Jacquie Lawson Greeting cards Birthday

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Looking back on December 2013, the Ecards category saw massive growth as Americans wished their friends and families happy holidays. With a 55.22% month-over-month (MoM) growth in unique visitors and a 75.19% MoM increase in total time spent on websites in the category, it was no doubt a very successful month for ecards sites; however, looking at longer-term trends, the category as a whole suffered a 31.81% year-over-year (YoY) drop in unique visitors.

Image from: Ecards / Shutterstock

Looking back on December 2013, the Ecards category saw massive growth as Americans wished their friends and families happy holidays. With a 55.22% month-over-month (MoM) growth in unique visitors and a 75.19% MoM increase in total time spent on websites in the category, it was no doubt a very successful month for ecards sites; however, looking at longer-term trends, the category as a whole suffered a 31.81% year-over-year (YoY) drop in unique visitors.

When looking at search metrics to the overall category, interestingly enough, generic ecards-related keywords that I expected to dominate the list took a back seat to the keyword “jibjab, ” which drove over 4% of search traffic to the category. Considering JibJab.com is the fourth most popular site in the category, I expected their more popular competitors to rank higher. Other branded keywords for top sites in the category, “123greetings, ” “blue mountain cards, ” “american greetings, ” and “jacquie lawson” all made the top ten keywords for the category.

Keeping in mind the YoY decline for the category in December, it will be interesting to see if the category bounces back in time for Valentine’s Day in February.