When you run the usual end of year statistics, make sure you check your referrers; you might find an interesting surprise relating to Google. I have a number of web sites out there, and they range from brand new page rank zero to page rank 7 web sites. At the beginning of the year Google accounted for around 47% of all my traffic (Jan/Feb average) on average. Come to the November/December time frame Google as a referrer is down to about 26% of all my traffic on average.

So what would cause my Google traffic to decrease by 21%, while my social media traffic has shown a huge upwards growth curve. Direct traffic has had its normal bouncing up and down as people bookmark and otherwise share what I write on my site.

At this point, far more of my traffic comes through social networking sites and direct links than Google provides. While Google was strong and the major source of traffic I would do a lot to make them happy, but right now, with social media providing the lion’s share of readers, one has to ask what all the SEO, keywords, tags, and other happy stuff we do on a regular basis really means any more. While Google traffic is spiky (compete.com) it is interesting to note that the game is no longer about making Google happy, it is making my social networks happy.

We all work and try to deliver what makes our best referrer happy, and right now, that would be Stumbleupon, friend feed, and those who have book marked the web site. Nothing wrong with Google, but as they slowly side out of being my most important referrer, any web site has to start thinking about making those referrers happy. Nothing wrong with Google, and they are still important, but at the close of 2008, they are just not as important as they were at the start of the year.

Tags: Google, traffic down, referrer, end of year stats.