Image source: Joe the Goat Farmer
According to a new Shareaholic Traffic Report, search engines referred more traffic to websites than social media last year. After years of strong growth by social media networks, it was the first time since 2014 that search engines sent more traffic to websites than social media. The report may prompt PR and marketing to shift expenditures for both consumer and B2B brands from social media to search.
“At a high level, it is clear that social media’s tenuous grip on being the top referral category is over,” writes Craig Zevin at Shareaholic. “As traffic patterns change, so should your search and social strategies.”
Facebook’s changes to its news feed algorithm caused much of the drop in social media referrals. Shareaholic’s examination of traffic from more than 400 million users to more than 250,000 mobile and desktop sites revealed that Facebook accounted for 18 percent of website referrals in the second half of 2017, down significantly from 31 percent in the first half of 2016. It still refers more traffic than any other social network, but will refer less traffic this year as it de-prioritizes publishers’ content.
Meanwhile, search engines include more social media content in their search results. Users can find content in a single search engine rather than hopping to different social networks. Google drove 34.8 percent of site visits in 2017, compared to 25.6 percent from social. It reclaimed its position as the number one traffic referrer and remains the dominant search engine.
Takeaways for PR & Marketing Strategies
Invest in search marketing. Although the ever-growing list of social networks can prove distracting, search will remain the largest and most efficient traffic driver in 2018, Shareaholic says. As an additional benefit to search marketing, brands need to focus on only one or two search engines since the search engine landscape is not as fragmented as social media. In addition, search marketing generally costs less than social media marketing.
Consider Pinterest. Pinterest was the second-biggest social source of referral traffic, accounting for 7.5 percent publishers’ website visits in the second half of 2017. The company’s share of referral traffic will likely continue to grow as publishers seek alternatives to Facebook.
Don’t forget Instagram. Instagram is also becoming increasing popular and may soon overtake Twitter as a referral source. Make sure that your Instagram and Pinterest profiles are up to date, findable, and full of engaging content that links to your site. Since Pinterest and Instagram focus heavily on image-related content, take time to create high-quality shareable images.
Accelerate your mobile pages. Mobile devices drive much of the increase in search traffic, according to research from ChartBeat. Google has said it uses site speed as a search ranking factor, and has encouraged publishers to adopt its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that provide faster mobile web browsing.
Don’t abandon Facebook marketing. The Shareaholic research is more important for news publishers than corporate brands, especially in light of Facebook’s fake news issues, says Lee Wilson, head of SEO for Vertical Leap. The trend does not impact Facebook advertising, he points out in Business 2 Community. But Google has reacted well to the rise of social media and now seems to have the edge on Facebook in terms of connecting users with organic content from publishers and brands, Wilson concludes.
Bottom Line: Google’s return as the leading referrer of website traffic highlights the re-emergence and importance of search marketing. While social media hogged most of the attention in recent years, much of that attention has turned negative recently. While the future of search marketing seemed uncertain just a couple years ago as social media proliferated, new research shows that Google has adapted and that search engine marketing deserves a central position in PR and marketing strategies.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
