Google Refers over 70 percent of All Traffic!

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Google Refers over 70 percent of All Traffic!

By Mike Valentine
http://searchengineoptimism.com/Google_refers_70_percent.html

A recent post in a discussion list suggested that Google is
becoming the Microsoft of search (dominating web search as
Microsoft dominates PC operating systems). So I decided to
research a theory - one I'd developed about search engine
traffic. I dug into the traffic stats on three of my own
sites and those of several clients that I monitor traffic
for.


While this case study is tiny and certainly NOT conclusive,
I'll wager it has strong parallels across small business
web sites. The conclusions drawn are admittedly opinion,
based on very limited statistics, but those are all that
matter to those of us seeing tiny search engine traffic
from supposedly monstrous portals.


The participating clients from this case study ALL submit
their sites to paid inclusion programs from AltaVista,
Inktomi and AskJeeves/Teoma. Two use LookSmart LookListings
and all but one are listed in YAHOO! Directory. All are
listed in the Open Directory Project and all submit to
smaller industry specific directories and smaller search
engines. One uses Overture PPC on a limited basis, while
none use Google Adwords. All were optimized by yours truly
and each represent varied industries in retail, professional
services and one is an information site only, is non-
commercial and sells nothing. Each of them ranks well at
most search engines, but see little traffic from those good
rankings.


The research I did confirmed what I'd only assumed before
by backing it up with solid numbers. On my own sites and
those of clients that I reviewed, Google sends over 70% of
all search traffic to every one of those domains in every
case. This includes Google foreign variants, Google
Directory and Google image search (image search numbers are
tiny). The foreign Googles send tiny numbers of visitors
from non-English speaking countries, but English speaking
Google traffic from the UK, Canada and Australia drives
more traffic than either Yahoo or MSN according to traffic
statistics of those sites reviewed for this case study.


With the highest difference between compared search engine
traffic of 8 percent variation between studied domains, I've
compiled a list of average traffic delivered by search
engines for those sites to which I have access to traffic
logs. The Google percentages are inclusive of those portals
that use Google results such as iWon.com and Yahoo web
results. Direct Yahoo results are for sites listed in their
directory.


Google 74%
Yahoo 14%
MSN 9%
Ask 2%
All other SE's 1%


I'm concerned, not that Google is too big, but that the
other search engines just don't get it, don't deliver it
and don't want to give it up. What is IT? Traffic!


I attribute this to one thing. Those search engines don't
want to give up visitors to FREE search results. They are
happy to send visitors off if they gain income from that
traffic in either PPC ads or advertisements of ANY sort.
Knowing that those free results will lose the "eyeballs"
of searchers, they struggle to deliver both PPC ads and
sponsor ads that most closely approximate the search phrase
entered by the searcher. Thankfully, all have dropped banner
ads from the SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages).


They cannot stand the idea they will lose the visitor and
seek to entice them to click on something, anything that'll
earn them income. Even if it means delivering NON-relevant
results to entice the searcher to use a different search
phrase seeking to gain more relevant results, thereby
viewing more ads and additional PPC ads the visitor may
click on to deliver income to the portal.

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