The Recirculation Gap: Why Google Sends More Traffic Than Its Search Market Share Suggests

Have you every found that when you look at the amount of search traffic you get from Google, and then compare that number to the market share Google gets in the US and you realize that your market share is greater?  You would think, how is that possible?  If Google controls about two thirds of the market, shouldn’t the amount of traffic you get from Google be about two thirds right?  Wrong.  A common stat that publishers report is the are usually getting a lot more than this from Google.

So what’s the deal?  How is this possible?  It’s probably what one could call “The Recirculation Gap.”  Chances are, Google probably “recirculates” searches back into itself.  More than likely, this happens less that Yahoo and Bing.

As a background, comScore releases a monthly “US Search Engine Rankings” report, and they are the ones making the claim that Google controls around two thirds of the market.  But there seems to be a snag.  The people over at Conductor have release a white paper called “Why You Shouldn’t Trust comScore’s Numbers for Search Engine Market Share.”

Based on this paper, Conductor has taken a look at 100 million search engine-related visits to its clients’ websites.  Based on their research into the matter, Conductor found that Google isn’t sending about 68% search traffic like comScore says it is.  In actuality, Google is actually sending 85%, while Yahoo and Bing are sending much less than you’d think.

So there you go.  To check out more information on the matter, you can check out a Search Engine Post written by Danny Sullivan that will give you more information about this Reciculation Gap.  Just follow the link below.

Search Engine Land – The Recirculation Gap: Why Google Sends More Traffic Than Its Search Market Share Suggests