Dark Traffic: Dark Search - Dark Social - Dark Mobile By Marshall Simmonds

#SMX #13A2 @mdsimmonds

Run…..Rabbit Run!

Dark Traffic Dark Search – Dark Social – Dark Mobile


Original Searcher

@CJSherman


It’s Invisible Y’all


Direct Traffic 2013-2014


Was ist Dunkle Verkehr?

Dark Search

Dark Mobile

Dark Social

Direct traffic Apps

Browsers Image Search Secure Search Misinformation

Apps Twitter

Referral Traffic Android

iOS

Email IM

Direct Traffic Sharing Apps

Facebook SnapChat WhatsApp


Here's what we see, here's what we think. Our approach is observations, not necessarily solutions.


Goal

talk to clients

talk to your boss

talk to non-technical people

HOW TO


Methodology System Wide

Overview All Time

# of Sites

# of Categories

130

68

Total Page Views

Total Visits

Total Search Visits

226 billion

61 billion

17 billion

Dark Search


Misinformation


Not Provided


BuzzFeed Shenanigans


Google 92%

Yahoo 4%

Bing 4%

Other 0%

Search Marketshare

TOTAL 2014: 4,845,078,957

referrals



http://recode.net/2015/09/16/this-week-on-recode-decode-ceo-jonah-peretti-explains-how-buzzfeed-won-the-internet/

http://recode.net/2014/02/02/the-year-facebook-blew-past-google/



Source: SimilarWeb



Source: SimilarWeb



Source: SimilarWeb


Google v. Facebook Traffic Referrals, May 2013 – Jun 2015

Google

Facebook

Source: Define Media Group


0

1,000,000,000

2,000,000,000

3,000,000,000

4,000,000,000

5,000,000,000

6,000,000,000

7,000,000,000

8,000,000,000

9,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

Vide

o

New

s

Ent

erta

inm

ent

Die

t and

Hea

lth

Fash

ion

/ Sty

le

Food

Bre

akin

g N

ews

Bus

ines

s

Cel

ebrit

y N

ews

Tech

nolo

gy

Hom

e an

d G

arde

n

Tele

visi

on

Bea

uty

Pol

itics

Wom

en

Mon

ey /

Fina

nces

Rec

ipes

Love

/ R

elat

ions

hips

Trav

el

Loca

l

Spo

rts

Aut

omot

ive

Wea

ther

Fitn

ess

Sho

ppin

g

Boo

ks

Sex

Hol

iday

s

Rev

iew

s

Inte

rnat

iona

l

Mov

ies

Mus

ic

Esp

anol

Med

ical

Hea

lth

Res

taur

ants

Men

Fam

ily

Edu

catio

n

Rea

l Est

ate

Brid

al

Pet

s

Pre

gnan

cy

Info

rmat

iona

l

Par

entin

g

Teen

s

Hor

osco

pes

1/1/13 - 6/29/15

The most prevalent categories in search


HTTPs vs HTTP


HTTPs Search Traffic


HTTPs vs HTTP


HTTPs vs HTTP


Social Shares Go Buh-Bye


Social Shares on HTTPs

http://bit.ly/mikekingsocial


Facebook

• https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/faqs • “You can't move the likes, shares or comments directly to the new URL but you can use the old URL as the canonical source for the number of likes or shares at the new URL. We include background on how to do this below.”


META Referrer Tag

https://moz.com/blog/meta-referrer-tag


Define Media Group Blog

DefineMG.com/Blog


Image search 2012-2015 = Walled Garden 125 Sites Over 24,100,000 Visits for “imgres”

Launched

Hummingbird

Panda 4.0


Image Galleries Last Stand


Galleries


Let There Be Light


Most Popular Month 2012-2015 Month Total October 1,092,361,766

November 1,077,142,226 December 1,053,079,429

May 916,094,122 September 893,020,023

April 889,096,949 March 886,527,331 June 866,162,392

January 848,990,848 August 839,765,742

July 831,301,096 February 813,783,634

Grand Total 11,007,325,558


Most Popular Weeks 2012-2015 Week Total

46 (Nov) 257,228,360 47 (Nov) 255,269,241 50 (Dec) 254,766,984

49 (Nov/Dec) 253,232,130 45 (Nov) 251,636,013

48 (Nov/Dec) 249,012,836 43 (Oct) 248,688,632

44 (Oct/Nov) 248,041,273 42 (Oct) 244,909,925 41 (Oct) 242,647,135 51 (Dec) 240,312,944


Most Popular Days 2012-2015 Day Total Mon 1,947,803,180

Tue 1,938,638,051

Wed 1,883,692,194

Thu 1,840,865,228

Fri 1,693,036,044

Sun 1,559, 792,025

Sat 1,438,637,925

Grand Total 12,302,464,647


Direct Traffic


Direct Traffic 2013-2014

Sum of Direct (2014)

Sum of Direct (2013)

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/dark-social-we-have-the-whole-history-of-the-web-wrong/263523/


Direct Traffic Vs Search Vs Social 2013-2015


Formula Pull Direct Traffic

Remove Home page and section fronts

What’s left is dark social

Verify links against social campaign

Filter for New Users

What’s left is dark search


Direct Traffic Breakdown

Total Traffic 215,398,941 42,402,512

Total Direct

Direct traffic as % of Total Deep Links 18%

Dark Social


Dark Social


Google v. Facebook Traffic Referrals, May 2013 – Jun 2015

Google

Facebook

Source: Define Media Group


Social Works!


Facebook Insights


Facebook News Feed


Social Network Traffic

News Feed Update

Bit.ly / FB Fix


Facebook Ascending


Chartbeat


Facebook

Direct

Social

Source: Bit.ly


Formula

Pull Direct Traffic Remove Home page and section fronts What’s left is dark social


Speaking of Dark


Social by Network (–Facebook)


YouTube Where Art Thou?


Outbound Traffic Nearly 33% of outbound Traffic goes

to YouTube – SimilarWeb

.08% comes back

– Define Media Group


YouTube = Walled Garden


This Guy for Video

https://philnottingham.com/

@philnottingham

Dark Mobile


Mobilegeddeon has been happening all along Mobile Search Shows No Sign of Stopping

-

100,000,000

200,000,000

300,000,000

400,000,000

500,000,000

600,000,000

700,000,000

800,000,000

900,000,000

+122% Growth in 18 months


History


Dark Search Mobile - History


The Firehose Is Again Upon Us


Twitter on Mobile


Twitter on Mobile


In the News


Twitter Mobile Results

Android Search App passes referrer data as Direct!

Chrome mobile browser passes accurate Organic referrer data!

Safari and Google App pass accurate Organic referrer data!


Google+ R.I.P.


WhatsApp?


Share Buttons


App Tracking

Full list of schemas to support many different deep app links: http://www.gotschemes.com/deeplinks/


iOS/Android App Indexation

https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/ios/referrer

https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/android/app


Google Search Console


Google Search Console

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/


This Guy for Mobile

@justinrbriggs

https://briggsby.com/


App Search/Store Optimization App Indexing & The New Frontier of SEO: Apple Search + iOS App Indexing


App Annie


Tune.com


Questions to ask:

• Autocomplete in mobile/web browsers

• Apple Maps doesn’t pass mobile referrers (props to Dave Minchala)

• Any new app!


Takeaways

Be Aware Beware Misinformation

HTTPs is not an SEO strategy Image Search Traffic is dead

Quantify Direct Traffic – is it social or search?


Takeaways

YouTube traffic is dead Facebook IS fixing things but still obscuring data Twitter Strategy

New iOS/Android release check referrers Add WhatsApp share links

ASO is the new SEO


DMG Blog


THANK YOU!

Marshall Simmonds Define Media Group, Inc. @mdsimmonds


THANK YOU!

SEE YOU @SMX WEST SAN JOSE, CA

MARCH 1-3, 2016

Dark Traffic: Dark Search - Dark Social - Dark Mobile By Marshall Simmonds

Internet