Why Do They Bother? Options

[bobbb]

After all the reading I've done in all these forums I don't remember anyone saying they get much traffic from Yahoo! or the number 3 guy. So the question comes to mind. Why do they bother? I know the answer is money and also maybe a bit of vanity that they are still in the race.

I see figures like 50-65% for Google. That does not leave must for the rest. Yahoo is number 2 from far away. These stats are also reflect in this forum: 6 entries since June.

Is there anyone getting decent traffic from Y? By decent I mean more than G, close to G or at the very least 40-50% of Google. I'm not concerned whether they convert or not.

There is no reason for the question except curiosity.

[eKstreme]

eKstreme.com gets some nice traffic from Y, about 25% as much.

An interesting post from Don Dodge, head of Emerging Business at Microsoft: Why 1% of search market share is worth over $1 Billion.

Another good one from Techcrunch yesterday: Could Microsoft Knock Off Yahoo To Become Google’s Biggest Competitor?

This is not even considering what the new wave of SEs about to hit the market will do. Hakia (which seems to be getting worse lately!) and Powerset (very hyped up but we'll see), not to mention the hundred sother search engines.

Why do they bother? Why does anyone bother starting a business? Simply put, they believe they can do it better. The search market is about solving people's search problems. Walmart, Tesco, Costco, etc are about solving people's shopping problem. We are here because we have a problem, namely to understand search engines. Why do any of us bother when there are much better SEOs out there and much worse ones too? It's the same thing.

Pierre

[bobbb]

Interesting numbers. I only had the April charts.

If I combine both reports it seems Yahoo is the loser in this. Yet if I look at my logs they seem to be the most aggressive ones (robot pages gotten). They must not be amused.

I knew money was the reason but did not think 1 billion a %

about 25% as much.

It's the first time I read that here.

[Black_Knight]

Bob, I have a take you don't hear very often, but feel free to cross-check what I'm about to tell you for yourself later, and I think you'll have answered the question forever.

1. We all know that Google is often said to be 80% or there about of all referrals.

2. We also know from research that Google users are the most savvy and search-happy, and that the average Google user makes around 10 times more searches than others do.

3. So why isn't Google sending 10 times as many searches to you?

Think about it, Google referrals per unique searcher, not search, are inflated by a factor of ten over other engines... so one tenth the referrals from other engines may still actually represent the precise same market share of unique buyers, and isn't that what counts? Not the referral counts, but the actual number of wallets behind the search referrals.

Shhh, don't tell everyone.

[bobbb]

I'll take your word on those 3 points. That says to me that other SE users are more likely to be buyers (per referral). Which answers another question I had. Why do people use Yahoo ads? Obvious. 10 Gs to a Y

You're right. I did not know those facts about point 2.

In the article "Could Microsoft Knock Off Yahoo To Become Google’s Biggest Competitor?" he states and sort of suggests if that affects the figures.

Microsoft has the advantage of having their search properties open as the default homepage on IE7

I wonder how many people type google in the new Vista or IE7 to get to Google. I checked. It's on the top 5 keywords.

Will stay tuned and see how the battle progresses.

I see that you also responded to the thread "Are there anyone use msn search as the first choice?" I remember reading that which is what prompted this thread.

This post has been edited by bobbb: Jul 12 2007, 04:34 PM

[Jem]

We also know from research that Google users are the most savvy

I think you hit the nail on the head for why I rarely get Yahoo in my referrals - because my audience is made up primarily of web savvy users who don't know what "searching" is, just "Googling".

I guess like a lot of things, the audience is the key.

[iamlost]

Note: I do my very best to develop non-SE traffic.
Note: I also do my very best to diversify SE traffic.

All numbers are rounded June averages across n-sites in n-niches.
SE traffic 46% of total traffic volume.

Google: 49% of that 46% converting an average 2.8%.
= 28 conversions per 1000 Google referred visitors.
= 14 conversions per 1000 SE referred visitors.
= 6 conversions per 1000 visitors.

Yahoo: 27% of that 46% converting an average 4.7%.
= 47 conversions per 1000 Yahoo referred visitors.
= 13 conversions per 1000 SE referred visitors.
= 6 conversions per 1000 visitors.

MSN/Live: 14% of that 46% converting an average 3.8%.
= 38 conversions per 1000 MSN/Live referred visitors.
= 5 conversions per 1000 SE referred visitors.
= 2 conversions per 1000 visitors.

AOL: 6% of that 46% converting an average 6.9%.
= 69 conversions per 1000 AOL referred visitors.
= 4 conversions per 1000 SE referred visitors.
= 2 conversions per 1000 visitors.

Ask: 4% of that 46% converting an average 3.2%.
= 32 conversions per 1000 Ask referred visitors.
= 1 conversion per 1000 SE referred visitors.
= 0.6 conversion per 1000 visitors.

When looked at this way Google and Yahoo (14/13, 6/6) have similar value.
As do MSN/Live and AOL (5/4, 2/2).
Ask...well I think the bell tolls for thee

As mentioned numbers change and vary widely by niche.