Declining Google Referral Traffic: Impact on Publishers’ Media Briefing

This Media Briefing covers the ​latest in media trends for Digiday+ members ‌and is distributed over email every Thursday‌ at 10 a.m. ET.‌ More from the series‍ →

In this week’s Media Briefing, ‍some publishers share that referral traffic from Google Search and‌ Discover are on ⁢the decline, following similar patterns to the‌ social referral declines this year.

It’s been well ⁣reported that publishers are seeing less and less referral traffic come from social media platforms, as Facebook, Instagram and ⁢TikTok aim to keep their users⁣ on their platforms​ for as long as possible.

However, some publishers are voicing ‍concerns that referral traffic ⁤from ⁤Google is also slipping,⁣ particularly⁢ for commerce content, though not limited to‍ that category. Two ‌publishers told‍ Digiday they’ve seen reductions‍ in Google referrals as high as 60-70% for a few of their⁣ sites, while other sites are flat or slightly up year over year.

“The ​entire media sector is down​ in ⁤terms⁤ of ‌their audience size… We know that there’s been ‌big changes on the social media front… but we certainly⁣ have seen a decrease in traffic ⁣from Google,” said a⁢ media executive from a digital portfolio publisher who ⁣spoke on the condition of ‌anonymity.

A​ Google spokesperson​ told Digiday in a written statement, “We consistently improve our systems ⁢so we ‌can continue to show relevant and helpful results. None of our updates target ​specific pages or sites, including publishers.”

On the whole, though, third-party audience measurement companies like Chartbeat and Similarweb, reported that⁤ referral traffic from‌ Google is flat year over year between October 2022 to October 2023 (the most recent data available).

As a percentage of ​total external⁣ referral traffic going to about 2,000 publisher sites that Chartbeat‍ measures, Google’s overall ⁤representation did decrease marginally year over year from an average of about 36.6% in‌ October 2022 ⁤to⁢ 35.7% in October 2023, per a company ⁢spokesperson. Chartbeat measures Google Discover as part of Google ⁢Search.

Meanwhile,‌ Similarweb⁢ — which tracked ⁣Google ⁤referral traffic to‌ the 100 top news and media domains in the U.S., including the ⁣AP ‌News, Reader’s⁢ Digest, ⁣Vogue and‌ The Washington Post — saw a 2 percentage point increase ‌in ‌the average monthly referral traffic from Google between October 2022 to October 2023. On average, the‍ publishers included in Similarweb’s⁢ data‍ set received ⁤32.8% of their external traffic from Google in October 2022 and a⁤ year later,⁢ that⁣ number rose⁣ to 34.7%, according ​to data shared with Digiday.

Of course there were some outliers ​in the list, including Reader’s Digest, which saw a decrease in ⁢Google’s share of referral traffic from 66% to 51.1%⁣ year over⁣ year during that⁣ time period. Trusted Media Brands declined to speak with Digiday for this story.

“It’s all over the ​board. I have [publisher clients] that have seen​ decreases of greater than⁣ 60%. I have some ⁤that are⁣ only off by 15-20%. And if you stack⁣ the sites up next to each other,

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