When you ask the average Joe on the street what Google is, you are likely to get an answer saying that it is the most popular search engine, and they would be correct. If you ask the average marketer the same questions, however, you’d likely get some sort of answer about it being a great marketing tool or a source of traffic or something of that nature. Of course, this would also be correct. According to a recent report from Deepfield, however, Google is much more than either of these two answers.
The report found that Google owned properties and services account for up to 25% of all US Internet traffic. This is incredible when you think about how much traffic places like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and other big name properties get, combined with the millions of smaller sites. The fact is, however, that Google’s properties get more traffic than Facebook, Twitter and Netflix…Combined. So, what does this mean for the average marketer? Quite a bit actually.
First, it is important to look at where this traffic is coming from. A large portion of all the traffic Google touches is coming from YouTube. Posting and promoting videos on this site is something many marketers are overlooking, at their own peril. YouTube was once filled with marketers, and while many are still using this video sharing site, quite a few seem to have slowly moved away. This report should serve as a reminder that there is still a lot of power behind YouTube.
In addition, for those marketers who say that they don’t want to rely on Google for their traffic, this report might change your mind. While it is certainly good to get traffic from other sources, Google should never be ignored. Whether it is the regular SERPs, YouTube, Google+ or any of Google’s other properties, there is a lot of traffic to be had. In fact, the report went on to show that 60% of all web-enabled devices exchange information with Google every single day.
This is a huge amount of traffic, and anyone who is ignoring any of the many Google properties is missing out on a lot of opportunity. There is certainly something to be said for not putting all your eggs in one basket, but Google offers one huge basket full of traffic and can safely hold quite a few of these metaphorical eggs.
