Google supplying all my traffic

Is anybody fed up of 90% leads through Google?

[chrisholgate]

Are any other webmasters out there fed up of relying on one single resource, namely Google to provide all of their SE traffic? Having run a site for six months I am consistently finding that 90% of my traffic comes from Google (including Google adwords) and the remaining 10% from other search engines and directories.

It doesn't seem quite right to be so dependant on one single resource as from my companies point of view we suffered terribly last month with the index reshuffle. Has anyone out there had any luck diversifying the leads they get through across the different search engines or should we all just accept that Google is the biggest player so the only one worth worrying about?

We've participated in PPI for engines such as Ask Jeeves and have over 200 backlinks for the various spiders to follow but still no real traffic from anybody other than Google. I would like to hear from people who have managed to gain a sizable number of hits from the alternative engines such as Altavista & Ask Jeeves and how they managed it.

Thanks all

Chris Holgate

[GranPops]

What a problem?

Although a site I have ranks equally on ATW, MSN etc, 98% of all traffic is from Google, 1% from Yahoo, and 1% from ASK.

[dmorison]

Google reliance shouldn't be a problem if you rank highly in other engines even if you get relatively little traffic from them.

If Google were wiped of the face of the planet tomorrow those are the search engines that the searching public would pretty quickly migrate to (and the Media would no doubt help them).

Those benefiting from Google free traffic should be more worried about Google shifting prominence from normal search results to sponsored results (although this doesn't bother me personally since I don't rank anywhere in normal SERP, and rely on Adwords for virtually 100% of my converting traffic).

[percentages]

Not sure why you guys are getting so little MSN traffic, unless you all have sites targetted at "technical" audiences.

For typical Joe Surfer sites, the sort of product everyone buys, about 18% of my traffic (from 300+ sites) comes from MSN via the Ink backfill (PFI not used). I could get it upto about 22% if I paid Look$mart 15 cents per click, but I would rather stick hot pokers in my eyes first;)

Google does control most other SE traffic. Last month:

Google: 41% (no Adwords)
Yahoo: 25% (no OV sponsorship)
MSN: 18% (no L$ PPC)
AOL: 8%
Ask: 5%
AV: 2%
Others: 1%

If Y! switches to OV/INK results I believe the Google number will fall to about 28% (total 37%) making INK the most important engine until MS come up with something new, which may go in any direction.

[taxpod]

My YTD summary looks like this:

Total SE Traffic 58% of all referrals and of this SE traffic, the following is the breakdown:

Google 50%
Yahoo 20%
MSN 18%
AOL 7%
Jeeves 1%
ATW 1%
AV 1%
remainder 2%

None of the above involves PPC except Overture included in "remainder."

More recent data shows MSN beginning to rival Google. In July, the two are neck and neck. I believe this results from much more activity from the INK spider recently. Don't know what I did to bring her to me but for years she has virtually ignored me.

I'd be very concerned if more than 60% of my traffic were from SEs. I am concerned that it's more than 50% right now.

chrisholgate,

If you are that reliant on G, I would focus on nothing else for the next several months until you can get enough traffic from non-G, non-SE sources.

[MeditationMan]

I not here to bad mouth anyone but I keep seeing the same things, look for other ways of getting traffic besides Google. OK then if you get good links from other sites then where exactly does their traffic come from?

I think everyone is dependent on Google in one way or another...

I don't think it's that important where the sites giving you traffic get their own traffic from. My main concern is not that Google's going to go away, but that a reshuffle of the results might drop my site from the first page into obscurity.

If I diversify, and have a high percentage of referrals coming from other sites, then I'm less vulnerable -- Google can demote my site and it won't have such a big effect.

Sure, those other sites probably get a lot of their traffic from Google, but the chances are much lower that they'll all lose their rankings at the same time as I do, so the risk is much lower.

[jady]

My reply - "What search engine do YOU use?" I would assume the answer is Google, mostly in part that G's results are the most relevant to just about every search I complete. (non related to our business as well - but on a personal use)

If you are sick of 90% "G" traffic, then block them from your robots.txt and enjoy your .01% Lycos traffic..

Sorry to sound harsh, but "G" bring well optimized and relevant webmasters success - dont complain!

[dcheney]

So far this month:
Google 63%
Yahoo 16%
MSN 15%
AOL 3%
AltaVista 1%
AskJeeves 1%

(% are of top 6 SE referals only)
(non-commercial site, no PPC)

[Goanna1]

dcheney,

Since AOl & Yahoo results are supplied by Google, you can say that about 80% of your traffic comes from Google at present.

[Kukenan]

I see a lot of emphasis on "if Google dissapeared from the face of earth"... I do not see much problem there (besides the obvious mourning for the lost friend).

Should that ever happen, people would take their searches elsewhere and traffic would adjust accordingly.

The real problem is "My website dissapeared from Google!" in which case "your" customers will go and shop elsewhere.

Google had been great for our website up until last month. Now our site has nearly vanished from all relevant SERPS and now we have to rely on Pay per Click (ironically, mostly Google's own Adwords) for my traffic.

I would preffer a more balanced search engine scenario without being so dependant on Google's moods.

Nonetheless, those are the rules of the game and we either play or quit.

[markus007]

Here is my breakdown. Not sure what kind of search engine 1stblaze is but it sends me a lot of traffic.

Google 40%
MSN 32%
yahoo 18%
aol 5%
1stblaze 3%
ask 2%