Google Drives 70 percent of Traffic to Most Web Sites so why pay attention to the little guys? I wrote the above linked article about Google traffic numbers in July of 2003 and have continued to monitor search numbers from the various engines on sites I own and those of clients to see if that percentage changes.
The numbers from Google took a dip in February of 2004 when Yahoo dropped Google resutls frorm their web search after a long search partnership and after Yahoo went on a buying spree of search properties including Overture, Inktomi, AltaVista and AllTheWeb.
Curiously though, the numbers haven’t changed substantially.Google referred traffic from most sites is still very near, and in some cases higher, than the 70 percent of traffic it used to refer. Changes in Google algorithms along with generally lower numbers of traffic referred from virtually ALL engines.
Continuing to watch the traffic statistics from all search engines has lead me to conclude that as a search engine optimization specialist, I will pay attention only to the top three – Google, Yahoo and MSN. Now some folks have told me it’s foolish to look only at the big boys when optimizing web sites for clients, but how many other industries pay any attention to aspects of their business that lead to less than three percent of their business before working on improvements to double digit changes? And what CEO in his right mind would ignore making improvements to an area of his business that delivers nearly three quarters of his customers?
Three percent is the amount of search traffic that comes from ALL other search engines to those sites I monitor for clients. MSN and Yahoo send consistently small numbers of between 15 to 25 percent of total traffic referred from searches, so they are worth paying attention to and worth optimizing for. But no other search engine sends more than a couple of clickthroughs per day to any of my own or to client web sites. Why pay to be included in unknown search engines that send fewer than a few visitors a year?
All of this is a prelude to introducing the following article by guest writer Dean Phillips, who has contributed two other pieces over the past week. Dean discusses how he received a solicitation to submit his site to the Azoos search engine for a “review” fee of $69.95. this seems nothing short of absurd to me when I’ve never seen a single referred visitor coming from that engine to my site or those of clients.
In any case, here’s the article. I hope very few folks are paying to submit to any search engine any more, including Yahoo SiteMatch, which Dean discusses in another article here.
Azoos Search Engine: An Unbiased Review
by Dean Phillips
Someone sent me the following e-mail today:
“Your site is missing from Azoos.Com’s Internet search engine! To submit it, simply click the *ADD URL* button found at www.azoos.com.
As one of the Internet’s 20 most visited unique search engine databases, Azoos offers sites like yours valuable traffic that only your competition is enjoying! Submitting your site to Azoos takes only ONE minute and GUARANTEES INCLUSION …. TODAY!
Thousands of users visit Azoos EACH day but can’t find YOUR site. With a simple look and an easy-to-use search tool, Azoos appeals demographically to the NOVICE INTERNET USER – a targeted group likely to make purchases from sites like your own! Featured in a recent issue of SEARCH ENGINE WATCH, Azoos is one of the Net’s hottest up and coming search engines for end users — Make sure YOUR site is included TODAY!
If your company’s website can’t afford to miss out on even a few thousand potential hits, it can’t afford NOT to be listed with Azoos!
Goto www.azoos.com and click “ADD URL” — let the traffic flow….!”
Sincerely,
Joanna R. Heth
Internet Position Analyst
http://www.azoos.com/
The Internet’s COOLEST Search Engine!
Why should we crawl the web…when we can RUN it?
***Add YOUR Company’s Web Site To Azoos.Com TODAY!!!***
I honestly don’t know who sent me that e-mail. But it definitely wasn’t from Azoos. Whoever sent it didn’t bother to sign his or her name. The e-mail simply said “Check this out!”
I have to admit, that e-mail got me more than a little curious about Azoos, so I did a little digging and I found the following press release:
Not only has Azoos.Com managed to remain one of THE fastest services of its kind when it comes to including user-submitted URLs in its vast database, it’s now also one of THE fastest search engines on the ‘net! Thanks to the implementation of new technologies developed & improved by its software engineers during the last six months, Azoos has joined the ranks of those search engines capable of returning results in less than 1 second!
But unlike other high-end search engines who boast comparable speeds, Azoos.Com goes one step further by guaranteeing instant placement for webmasters who submit their company’s webpage via the engine’s “add url” feature. Combined, these elements make Azoos the ONLY key player online capable of speedy search results AND speedy spidering of user-submitted sites!
In an age where so many sites have given up their individuality to become “meta” search engines; pooling the databases of other engines to produce unoriginal search results,–Azoos.Com remains true to traditional search engine format by selecting its own data, spidering URLs from its own database, & producing its own unique search results.
And while so many other successful engines have gone on to charge fees as high as $300 or more for website “reviews,” Azoos still bills its instant-add submission service at only $69 for a guaranteed listing and site spidering.
As Azoos representative Andrew Greenstein says, “We originally set out to create a search engine that offered something unique not only for the end-user but for the site submitter as well. Now that our search technology has improved so dramatically, it’s clear that our initial vision has become a reality and our primary goal has been achieved.”
And although the bright yellow search engine may still have a long way to go before it can compete with the “big boys” in terms of audience size, Azoos.Com may very well be one of the most promising prospects on the debt-riddled Internet today.
Well, I can certainly agree with them on one thing. They do indeed have a long way to go, before they can compete with the big boys–a very long way!
Here’s the problem as I see it with Azoos. They want $69.95 to add you to their database. This despite the fact that not one of the top search engines charges money to spider your website. And those colors are brutal on the eyes! Whose brilliant idea was that? Blue text on a screaming yellow background, with a design reminiscent of the Cartoon Network.
I wasn’t impressed, and I certainly wasn’t interested in spending $69.95 to be included on some cartoonish looking search site.
While I was there I figured I’d check out their search function. I did a few searches and got some satisfactory returns. Nothing special, but satisfactory. Also, their traffic count is low, comparatively speaking, for a search engine.
In conclusion, I can’t recommend Azoos. There are just far too many superior, free alternatives!
Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net
