Disclaimer: SEO Theory is not associated with Quantcast.com and the SEO Theory real search market share report is an estimate based on data provided by Quantcast.com for free through its Web site. Quantcast.com has not endorsed this report. These traffic estimates may not represent actual unique visitor data.
I have been thinking about publishing a monthly Real Search Market Share report since the data provided by Compete, comScore, Hitwise, and Nielsen are usually inadequate. Of course, I can only use rough data provided by services like Quantcast and Compete. Although I like Compete’s comparitive service their inability to provide breakdowns by sub-domain disappoints me. Quantcast, on the other hand, does allow you to look at sub-domains.
Today there are hundreds of search engines and Web directories. I don’t have time to document or analyze all of them. Furthermore, Quantcast’s data tends to be suspect with sites that receive less traffic. Also, I don’t much like having to lay out a tabular format in blog posts, but I’ll give it a shot today and we’ll see where this takes us.
Since I’m using Quantcast data I decided to set myself some rules. I’m only listing sites here that Quantcast estimates received 100,000 or more visitors. I set the bar so low to ensure I could include the Google Directory.
There are two tables: one for algorithmic search and one for directory search. The lists are only as good as my knowledge of the search industry but you’ll notice some high profile sites missing (including Vivisimo, Best of the Web, Jimmy Wales’ Wikia, and a few other others). According to Quantcast these sites received fewer than 100,000 visitors but in reality they could have received far more visitors in the month of June.
This data only looks at Quantcast’s estimated unique visitors for the month (United States only). It does not provide any insight into visitor loyalty, audience segmentation and/or overlap, number of sessions, or number of queries per session. Still, it gives us a high-level overview of how many people may be using the most popular search resources.
I think you’ll find some interesting surprises in this report. And you can confirm the data for yourself at Quantcast. I decided not to link all the data as that would be very tedious.
| 1. Google.com | 130,000,000 |
| 2. Live.com | 93,000,000 |
| 3. Search.yahoo.com | 58,000,000 |
| 4. Ask.com | 35,000,000 |
| 5. Nextag.com | 15,000,000 |
| 6. Search.msn.com | 8,900,000 |
| 7. Search.aol.com | 7,200,000 |
| 8. Dogpile.com | 5,900,000 |
| 9. Snap.com | 5,600,000 |
| 10. Search.mywebsearch.com | 3,400,000 |
| 11. Aboutus.org | 2,344,216 |
| 12. Search.com | 2,300,000 |
| 13. Altavista.com | 2,200,000 |
| 14. Alexa.com | 1,700,000 |
| 15. A9.com | 306,745 |
| 16. Hakia.com | 260,386 |
| 17. Clusty.com | 128,254 |
| 18. Ixquick.com | 104,282 |
If Quantcast’s data is right, then Microsoft actually has the number 2 search engine market share position. Only Microsoft and Google can tell us how many people visit their search properties.
If Quantcast’s data is correct, then Ask is a fairly close competitor for Yahoo!’s search traffic, too. Keep in mind, however, that these numbers reflect search-specific URLs, not the entire Web properties. Yahoo! and MSN both received many millions more visitors (but then so did Blogspot and Youtube, so Google’s overall traffic is also way under-reported here).
Altavista surprised me a little but I’ve known that the brand has retained some loyalty through the years despite its loss of uniqueness.
| 1. Business.com | 5,000,000 |
| 2. Dir.yahoo.com | 2,900,000 |
| 3. DMOZ.org | 2,100,000 |
| 4. chiff.com | 853,887 |
| 5. joeant.com | 496,112 |
| 6. directory.google.com | 355,585 |
| 7. ezilon.com | 154,459 |
I included the directory search data to show that there is still actually a reason for people to optimize for directory search, but the business community probably has a better reason than the non-business community. In my opinion, directory search optimization should focus only on traffic-generating directories rather than the so-called “SEO friendly” directories. Don’t depend on directories for PR-passing links. Look them for traffic.
Nonetheless, it’s always a good idea to keep your eyes open for specialty niche directories that may be able to help your clients’ sectors. Don’t just get links from them, however. If you decide to include a niche directory in your marketing plan, you should help that directory grow its market by giving it some recognition from as many relevant points of promotion as possible. The more traffic you help a new directory acquire, the more opportunity you have to leverage your dominant position in that new directory’s listings.
And what about blog search, while we’re peeking under the search services hoods? Which ones are giving Technorati a run for their money? I found four other services with significant traffic. I would say there is considerable room for improvement here, but it may be that Wordpress and Blogger are sucking the wind out of blog search’s sails with their on-site search tools.
| 1. Technorati.com | 5,000,000 |
| 2. Feedburner.com | 2,900,000 |
| 3. Blogcatalog.com | 2,100,000 |
| 4. Blogsearch.google.com | 853,887 |
| 5. Bloglines.com | 496,112 |
According to Quantcast, Wordpress.com received over 21 million U.S. visitors in June (more than 87 million worldwide). They provide a much less specific estimate of 42 million visitors for Blogspot. If you’re interested in leveraging the blogosphere for search, here are a few tips:
- Don’t use Blogsearch for link research (it’s no more reliable than Google’s Web search)
- Don’t overlook the value of hosting sites on Wordpress and Blogger (Blogspot)
- Make sure your blog can be found on at least the five search services shown above
- Make sure your blog pings for each new post
- Write down for yourself a brief demographic of the audience you want to share. Use Quantcast’s demographic descriptors as a guideline for how to picture your intended market.
As a final thought, although I have a deep interest in understanding real search market share I’m not sure I want to devote my Sundays to doing that kind of research. I certainly will keep my eyes open for good search metrics. Today we have none. The picture you allow others to shape for your search marketing both empowers and inhibits you. Don’t just blindly trust the search market share reports the four major metrics services publish every month. Even though the news media rely upon those reports, they are inaccurate in too many ways for good SEOs to want to rely upon them.
You need to be able to discuss search market share with your clients and employers, but you should work to become the voice of authority within your organization so that people see you are looking at a larger picture than they are.
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