Why You Can NOT Rely Solely on Organic Search Listings for Traffic and Revenue

April 8, 2009 · 105 comments

Every time I take a peek into the Web analytics accounts for a blog or especially an online store I see something I consider to be VERY frightening! The percentage of traffic and sales being derived from traffic from only one source is frequently 50-70+%!

Can you imagine what would happen to your blog or business if your traffic and sales suddenly dropped by 50-70%!

Don’t think it can happen? It does all the time. The most famous blogger Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and TwiTip wrote an excellent post about his own experience of losing two-thirds of his traffic and income. He has covered this subject several times:

What Should You Do If Your Google Ranking Falls and You Lose All Your Traffic? (Nov. 29 2006)
What To Do When Your Google Traffic Disappears (Nov 15, 2005)
Google’s Christmas Present – OUCH! (Dec 20, 2004)
Google’s Update Chaos Continues (Dec 28, 2004)

Do you notice anything about the dates of these posts? Remember in the post just prior to this that I mentioned pay per click bid prices having artificially high minimums? Those coincide with organic listings swinging wildly but mostly dropping. (Some have to go up for others to go down.)

If your business normally sees a major increase in sales – or even makes the majority of sales – during the holiday shopping season what would YOU do if your traffic dropped in the middle of the optimum sales period because your organic listings suddenly dropped or completely disappeared from the first page of the SERPS?

How long have I been warning about the dangers of having all your traffic and sales coming from the same source? Have you done anything about it yet?

Still not convinced? There are others who have recognized how dangerous this is. The featured home page discussion at WebmasterWorld (Mar 27, 2009) is about Making Your Business SE (Search Engine) Proof. I know you may be busy blogging or running your online store so you may not see all the uproar whenever there is a new Google Dance.

These issues are not new as this excerpt from Gazumped by Google Florida Update from Nov 25, 2003 indicates (note that the date of this post also coincides with the holiday shopping season):

“Thousands of web pages have been suddenly demoted in the Google search results, primarily on the main commercial search terms for which they targeted their pages to be replaced by other sites who, in the main, referred to the search term obliquely. Several were the main shopping portals or business directories which gave listings for companies who may provide the services requested, many were not. “

Techcrunch has even suggested What An AntiTrust Case Against Google Might Look Like. For several days now I have been searching for specific posts, forums, or pages to illustrate the current state of online sales. I wanted to provide more real life examples from etailers.

With the enormous number of online stores that would seem to be easy to research. Have no Internet retailers asked for input since 2007 when their sales dropped? Do they not visit forums any more or ask around among their peers? Perhaps that information is not as easily located if the discussions take place on Twitter or other Social Networks or maybe it is not easily found in the indexes?

Whatever the cause I have decided to publish this post as is and hope that those involved in ecommerce will share their stories and experiences in the comments here.

As always, all comments provide dofollow incoming links. We use both KeyWordLuv and CommentLuv and encourage including relevant links in your comments. Akismet may flag your comment but we do rescue all valid comments.

NEW: Add your Twitter user name to any comment here and it will “automagically” appear in every other comment you have ever made in this blog.

The above predictions are far different than the results of the Merchant Circle Small Business Economic Stimulus Survey (Feb 25, 2009). The answers to this question are of particular concern:

Month over month, how would you say sales and revenue for your local business have changed?

Severe Decline        31.5% (3,411)
Moderate Decline    41.6% (4,509)
No Change    13.6% (1,471)
Moderate increase 12.3% (1,331)
Strong Increase         1.6%    (178)

Total survey respondents who answered that their sales and revenue had declined: 73.1%

Survey participants who answered this question 10,830
Number who skipped this question 49

Total respondents 10,879

NOTE: The question specifically asks about LOCAL business. We have no way of knowing how many of those local businesses are brick and mortar, have ecommerce stores, or operate exclusively online.

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Jacky May 2, 2009 at 3:30 am

Well, First of all, thank you for posting all these resources and links on the post. It is quite overwhelming for me since I just started the blog idea. I agree that organic searches using search engines is a must but I also agree that we should not count on just one form or source just like the post indicates. Nice post with many links.

Jacky’s last blog post..WWE DVD Archive

Internet Strategist Twitter: GrowMap May 5, 2009 at 1:33 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Jack, If you think it is overwhelming now wait until you get an idea of all the additional factors bloggers can use to improve their results.

I hope you subscribe and become a regular reader. Do feel free to ask questions you have now in any post. It is much faster than trying to figure out where the answers are on your own. I can either point you to a post, write a new post to answer (since others will also have the same question), or answer in the comments.

Internet Strategist’s last blog post..WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments Works In Thesis

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InternetStrategist who writes about GrowMap Twitter: GrowMap April 29, 2009 at 3:41 pm Twitter: @GrowMap

@Sean We don’t really have a lot of choice when it comes to getting too much traffic from Google. No other search engine is even trying to compete with them. I strongly recommend going far beyond just search engines.

Start with Local Search (see the tabs in the header for both Local Search and Special Offer) and make sure every business is listed. Even if a business operates totally online having listings there improves search engine ranking. If a business is located near a major city they can also get business from those listings. Local businesses MUST be easy to find locally so they should make these a priority.

Then expand to any other source that DIRECTLY drives traffic to your business or blog. That can be anything from blogs to forums to answers sites like Yahoo! Answers.

Finally get active in Social Media sites. Doing all this is going to take some creativity. If you’re busy running your own business you may need to collaborate with someone else who spends more time online. If you’re large enough you can hire a consultant. If not collaborate with someone like us. We’re continually online and do our best to promote ethical small businesses wherever an opportunity presents itself.

InternetStrategist’s last blog post..What IS a Social Media Expert?

Sean - US Medical Supplies April 28, 2009 at 3:17 pm

Another great post, thanks! Too many people rely solely on Google, but then again, Google is the best money-maker of a search engine out there. This post gives you all the reasons in the world to go ahead and make sure you rank on Yahoo and MSN, even though they pale in comparison to Google’s might.

Ryan Edward who writes about Learn Piano April 27, 2009 at 3:11 pm

I know all too well about relying only on organic traffic. I had three sites going and making me some good money and all of the traffic was from Google with small trickles from Yahoo. I thought I was safe because I had three sites, then one day site number one tanked out of no where, a few days later bye-bye to site number two. Thankfully the third site held on for a while but it lost some rankings too and its income dipped. While I still rely mainly on organic traffic, I have created a mini-network to help me sleep better at night when Google decides to go out dancing around town. If a few of them drop I am still OK now.

Ryan Edward’s last blog post..Learn to Play Piano Software

InternetStrategist who writes about GrowMap Twitter: GrowMap April 28, 2009 at 2:41 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: @Ryan Thank you so much for sharing your experience. Some will not believe it can happen to them until they hear from more who have been through it. The Google CEO’s comments about the Internet being a “cesspool” of incorrect information may indicate censorship is coming.

Businesses must take action now. Bloggers need to find each other. Everyone would do well to record their favorite sites somewhere in case one day they can not find them.

InternetStrategist’s last blog post..WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments Works In Thesis

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ultrattuga who writes about Musicas Morangos Twitter: ultratuga April 24, 2009 at 6:37 pm Twitter: @ultratuga

Your completely right. I spend all my time making SEO efforts and sometimes my sites vanish away, Google smash them, and my money with them. This so dangerous as it looks.

ultrattuga’s last blog post..O Boss Continua Em Altas

InternetStrategist who writes about GrowMap Twitter: GrowMap April 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm Twitter: @GrowMap

@gossip guy We were discussing this over on Sire’s site and I recommend publishers immediately opt out of having AdSense targeted to the user instead of your page.

It is far more likely that someone landing on your page will be interested in ads relating to that page than they will want more information on what they (or even someone else on their computer) searched on sometime.

Here’s an example. Suppose I search on insurance, find it and buy it. Or maybe I did the search for a friend or client. Either way, I have now moved on and am interested in what YOUR site offers. I would be willing to bet that Google will show insurance ads to that user for a VERY long time because the bids are high and they make more money off those clicks than off some niche subject.

I definitely advise sticking to tweaking and targeting for specific niches because that IS going to convert better than this new Google idea. The idea is good for Google’s pocketbook because they now have an excuse to display the most expensive ads; however, I doubt they’ll convert nearly as well. While you could make more per click you’ll have far fewer clicks.

The only way to know for sure is to test both ways. There is no simple way I know of to do that though.

@Kristian The problem we now have is that 60-70% of most traffic to sites with decent SEO comes from Google so it is even more important to find alternative sources of traffic.

@guy with glasses Absolutely; we all want as much targeted traffic from as many sources as we can get.

@Salwa Glad you like it. Special thanks go to Derek of DerekSemmler.com for all the work he did to get Thesis installed and modified. Derek’s a great guy and really knows his stuff. He is also great with product feeds.

@Matt You’re just the man I want to talk with. It may be that the analytics I look at have great SEO but I regularly see 60-70% of their organic and paid traffic coming from Google. Do you see many sites that have a better mix?

@ultrattuga Yes, they do that. If they’ll do it to the best known blog about making money blogging (Problogger) they’ll do it to anyone. I wrote this post because it is so important.

InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy

Matt who writes about business card Twitter: bizcard April 24, 2009 at 5:21 pm Twitter: @bizcard

I practically look at analytics all day and it all depends really on what your business is. Its really scary having more than 50% of your traffic from only one source.

Salwa Twitter: screationz April 24, 2009 at 5:13 pm Twitter: @screationz

Hi InternetStrategist,

Yes I did notice the new design, looks very nice, I just recently change my blog design too!

Salwa’s last blog post..The Mass Media Marketing Marathon

Nancy who writes about Life Insurance Quotes April 24, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Awesome post, thanks for all the blogs. I completely agree with you, although organic listings are free while other Adwords can cost an arm and a leg. I would suggest social media marketing as another channel to explore.

Nancy’s last blog post..Life Insurance Quotes For Planning The Future

guy with glasses April 24, 2009 at 12:12 pm

@Kristian-
You need not forget about organic traffic totally, as it is still very valuable when running a site. You just need to not put all your eggs in one basket.

guy with glasses’s last blog post..One Hour Eyeglasses: Save Your Money and Wait

Kristian who writes about Sportsbook Review April 23, 2009 at 9:24 pm

That’s interesting. I had planned on using exclusively organic traffic. May need to rethink this however.

gossip guy Twitter: thesceneonline April 23, 2009 at 4:34 pm Twitter: @thesceneonline

To respond to your comment about organic search traffic converting:
I’m curious what will shake out with the new Adsense stuff. I’m pretty sure you already know about it. From a user standpoint, I see a mixed bag. If I’m searching for “red widgets” and land on a red widget page, I expect to see ads for red widget related things. Not ads for puppy leashes since I searched for that earlier. That’s not so good. On the bright side, it might be a way to make social traffic convert a little better as the ads would be targeted to the individual user.

As a publisher, this worries me. We all spend time tweaking our sites to get them targeted for certain things. What happens to my red widget site when someone shows up and sees dog food ads instead of red widget ads?

gossip guy’s last blog post..VIDEO: 700-Pound Woman Gets Help After Issuing Public Plea On Local News

Sulumits Retsambew Twitter: vebtools April 23, 2009 at 5:26 am Twitter: @vebtools

This is really good article but i have not much knowledge about organic search listing

Sulumits Retsambew’s last blog post..Tnomeralc Web Design Toys

goodtherapy.org Twitter: tinababyk April 22, 2009 at 11:42 pm Twitter: @tinababyk

This post has changed my concept of relying only on organic traffic for all your requirement.
This is an excellent post. Thanks for sharing.

InternetStrategist who writes about GrowMap Twitter: GrowMap April 23, 2009 at 12:12 am Twitter: @GrowMap

@cars for sale There is far more to think about than most will ever know. I do my best to bring all the variables together in a concise way to make it easier to understand.

@salwa We’ll need every method we can come up with the way trends are going. I’ll be by to check out your latest increasing traffic posts too. Did you notice the new design? Derek just finished installing Thesis.

@Terry Is there much competition for organic listings in your very unique niche? I believe I shared some basics on how to get any page to rank well in the comments above. Those should pretty much take care of getting listings. Just be sure to avoid “bad neighborhoods” (links to bad sites – more on that elsewhere here) and don’t do anything that will get you banned if you can help it.

The great thing about blogs is there are many other ways to find readers. You’ll have to be very imaginative because I don’t know that many are actively searching for coffee bags. Check out the CommentLuv featured post for another idea and the categories for many other ways to generate free traffic.

@tina from GoodTherapy Being on Squidoo will send you a certain amount of traffic. You might try supplementing it with the ideas found in the blog post in the featured in this comment and the many other posts here on how to generate more visitors.

InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy

Terry who writes about burlap coffee bag April 22, 2009 at 11:36 pm

Wow, you’ve changed my mind. Im new to internet marketing and have been focusing all my efforts on getting ranked in google. I didnt realize there was so much more too it. This blog = bookmarked.

Terry’s last blog post..New Uses for Old Sacks

Salwa Twitter: screationz April 22, 2009 at 9:17 pm Twitter: @screationz

Excellent article. Loads of resources in this post.

While organic traffic is great, you are right that we should not “solely” rely on it for all of our traffic needs and this is exactly why I use other methods aswell like social media, building relationships to help me stay ontop of my game.

Salwa’s last blog post..Traffic Monday: Ways to Increase Traffic

cars for sale April 22, 2009 at 2:15 pm

Thanks for the article. This is really something I have never thought of before

InternetStrategist who writes about GrowMap Twitter: GrowMap April 22, 2009 at 11:30 am Twitter: @GrowMap

@Tnomeralc The link is immediately above your comment where it says Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days.

@missouri real estate You do not have to change your current approach to generate traffic from additional sources; simply ADD new methods which do not affect organic listings. In your case I would definitely have a blog (more on what to do with it in a minute). You can even use a different domain to make sure it doesn’t affect your existing site.

For example, read the post I mentioned just above to Tnomeralc. If everyone in a blogging community used that strategy all the sites involved would see a huge increase in their traffic.

Here is an idea for highly competitive markets such as real estate. People buy from those they know and trust. Few people set out to make friends with someone because they’re a realtor. They WILL make friends with those who share a common interest, activity or hobby.

Golf is the perfect example. I don’t know how many started playing primarily for business but I suspect it is a major reason. If you were interested in golf and knew other golfers in your area and they knew you were in real estate when a need for that type of assistance comes up wouldn’t they choose you over someone from the phone book?

It doesn’t have to be golf – it can be anything. There is plenty of room for a realtor who specializes in horse properties (any interested in that – and there are MANY ways to really excel in that area – can ask me how). Or one who happens to love motorcycles.

For common and highly competitive businesses you’ll reach more people by sharing a common interest than by focusing on that industry. Sharing blog posts on Social Networking sites is a great way to do that.

InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Promote Your Business Without Cash

missouri real estate April 22, 2009 at 10:02 am

Currently I base most my earning off of organic results. I am worried that it might drop but I am also scared to change my approach becuase I don’t want my change to cause the problem that creates the loss in traffic. I think this is a very difficult and fine line to walk in order to maintain a high volume of organic traffic.

Tnomeralc Web Design Toys Twitter: vebtools April 22, 2009 at 1:27 am Twitter: @vebtools

plz let me know the link

InternetStrategist who writes about GrowMap Twitter: GrowMap April 21, 2009 at 9:19 pm Twitter: @GrowMap

@Tnomeralc The sad thing is Google has such a monopoly that everyone is too reliant on their traffic. In your case do be VERY careful not to do anything that will get you banned.

Then check out my post attached to this comment for one great way to start getting referrals from other blogs.

@Steve Diversification is so necessary – the thing is, what can we do about Google’s monopoly? Any ideas?

@tnomeralc The basics of SEO are fairly simple. Target one two to three word phrase on each post or page and use that phrase as the title (use Title tags), the name of the page, in the images, and in the text. Use an SEO plugin in blogs. Add ONE tag / keyword phrase – not tons of them. These tips will make a difference.

@Rose Don’t be anxious as some readers will come and go because their interests or situations change or they have less time. Just focus on quality posts and comments and you’ll get more regulars.

@Mike Thank you. We’re planning a major redesign any time now so I may not be posting for a few days. Once the upgrade is done I’ll be adding much more. I hope you subscribed so we’ll be chatting regularly here.

@Sire Would you believe I don’t really set out to create such major research references; that just happens when I lay out all the points to consider. Sometimes posts even turn into a series.

I consider it important for small businesses and bloggers to understand the big picture. No business is intentionally targeting only Google – they simply can not avoid it!

I am glad you’re able to focus on fun. I know I haven’t been around lately and that is just because I’ve been busy. Had to temporarily take a little paid work to keep the roof over my head, food on the table, and get the garden planted.

Derek is getting ready to install Thesis and some other cool stuff here so I may have to hold off a little.

@Barbara You’re showing your blogging experience – those are from a while back when I first started seeing these things happening to ecommerce stores.

With your great community and subscriber base you’ll be less impacted than most small businesses – which makes me wonder about ProBlogger losing such a high percentage of traffic! Hmmm.

I would think that most blogs with regular readers would be more insulated than the typical ecommerce site that hasn’t learned to use autoresponders and mailing lists to drive repeat sales.

InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy

seo service April 21, 2009 at 8:24 am

Where else can I get my traffic aside from organic search listings and social networking? I do experience this now that the traffic to my blogs have been dropping tremendously over the past months and I actually don’t know what to do.

satana who writes about wamucards April 20, 2009 at 4:36 am

I am learning how to do a good SERP.This article help me so much.I’ve never think about this before.

My next project is about how to make money online by SERP and google adsense? Could you please suggest me how to do? What is the best way? I still have no idea

satana’s last blog post..There Is Help At Hand for Those Struggling With Their Wamucards Mortgage

Barbara Swafford Twitter: BSwafford April 20, 2009 at 1:30 am Twitter: @BSwafford

I remember reading those posts on Problogger where he lost a good bit of his traffic. After reading that I become concerned when a majority of my traffic (to any of my blogs) comes from one source. I hope I’m never in that position.

Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..About Me – The Most Important Page On Our Blog

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