Is Google Search Still the Predominant Source of Web Traffic?

[engine]

With so many observing traffic declines from Google, with a trend likely to continue, is Google still the predominant source of web traffic?

There are other search services, but they have always been a distant second to Google.

Where is the traffic coming from, and how can grow the traffic opportunities?

[Whitey]

Google search as a dominant source will not disappear imo, but how we search and the importance and types of brand experiences will change.

Search volumes will decrease on Google, because search will become more accurate, meaning SEO techniques will narrow and user's search activity will be more precise. With Google or ChatGPT etc.

My thoughts: put more emphasis on social media, influencer marketing and personalized content with better product and service design. Get people talking and work like hell to retain and further enhance the overall experience.

AI in all forms is going to drive this, from traffic sourcing to product and service. It’s all inter dependent.

[edited by: not2easy at 2:05 pm (utc) on Sep 14, 2024]
[edit reason] typo/request [/edit]

[Brett_Tabke]

It is the primary means of website discovery.

It is up to websites to convert that traffic into long term users. In that sense, content marketing and building a long term audience is the only means available.

[lucy24]

Are you asking about the web-in-general, or individual experiences on specific sites?

[engine]

Are you asking about the web-in-general, or individual experiences on specific sites?

The web in general, but individual experience may affect the views.

Google is the dominant source of traffic, but that's ever so slowly being eroded from a great height. There's a long way to go.

There's many other sources, of course, and not just search: email, newsletters, social media, etc.

Now, what about AI. Google has Gemini, Bing has Copilot, ChatGPT search, amongst many others.

Is it all individually providing fragmented traffic opportunities which add up to compete?

[Whitey]

Antitrust actions could reduce Google's dominance by preventing it from prioritizing its services, potentially giving smaller sites more visibility. But my personal observation is that Google is slow, if not completely stale in promoting new useful and competitive initiatives from websites to promote in its serps, favoring it’s own asset development initiatives at the expense of diversified results.

That stifles innovation and competition, and maintains Google’s source dominance. Plus they’re so darn ubiquitous. I can’t see a practical solution to combat this, even with anti trust actions.

Old tactics like backlinks and long-tail keywords are losing their impact as a means to trigger traffic through rankings on Google. With AI-driven search becoming more precise, smaller websites probably need to focus on personalized user experiences, unique content, and direct engagement strategies to stand out against big brands in the evolving search landscape.

Unfortunately, everything depends on the primary source of Google imo. Then comes the high end self fulfilling revolving food chain with big brands simply paying big $$’s to Google to ultimately source traffic at the expense of diversification and innovation incentives.

I don’t think we live in a democracy, or fair Google search environment, and authorities bringing anti trust cases won’t succeed in changing the overall big picture imo. ChatGPT etc are good tools, but I can’t see them dislodging Google as a dominant traffic source for businesses.

I wish I was wrong.

[ichthyous]

Now, what about AI. Google has Gemini, Bing has Copilot, ChatGPT search, amongst many others. Is it all individually providing fragmented traffic opportunities which add up to compete?

I am still getting 80% of my traffic from search (Google is 95% of that 80%). Most of the rest being direct traffic. Traffic from AI platforms is still miniscule. If my site is coming up in widespread AI searches then they aren't clicking through. I have realized though that just getting traffic at any cost isn't a worthwhile pursuit...it doesn't convert. Better to have less traffic that does convert. I don't see AI traffic ever doing that, it's just general research with no actual intent behind it for the most part.

Old tactics like backlinks and long-tail keywords are losing their impact as a means to trigger traffic through rankings on Google. With AI-driven search becoming more precise, smaller websites probably need to focus on personalized user experiences, unique content, and direct engagement strategies to stand out against big brands in the evolving search landscape.

What do you base this hypothesis on? It could be that it's working less than it used to for your site. I happen to think you are right though in my own personal experience. Google seems to be pegging sites to specific searches and no number of new links or new content seems to be moving the needle to gain rank (or gain back rank) for additional searches. I am also seeing big swings in gaining and losing terms in shorter and shorter timespans. It used to take 6-12 month cycles of gaining and shedding about 20% of terms. Now it's happening in a matter of weeks...

My thoughts: put more emphasis on social media, influencer marketing and personalized content with better product and service design. Get people talking and work like hell to retain and further enhance the overall experience.

Lots of luck with that. Social media is far overhyped and doesn't work to actually sell products that's for sure. It works for low pricepoint items like beauty / hair and maybe clothing / shoes. For many other higher ticket items social media is a total waste of time. I have confirmed this with some of the largest platforms in my field which all say the same thing. I just had my first high dollar value sale from Instagram in the entire time I have used the platform, which is over 12 years now. Social media works to push personal brands for influencers, selling the influencer's own items and courses etc. If you aren't one of the lucky few then you will never move that needle. Advertising on social media is simply a pit to throw money into and does not work either. I haven't tried influencer marketing, but if I were peddling certain types of low dollar value products like the aforementioned clothing, shoes, makeup, etc then I might try that and see how it goes. It really depends on the demographic and mine is older, affluent, and doesn't depend on social media for anything.

[Whitey]

What do you base this hypothesis on?

There's a lot of anecdotal evidence out there from other SEO's , John Mueller's responses around declining value for SEO focus and various authoritative articles on the major SEO publishers, such as searchengineland, searchenginejournal, Linkedin etc etc

The effort and creativity required to attract links is extremely costly, and for most sites is not worth it. I've used top end, well known link builders on outreach campaigns and not seen any noticeable changes. Those link builders have also been engaged with major brands.

That said, I acknowledge that links may still play a part, if you can get them. It's just that other methods to boost or establish brand reputation are playing a bigger role and more cost effective.

Lots of luck with that. Social media is far overhyped and doesn't work to actually sell products that's for sure

It depends on the product or service offered, and tactics to underpin the brand experience.

A site for a major player that i know well receives, over 50% of it's keyword search phrases include their brand name. This is done with strong brand reputation, built both offline ( word of mouth ) flowing through social media where users share their experiences at scale. Contributing factors like great content, deals etc may make a huge difference.

(I wonder how much voice data is shared as well between devices, with players like Apple and Google to boost the source data)

Arguably, doing this, some players are able to get around Google being the source of traffic, rather an enabler of traffic, picking up on "brand" signals from social media etc.

With the HCU updates, and 50% of website's technically eradicated from Google's search visibility, the web economy just got even more polarized, but it's still dominant, just with far fewer players.

[Whitey]

In the context of the above (brands and source of traffic ) I bumped into this article by Kevin Indig whose commentary and observations I respect. It's good to see how he breaks down, and imo shifts the mindset to the things that shift the source back to the experience of the user.

[growth-memo.com...]

In a link leading off from this main article [growth-memo.com...] , there is a powerful mention of the need for "aggregator growth" - again, a highly useful article to help where the focus in SEO can benefit:

Growth focus: Content Marketing, Paid Acquisition, Word of Mouth, Referrals

Dig into the article to see the various gems

In these scenarios, Google will follow the lead, (rather than drive the lead) and arguably not be the source of traffic, it will be the follower of where interest and reputation lies, and convert that into traffic.

[Mark_A]

I have been watching the slow emergence of bing as a traffic source for our business which is technical b2b. A couple of years ago the searchers weren't really the engineers we were looking for but now increasingly they are. We get a certain amount of organic visitors from bing and google and do ppc with both of them. Personally I find myself these days often searching on bing rather than google because the SERP is much cleaner and I think it is now easier to find what I am looking for on bing than it is on google.

[EditorialGuy]

In the context of the above (brands and source of traffic ) I bumped into this article by Kevin Indig whose commentary and observations I respect. It's good to see how he breaks down, and imo shifts the mindset to the things that shift the source back to the experience of the user.

I'd love to see a similar analysis for informational (more specifically, editorially driven) sites in the SERPs. One thing I've noticed over the past year or two (maybe even longer) is a decline in editorial results and an increase in "content marketing" or even e-commerce results for informational queries.

[ankit68]

I'd say Reddit is gaining popularity more and more. Also, don't forget about local SEO.

[engine]

Reddit is gaining popularity

Probably because it's been highly favoured by Google in the SERPs.

There are reports and claims that Google is under fire from all angles in search and ads, and that its overall share of search will decline in the US, even though it'll still see growth. Some of the players hitting the ads share starting to hit include TikTok, Perplexity, Amazon, Microsoft Bing, etc. They all have a long way to go as their individual contribution is relatively small. [finance.yahoo.com...]

[lesseo]

There is a nice discussion. Unfortunately, Google still has not met expectations in search results. In the very near future, search results will be for specific uses. As data and content increase in social media, Google is doomed to lose its power. As long as this happens, websites will also be negatively affected. In the coming years, users' search focuses will change more.

[Vortex13]

Despite some traffic declines, Google remains the dominant source of web traffic, with around 90% market share according to Statcounter. Other search engines like Bing and Yahoo are far behind. To grow traffic, focus on SEO, quality content, and leveraging social media. Diversifying your traffic sources can also help. Keep experimenting and analyzing what works best for your site!

[saladtosser]

I haven't used G for over a year and half now, if I have a question ill ask chatGBT, and then ask it to fact check it and provide references for further reading. If I want a product I'll go straight to amazon or eBay. I did use G all day everyday but they made it very time consuming to find the site I was looking for! I'm happy to pay for chatGBT for queries and go direct to amazon and e-bay for products I want, google ruined it for themselves and made themselves irrelevant to my daily life! I do do the odd search and click on ads just for the hell of it though, no intention to buy, sorry!

[Mark_A]

My opinion, Google's SERP are awful. They are cluttered and messy and hard to find things on. I much prefer the experience at Bing. But it seems searchers (even technical ones) still predominantly flock to Google. I wonder what has to happen for this to change?

[engine]

I wonder what has to happen for this to change?

I suspect it won't change as google would be cutting off $$$ it's maximised on the SERPs.

What really counts for Google is not us, but the vast majority of users that are within the Google ecosystem, such as Android.

For years now I've been seeing trends in other ecosystems, such as FB, where a user of a group does not search, but puts a request out in the group; For example, "can you recommend a plumber?" In part it's word of mouth, but it's also promo within FB. None of this goes to Google.

TikTok is yet another ecosystem where users don't exit the app, and there's traffic to be had. Take a look at this thread for ideas. [webmasterworld.com]
There are plenty of others, such as Amazon, ebay, etc.

[Whitey]

Thought I'd ask ChatGPT what it could contribute to this thread:

ChatGPT: Analyse this page [webmasterworld.com...] and provide a useful response to the last post

The digital landscape is evolving, with users increasingly seeking information within closed ecosystems like Facebook, TikTok, and Amazon, thereby bypassing traditional search engines. This shift necessitates that webmasters diversify their traffic sources beyond Google. Here are actionable strategies to adapt:

**1. Optimize for Alternative Search Engines**

- **Bing and DuckDuckGo**: Ensure your site is indexed and optimized for these platforms, as they are gaining traction among users seeking alternatives to Google.

**2. Leverage Social Media Platforms**

- **Facebook Groups**: Engage actively by providing valuable insights and responding to queries, which can drive traffic to your site.
- **TikTok**: Create engaging, short-form content that resonates with your target audience to increase visibility and traffic.

**3. Enhance Presence in E-commerce Ecosystems**

- **Amazon and eBay**: Optimize product listings with relevant keywords and high-quality images to improve discoverability within these marketplaces.

**4. Encourage User-Generated Content**

- **Reviews and Testimonials**: Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences on various platforms, enhancing your brand's credibility and reach.

**5. Develop a Comprehensive Content Strategy**

- **Blogging and SEO**: Create high-quality, relevant content that addresses your audience's needs, improving organic search rankings across multiple search engines.

**6. Monitor and Adapt to Trends**

- **Analytics**: Regularly analyze traffic sources and user behavior to identify opportunities for growth and areas needing improvement.

By implementing these strategies, webmasters can reduce reliance on Google and effectively tap into diverse traffic streams, aligning with current user behaviors and platform dynamics.

I don't believe ChatGPT has all of the creative angles covered, but it might help us to think outside the box a bit more. Google may dominate, but there's a plethora of opportunity out there.

[Mark_A]

It is only a specialised group of people that can buy what we supply and at the moment, they search Google, so for us to catch their eye we have to be on Google. If they started to move to Bing we would see it pretty much immediately as we are also present there. So far, much to my regret, they haven't moved at all.

[Olivia1818]

Google Search has long been the dominant source of web traffic, and while it remains a powerhouse, its share is gradually being influenced by emerging trends. Social media platforms, video content hubs like YouTube, and e-commerce-specific searches (Amazon, for example) are capturing significant portions of user attention.

For most industries, Google still drives the majority of organic traffic due to its unparalleled reach and relevance. However, the rise of zero-click searches and Google's emphasis on featured snippets are shifting how websites gain visibility.

SEO professionals should focus on optimizing for Google while also diversifying strategies to include social media, video SEO, and niche platforms to adapt to evolving user behavior.

What’s your take? Are you noticing a decline in Google-driven traffic in your niche?

[Mark_A]

I notice Google PPC is more expensive that Bing PPC.

[engine]

Google PPC is more expensive that Bing PPC.

I would expect the reasoning is traffic. You can experiment to see if the quality is better on one than the other.

Server stats are even more important these days.

[Mark_A]

People (us) are prepared to pay more for Google CPC which brings serious visitors more often.