Very good points, all! I didn't mean to sound over sensitive, but I didn't want to be "credited" with saying or implying something that I didn't ... 911 brings up a point I should've have remember from one of my first Rhetoric classes nearly 20 years ago in college ... "It's Not What You Ask For, But How You Ask For It" ... Now, can someone please pass the tissues ...
For those who are still wondering about the answer to the burning question, I was just reviewing my logs for June and I see referrals from 27 search engines with the following stats: Google 86.7 % MSN 3.8 % AOL 3.2 % Yahoo 3.2 % Unknown search engines 0.6 % Netscape 0.6 % Dogpile 0.3 % Earth Link 0.3 % Ask Jeeves 0.1 % with rest all < 0.1% Google is still the king...
Those numbers aren't really conclusive, and I'm not saying that Google doesn't still have the lions share of the search traffic, but those numbers are skewed by what SEs you've optimized for and your optimization success rate. Now just because Google has the lion's share doesn't necessarily say they deserve it, or will maintain it. Remember when General Motors had a similar dominance of the car market? And oh yes what happened to MCI who owned the telecommunication business? Public opinion and preference can change and when it does it can change in a hell of a hurry. The question is not where are they today. The question is do they deserve to be there and/or is their performance slipping?
Of course I'm not suggesting that everyone will see similar numbers, compar, but they are certainly "conclusive" for that site. There are other factors beyond which Se one optimizes for, although in truth I've never optimized for any single SE -- there are also differences with respect to the type of website, the type of service(s) or product(s) offered, and probably a host of other factors. That said, even I was surprised by the incredible dominance of Google on that site. It's not just in the lead... it BURIED everyone else. I think so, yes. Not in my experience... based on the searches I do personally, no...
To really see who's king, we need a few sites that have the same ranking across G,Y & MSN .... but even at that I think Google will come out on top Google won't necessarily stay on top, to do that they need to keep innovating and stay ahead of the game. I think what most of us are saying is currently Google is by far the best SE out there.
Google is still king in many ways, but my original point still remains valid, I think: To stay on top, to continue its reign, AND to continue to drive legitimate traffic to legimate sites, it's imperative to ensure continued quality and not allow the blackhats through holes in the armor, else such percentages from Minstrel could be quite different if spammy sites are allowed to rank and begin "stealing" traffic from reputable sights. Further, and no disrespect towards Minstrel, but search engine real estate and referrers are in no way an indication of site efficacy, visitors, and other important statistics. 86+ % from a particular engine makes not a king among providers. Market demographics of the market you're seeking too is important, as well as how many visitors that amount truly equates to. My site gets 175K visitors per month and the majority come from Yahoo, with MSN and Google swapping places between 2nd and 3rd. I'd love to see what would happen if Google supplied more ... but the demographic of my target audience dictates, not to whom (engine) I optimize towards.
Actually, the site in question does rank in positions 1 to about 7 or 8, depending on the keywords, on all three. The lack of traffic from MSN and Yahoo is not be4cause it ranks poorly.
Absolutely makes sense that it would rank well in other engines if you're pulling that amount from the Big G - to get that much for them, the site must be g2g, and hence, likeable by other engines. The real point for me looking at your stats, affirms that market demographics, when all other (ranking etc) factors are equal, dictate where your traffic will come from. Is it safe to assume the site in question with those aformentioned statistics is more intellectual or research based? Google is the world renowned king when we're doing research online. If it were a teeny bob site, like FreshDames, I'd expect Y! and MSN to rule ... different market.
I have nearly identical results across all three of the big guys and Google is at about a 64% clip, MSN 19% and Yahoo! is at about 8%
For me across 7 of my sites: 55% google 38% msn 3.6% yahoo 3.4% everyone else combined Just goes to show how it varies for site(s) to site(s).