website
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The eventual largest candy distributor in the world. Thanks for tracking the progress over the past year. You start to wonder what these guys will acomplish in their second year when they can focus on other thing?
Jamie Zoch
@Rick,
It was fun following the charge to the top! I agree, they have had a heck of a first year so it will be interesting to see what they do in the coming years. Candy.com is such a great domain and is proving it!
jeff
Well are they making an acceptable ROI after paying rick?
sin
They have huge amount of work in front of them
ranking for “candy” does not do customers. lots of people are typing candy, as its someone names, as its someone, songs name etc etc.
They need to get a share at keyword long tails.
For example
Buy Cheap Candies
Buy Candy online
Cheap Candy
best place to buy candy
order candy online
order candies online
these are the types of keywords, that candywaresouse.com is still beating them lol.
They will be competing for long time, but we will see, its hard niche. and long tail are more powerful that just one word
TV
Congrats to the Candy guys on the ranking. I suspect the longer tail keywords will follow, over time.