An analysis of 50 B2B and B2C websites over a 3-month period by Conductor has shown that the majority of referral traffic to those websites is generated by just a fraction of the referring sites, leading the researchers to conclude that “the referrer fat head is alive and well.” The study also finds that (when excluding organic search) the domains analyzed did not share common top referrers, indicating that referral traffic is specific to domains and verticals.
The study, which analyzed more than 31 million referral visits, looked at referral traffic distribution both excluding and including organic search. In the first case, direct referrals accounted for 80% of the referral visits, with other search properties (defined as non-search trafic from search sites, such as maps and hotels) accounting for 16%, and social sites the remaining 4%. In the second case, organic search took 70% share of referrals, with direct referrals (25%), other search properties (4%), and social sites (1%) accounting for the remainder. (While the figures and analyzed sites are different, this study of e-commerce referral traffic from Monetate similarly shows search as driving far more traffic than social.) Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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