How Much Traffic Can a Link on Google.com Drive? The Case of the G1
Can you imagine getting a link to your website highlighted just below the search box on Google.com? How much traffic do you think that would drive? According to one estimate published today by traffic analysts Compete.com, the link on Google for the G1 Android phone by T-Mobile delivered an estimated 800,000 unique visitors who clicked that link in the 7 days it was on the site.
Compete estimates that there were about 99 million people who visited Google.com during that period, so that's a little less than 1% click through. To be honest, we're a little surprised the number isn't higher than that. That's just the beginning of the surprises, though.
In fact, according to Compete, that Google.com link only delivered 40% of the traffic that the G1 landing page saw during that period. We've asked Compete what other sources were big but again, we're pretty surprised by these numbers.
We're a little surprised that less than 1% of visitors were curious enough to click on the first new link on Google.com in a long time and we're quite surprised that other parts of the marketing campaign were able to deliver even more traffic!
How did all this traffic convert into sales? Some people have said that there's an estimated 1.5 million G1 phones in circulation, but others, like Information Week, say those numbers aren't believable.
Compete's traffic numbers are probably a little soft as well, but they sure are fun to think about. For the full write up, see the Compete blog.
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That doesn't surprise me a whole lot, considering I haven't been to the Google homepage in ages given that I do all my search via my browser search bar, powered by Google. I see search results pages a hundred-fold more often than the front page.
The copy isn't all that stellar, too. Those 99 million other folks - the ones who don't search via other discreet methods - are probably a shade less savvy about tech news look at that link and say "What's a G1?" and subsequently ignore it.
Mark, I agree - I think that copy could really have been better too.
I think Mark says it - do people even go to the Google homepage anymore? The only time I do is if some says I have to check out their logo for the Olympics/Chinese New Year/Picasso's birthday/etc
Never saw that link. Altough I do use google.com i believe the link was displayed to north american visitors only.
"Compete estimates that there were about 99 million people who visited Google.com during that period"
99 (north american) people?
Yup... haven't been to Google home page in ages. And thanks to Chrome, I don't even use a search box anymore...
there's a chance that they are leaving out an intermediate landing page on google.com that was behind that homepage link, but before the t-mobile site. that's how i remember the click-through experience - and the writeups here and from compete are unclear on this point upon close reading.
-mathew
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I think Mark says it - do people even go to the Google homepage anymore? The only time I do is if some says I have to check out their logo for the Olympics/Chinese New Year/Picasso's birthday/etc
I don't even use a search box anymore.
I never go to Google homepage. Between Yahoo main page, New York Times main page and AOL main page I have enough.
I wonder how many people click on the other links of the Google below the search box.. Like the "About Google" link.
Numbers are unbeliavable. One link only can bring taht amount of traffic. exciting.
I am not surprised the amount of people clicking on the link is so small, most don't go to the homepage but rather search through the toolbar or address bar.
Wow only 1% - Yeah I agree no one really visits the front page anymore. So many tools to search from web, applications and gadgets. Good article!