NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Feb 16, 2017) - Conductor, the leading global content intelligence platform, today released the first of its kind Organic Market Share report by industry for the 2016 holiday season. The report covers leading categories including insurance, finance, real estate, travel and retail and examines all top non-branded search terms. Across all industries covered in this report, the majority of the market share is still unclaimed and consists of thousands of brands trying to break through the clutter of content available to consumers. This is a clear signal that the search landscape is prone to change and creates an opportunity for late entrants to claim significant organic market share.

Top performers across all categories include established brands with significant marketing budgets to support their efforts. However, in each industry we see smaller brands with limited budgets rank among leading brands, as well as publishers. This is a clear indication that marketing budgets alone are not enough. Brands must create relevant content in order to succeed in organic search. Another clear insight across all categories is the shortfall of leading brands to claim a similar organic share to their share-of-wallet, indicating a missed opportunity and potential revenue.

"To be successful in organic search brands must put customers' needs ahead of their own," said Seth Besmertnik, CEO of Conductor. "Search engine algorithms are so precise and 'human-like' that the only sure-fire way to stand out and be found by customers is by creating valuable content. The report clearly shows that many established brands are missing out on engaging with customers at their times of need."

The report analyzes over 150,000 search terms and 300 million consumer searches. By using a weighted average of search result placement and search volume, the report gives a true indication of which brands and publishers are accessible to online users when they are seeking information. This report clearly shows which brands are adopting Customer-First marketing by focusing on consumers' needs and providing high-quality content when they are seeking information.

Insights by category:

Insurance - Smaller brands and publishers are able to stand out, while most of the top 10 insurance giants do not claim their expected organic market share. Online tools, such as loan calculators, are in high demand. Brands that create these online tools are able to positively engage with consumers.

Finance - This category's leaders are predominantly publishers, with many top banks and all of the major credit card companies omitted. Video content and optimizing for answer boxes works extremely well in this category.

Real-estate - This category's top performers are publishers and real-estate aggregators. None of the major real estate firms perform well.

Travel - Top performers are the travel aggregators, with a combined market share of 19%. Airlines, car rental companies and hotel chains -- with the exception of Marriott -- do not perform well.

Retail - A combination of traditional brick and mortar and online brands dominate the top ranks in this category. Product images and community-curated sites like Pinterest and Polyvore have a strong influence.

In addition to offering insights, the report includes key strategies for optimal success in organic search for each category. 

Download the full report. To evaluate the performance of your brand, contact us PR@conductor.com.