Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
Just as LeBron James dominated NBA courts and conversations, Google has dominated search and content conversations since the turn of the century.
But LeBron isn't the only player in the NBA. And Google isn't the only player driving traffic to websites.
A recent study by SparkToro and Datos sheds light on well-known websites that are still sending traffic to the Internet.
The study aggregates and compares referral traffic from a large data set from an opt-in panel of people who shared their URLs between January 2023 and January 2024.
The results reveal ways for your brand to attract more traffic without requiring the blessing of the Google gods.
Focus on referral traffic to long-tail websites
SparkToro examined two categories of referral traffic:
- The 170 most visited websites in the United States
- “Long-tail” sites (i.e. all others)
Since most of your sites are not in the top 170, I'll stick with the insights on long-tail sites. (Note: Don’t confuse the term “long-tail sites” with “long-tail keywords.” Although the wording is similar, there is no connection between them.)
Keep in mind that SparkToro's definition of recommendations goes beyond clicks on links or ads. It includes all visits that occurred during a browser session – a period of active use. For example, if someone listened to a brand's podcast and entered the company's URL into their browser, the SparkToro study counts that as a recommendation.
Which websites send referrals to long-tail websites?
Google dominates referrals to long-tail websites, sending 72.48% of all referral traffic. Therefore, it still makes the most sense to make Google the center of your SEO strategy.
But don't stop there. If you do this, you will miss out on traffic opportunities that are possible with less competition.
Consider the second most popular referring websites:
- Bing and Microsoft websites (5.20%)
- Facebook (3.36%)
- Reddit (2.39%)
- YouTube (2.18%)
- DuckDuckGo (2.06%)
- Yahoo (1.99%)
- Cisco Duo and Okta (1.01%)
- LinkedIn (0.62%)
- Amazon (0.48%)
- Instagram (0.43%)
- Teaching (0.33%)
- Pinterest (0.32%)
- GitHub (0.29%)
- Discord (0.24%)
- Wikipedia (0.18%)
- Twitch (0.17%)
- MSN (0.16%)
- Fandom (0.12%)
- eBay (0.10%)
- OpenAI (0.10%).
But don't stop there. The SparkToro report describes the most generous long tail referral sites. These domains send the most visitors to long-tail sites for every 1,000 unique visitors to their own website. (In contrast, some high-traffic sites rarely send referrals to other sites. WikiHow.com, for example, directs only 73 out of 1,000 users to other sites.)
Google remains the top referrer, followed by:
- DuckDuckGo
- Bing
- Yahoo
- Instruct
- Twitter pages
- Shopify
- Youtube
- DeviantArt
- Crap
- Fox News
- Tumblr
- Patreon
- GitHub
You can use this data to update your search strategy by focusing on the most relevant referring websites. For example, unless you are an education brand, optimizing your content for linking on Instructure.com would provide no value.
Let's look at some tips that can help get your content featured on the most generous recommendation sites.
Optimize for recommendations from Bing and Yahoo
Bing does not follow the Google ranking model. (You can test this by entering the same search term in both search engines.) Its algorithm is based on different factors, or at least different nuances of the same factors.
This SEMrush article explains what Bing takes into account when delivering content to searchers. Bing does not use semantic search to understand queries. Instead, it uses OpenAI technology to understand context and user intent. Backlinks, both quantity and anchor text, are important to Bing. It also prefers links from .edu and .gov domains.
Bing places emphasis on optimization elements on the site, including title tags, meta descriptions, headings, etc., and prefers exact match domains. Performance on social media also affects the ranking.
Optimize for Bing using these settings. Focus on using exact keywords and not variations of the keyword in your content, titles, meta descriptions, etc. Use an OpenAI tool like ChatGPT to assess whether your content hits the mark. (Paste a copy of your content and ask ChatGPT to identify the keywords.)
These tips also work for searching Yahoo, which uses the Bing search engine.
Get moving with DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a free search engine that protects the privacy of its users. Unlike Google, it does not track a user's data to provide a more personalized experience. Its algorithm is simpler and its results and referral links are simpler. It displays ads based on the searcher's keywords, not their personal information.
Elegant Themes offers several tips to optimize your content for DuckDuckGo:
- Add location data to your website.
- Request Apple Maps listings.
- Submit your sitemap to multiple search engines.
Location data reveals whether your business is relevant to the searcher's location based on their device. Make sure your website contains your relevant business addresses. Also, be sure to claim your space(s) on Apple Map.
While this advice works best for brands with physical locations, the final tip works for any business's website: submit your sitemap to multiple search engines, including Bing.
Like Yahoo, DuckDuckGo indexes websites using data from Bing and other search engines, as well as its DuckDuckBot crawler.
Don't forget Facebook
Last year, Facebook made headlines when it changed its algorithm, causing referral traffic to top news sites to plummet (a 62% drop between August 2022 and August 2023).
Still, Facebook remains a viable source of referral traffic. According to SparkToro's study, the platform's recommendations per 1,000 unique users are higher than any other social media platform.
To get the most out of Facebook, share links to your relevant content. Customize the title, description, and thumbnail to suit your audience and purpose.
Go full OpenAI
Although OpenAI.com – ChatGPT's parent site – is ranked 22nd on the referral traffic list, the growth of generative AI likely means its impact will be greater in the coming year and beyond.
So how do you ensure your website's links appear in a ChatGPT response? I went straight to the source to find out. Here's some of what ChatGPT shared:
- Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your content.
- Develop comprehensive resources such as guides, tutorials, or in-depth articles.
- Include internal links to your other relevant content.
- Ask the audience to share and link to content as these signals increase the chance of your content being referenced in ChatGPT.
- Encourage user engagement through comments, questions and discussions as ChatGPT may link to these answers.
You can boil his advice down to this – the mantra for good content marketing: Write high-quality, in-depth content that provides value to an audience and motivates them to share it with their networks.
Monitor the impact
I've only scratched the surface of expansion strategies for your referral traffic strategy. Take a close look at the list to see if any of the top referral sites (LinkedIn and YouTube) already relate to your sales priorities. Double your work there. If you're building a community around your brand, pay attention to Reddit, Discord, and Patreon.
Three months after implementing the changes to your referral strategy, take a close look at your site's analytics. Have your referral sources changed this quarter? Which platforms are delivering more traffic than three months ago? Does a platform deliver a higher percentage of traffic?
If referral traffic sources haven't changed significantly, don't give up. It may take time to climb the rankings and earn links. Wait another six months – if you still don't see any effect, consider making bigger changes.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
