A recent study has analyzed the sources of visitors to one billion websites. Shockingly, around 91% of the analyzed sites received no clicks from Google’s search engine in a month. Another 4% received only between one and ten clicks. While search engines are widely used to find information quickly, it seems almost impossible to sift through all the sources on a topic using Google. The study raises questions about whether Google is deliberately withholding information or if there are other reasons why most of the tested websites are not receiving visitors through the search engine.
Google dominates the search engine market with just under 90% market share, while the remaining percentage is shared among smaller search engines such as Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. Although the analysis of traffic from one billion websites is a small sample compared to the total number of pages accessible on the internet, the study’s results are highly interesting. The study, conducted by Ahref, could not test all possible search terms, but it did have access to a database of around 537 million keywords. According to experts, only a few keywords may have fallen through the evaluation grid, particularly in the long-tail area, which consists of longer search terms.
The study found that technical factors in marketing, rather than a deliberate attempt to withhold information, are the main reasons why Google is not directing visitors to the affected sites. More than half of the tested websites had no backlinks, which are links from other websites. While a website does not necessarily need backlinks, the data analysis confirms the theories and experiences of online marketing experts worldwide. Without backlinks, it is almost impossible to rank on the first page of Google for a highly competitive topic such as mobile contracts, credit inquiries, or insurance. However, there were a few exceptions. The study found that over 30,000 pages were linked by more than 200 other websites but still received no traffic from Google. Additionally, over one million websites without backlinks received between 50 and 300 visitors per month through the search engine.
In conclusion, the study’s small size may not be representative, but it clearly shows that it is extremely difficult for website owners to get organic visitors through Google’s search engine without backlinks, especially in a highly competitive field. The study raises questions about the effectiveness of search engine optimization strategies and the role of backlinks in driving traffic to websites.
