{"id":8697,"date":"2024-03-13T06:16:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T13:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/?p=8697"},"modified":"2024-07-29T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T20:38:16","slug":"where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>&#8220;Most of our site&#8217;s traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">&#8211; An absolutely terrible way to invest in marketing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Monday of this week, I published a comprehensive look at <a href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/who-sends-traffic-on-the-web-and-how-much-new-research-from-datos-sparktoro\/\">how traffic flows on the American web<\/a>. Unfortunately, some folks in the social feeds where this research was shared got the wrong idea. Yes, Google sends close to 2\/3rds of all referral traffic to US websites (of the top 170 referrers). No, that doesn&#8217;t mean Google is the best, only, or most important place for every website owner\/marketer to put their growth efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because demand creation and traffic acquisition are different practices. I.e.: What people read, watch, listen-to, consume, and visit is different than what sends traffic. You&#8217;ve likely seen studies about <a href=\"https:\/\/datareportal.com\/reports\/digital-2023-united-states-of-america\">how Americans use the Internet<\/a> with stats like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>85% of Americans use the Internet daily.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The avg US Internet user spends just under 7 hours online\/day<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 hours, 27 minutes are spent on social media, on average<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 hours, 37 minutes are spent on streaming video, on average<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to Datos&#8217; clickstream panel (full methodology <a href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/who-sends-traffic-on-the-web-and-how-much-new-research-from-datos-sparktoro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described in the report<\/a>), we&#8217;re able to dig deeper with details about which domains received visits vs. sent referrals from January 2023-January 2024. I took all 170 domains that were part of our study and hand-classified these into the 13 categories below:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d1f57b00ba1&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d1f57b00ba1\" class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"573\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9194\" style=\"width:800px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png 1024w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-768x430.png 768w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You can see how dominant search is in referrals: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Archive.org are all in that category. But when it comes to the share of visits (for analytics folks, these are measured as the number of monthly unique users in Datos&#8217; panel who visited the site), the Search category only comes in 4th!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me show that another way\u2014in a pie chart breaking down the share of visits:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d1f57b01153&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d1f57b01153\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"768\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Share-of-Visits-to-Categories-Datos-Jan-2023-24.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8702\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Share-of-Visits-to-Categories-Datos-Jan-2023-24.png 960w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Share-of-Visits-to-Categories-Datos-Jan-2023-24-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Share-of-Visits-to-Categories-Datos-Jan-2023-24-768x614.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Social media websites like Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, etc. make up the largest portion of unique visits. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/datareportal.com\/reports\/digital-2023-united-states-of-america\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other sources<\/a> ~73% of all Americans are monthly social media users, which tracks very closely to what we see in <a href=\"https:\/\/datos.live\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Datos<\/a>&#8216; panel (the biggest difference is that I classified YouTube with other video\/audio sites like Spotify, Netflix, Vimeo, Hulu, etc. whereas most social media reporting treats YouTube as a social media platform).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next are productivity sites: Microsoft, MS Office, Live, Github, Canva, Indeed, Docusign, Dropbox, and the like. I was torn on the classification of OpenAI, but ultimately decided it belonged in productivity more than search. Arbitrary classifications are a challenge, but ultimately, it only makes a 1.15% difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>News sites like CNN, Fox, MSN, BBC, Washington Post, The Guardian, and dozens more are included here, and they collectively get a lot of traffic and engagement. Similarly, e-commerce domains like Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, and Etsy get plenty of regular visitation, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only after these five other categories does search come in. It sends the lion&#8217;s share of traffic out, but it doesn&#8217;t receive the lion&#8217;s share of time and engagement. People come to Google and Bing to learn and leave (or to navigate the web). Time-on-site for search engines tends to be quite low (though <a href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/in-2020-two-thirds-of-google-searches-ended-without-a-click\/\">Google&#8217;s zero-click answers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/products\/search\/generative-ai-search\/\">SGE investments<\/a> are undoubtedly designed to combat that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to see my full classification of all 170 sites, I&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Full-Site-List-and-Categories-Datos-SparkToro-Study-Jan2023-24.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">made that available here<\/a>, and a preview is below (warning, it&#8217;s 3,500+ pixels in length).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d1f57b0172e&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d1f57b0172e\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"766\" height=\"756\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/partial-site-list-datos-sparktoro-categories-jan-2023-24.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8706\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/partial-site-list-datos-sparktoro-categories-jan-2023-24.png 766w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/partial-site-list-datos-sparktoro-categories-jan-2023-24-300x296.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 766px) 100vw, 766px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Full-Site-List-and-Categories-Datos-SparkToro-Study-Jan2023-24.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Full classification breakdown is here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My goal in presenting this data is to help dissuade anyone misled by our &#8220;Where traffic comes from&#8221; study from investing as though those are the only (or most logical) places to do marketing. The web is a big, diverse place and people consume content, learn about products\/services\/brands, and form opinions about which problems to solve, what to prioritize, who to trust, and where to go next outside of search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My hypothesis is that an ever-increasing percent of how people use Google is navigational. In 2008, a study <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/ftp\/arxiv\/papers\/1511\/1511.05812.pdf\">estimated<\/a> that 10.2% of searches were just people trying to reach another URL on the web. That was before Google Chrome had dominant market share and browser toolbars\/the mobile web turned almost everything typed into a browser into a search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regardless, what I know from these data sources (Datos&#8217; panel, the surveys on websites usage, stats from third parties, all of it) is this: traffic referrals \u2260 sources of influence. The latter is far broader than the former. When people watch videos on YouTube, browse news on the Washington Post, scroll through posts on Threads, dig around Etsy, or trawl through the long tail of the web, they&#8217;re exposed to the ideas, information, problems, and brands that turn into search queries.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d1f57b01c84&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d1f57b01c84\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"588\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rand-slide-traffic-vs-referrals-datos-sparktoro-2-1024x588.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8711\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rand-slide-traffic-vs-referrals-datos-sparktoro-2-1024x588.png 1024w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rand-slide-traffic-vs-referrals-datos-sparktoro-2-300x172.png 300w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rand-slide-traffic-vs-referrals-datos-sparktoro-2-768x441.png 768w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rand-slide-traffic-vs-referrals-datos-sparktoro-2-1536x882.png 1536w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rand-slide-traffic-vs-referrals-datos-sparktoro-2-2048x1176.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Is a search-exclusive marketing strategy viable? Rarely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can a strategy of building brand awareness, interest, and demand outside of search work? Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just be careful not to ascribe attribution or credit to Google when other investments drove the real value. For most brands, a huge portion of search referrals come from branded search queries, and almost none of those originated on or because Google. Yet so many marketers throw branded-search-assisted conversions into &#8220;sales attributed to Google.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d1f57b02146&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d1f57b02146\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"485\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/sparktoro-branded-search-attribution-mistake-1024x485.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8714\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/sparktoro-branded-search-attribution-mistake-1024x485.png 1024w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/sparktoro-branded-search-attribution-mistake-300x142.png 300w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/sparktoro-branded-search-attribution-mistake-768x364.png 768w, https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/sparktoro-branded-search-attribution-mistake.png 1274w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The only reasonable move is to invest in the sources of influence to which your audience pays attention: social accounts they follow, YouTube channels they watch, podcasts they listen to, websites they visit, events they attend, etc. Anything else is missing out on opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Most of our site&#8217;s traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.&#8221; &#8211; An absolutely terrible way to invest in marketing On Monday of this week, I published a comprehensive look at how traffic flows on the American web. Unfortunately, some folks in the social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,8,24,6,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","category-data","category-industry","category-marketing","category-tactics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate - SparkToro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Most of our site&#039;s traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.&quot; - An absolutely terrible\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate - SparkToro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;Most of our site&#039;s traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.&quot; - An absolutely terrible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SparkToro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/sparktoro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-13T13:16:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-29T20:38:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rand Fishkin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sparktoro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sparktoro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rand Fishkin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rand Fishkin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570\"},\"headline\":\"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-13T13:16:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-29T20:38:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\"},\"wordCount\":907,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Analytics\",\"Data\",\"Industry\",\"Marketing\",\"Tactics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\",\"name\":\"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate - SparkToro\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-13T13:16:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-29T20:38:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Most of our site's traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.\\\" - An absolutely terrible\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":672},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"SparkToro\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570\",\"name\":\"Rand Fishkin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67da22d493ce011f93cef084e8e9132d009216229c75909ed1ae4d1482d164b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67da22d493ce011f93cef084e8e9132d009216229c75909ed1ae4d1482d164b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rand Fishkin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/author\/rand\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate - SparkToro","description":"\"Most of our site's traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.\" - An absolutely terrible","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate - SparkToro","og_description":"\"Most of our site's traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.\" - An absolutely terrible","og_url":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/","og_site_name":"SparkToro","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/sparktoro","article_published_time":"2024-03-13T13:16:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-29T20:38:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Rand Fishkin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sparktoro","twitter_site":"@sparktoro","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rand Fishkin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/"},"author":{"name":"Rand Fishkin","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570"},"headline":"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate","datePublished":"2024-03-13T13:16:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-29T20:38:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/"},"wordCount":907,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png","articleSection":["Analytics","Data","Industry","Marketing","Tactics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/","url":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/","name":"Where Web Users Spend Time vs. Where Traffic Referrals Originate - SparkToro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits-1024x573.png","datePublished":"2024-03-13T13:16:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-29T20:38:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570"},"description":"\"Most of our site's traffic comes from Google, so most of our digital marketing efforts and spending should be on Google, too.\" - An absolutely terrible","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/images.sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/website-categories-that-sent-referral-traffic-vs-received-visits.png","width":1200,"height":672},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/","name":"SparkToro","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2acd0781db4d1905cecfec9bea406570","name":"Rand Fishkin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67da22d493ce011f93cef084e8e9132d009216229c75909ed1ae4d1482d164b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67da22d493ce011f93cef084e8e9132d009216229c75909ed1ae4d1482d164b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rand Fishkin"},"url":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/author\/rand\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8697"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9195,"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8697\/revisions\/9195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}