Once the study is taken into account, even the Drudge Report, a much smaller operation by comparison, out does Twitter and Facebook combined. It should be noted that the king of traffic referrals is, of course, Google. So much so, in fact, they are lapping the rest of the field.

Comfortably.

If the study’s validity is intact, the main lesson from Outbrain’s findings is social media sites do not drive traffic like content sites and search engines do, and it’s not even close. That means that, while all those retweets are nice to see, apparently, few people are clicking the actual link embedded within the tweeted message. The study also sheds doubt on just how effective social media marketing campaigns are. Sure, things are good if it’s part of a current trend, but if not, no traffic for you, apparently.

The same, according to the study, is true for all those Facebook shares, as well. People evidently only react to the subject line, and not the content contained within, or that’s being promoted. A look at the chart of Outbrain’s study shows these surprising numbers quite clearly:

David Sasson, Outbrain COO, had some thoughts on the study:

“With our second report, we’re able to provide a compelling look at fluctuations in traffic referral and reader engagement across some of the leading destinations online. Our hope is to leverage our unique data to paint a picture of macro-level trends in content consumption over time. As Outbrain expands on a global level, we’re able to introduce additional metrics into our report and evaluate international trends, comparing reader behavior across continents.”

It does make sense that Google is a clear leader in such a category. When people search, they usually click a result, which takes them to a webpage/site, ergo, traffic driving has occurred. Same with aggregate sites like Drudge Report and Reddit, although, Reddit’s score is a low 1.10%, which, while still higher than Facebook’s score, brings the study’s validity into question.

Ask Imgur.com how many traffic referrals they get from Reddit.

With all of that in mind, does the study make you doubt the effectiveness of a social media marketing campaign? Especially if people aren’t clicking the links? Even for stuff they apparently like? Let us know what you think.

Update, the report has been pulled, and an Editor’s note from Amanda Lucci’s blog says:

Editor’s note: Since this post was published, Outbrain has reached out and said they are rerunning the numbers “to ensure they’re accurate” and might have an update later.

Perhaps they, too saw the Reddit discrepancy and wondered if they needed to remeasure.

Update:
Outbrain has reposted their findings, and while the gist is the same–content sites drive more traffic than social media–their metrics aren’t as specific. If you look at the first table they created, you’ll notice Drudge Report drove more traffic than Twitter and Facebook combined. Now, that’s not the case:

Granted, their Alexa profile is respectable, but it’s not as powerful as Reddit’s. With that in mind, despite Outbrain’s confusing devaluing of Reddit, the following statement continues the theme from the initial study:

…finally, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Fark.com, reddit, Digg) send 11% of traffic to content pages.

And it continues the theme of this particular post, which is social media isn’t very dependable when it comes to driving traffic.

One of our reader’s comments captures the theme quite well:

Art Butcher says: I’m not surprised by these findings.

I believe people look at tweets or posts with links as a sales pitch.

And many are.

What would be different if the links were content oriented and provided value as you say content is a critical driver. My guess is it takes time to build a reputation as a value driven content provider.

Does the spammy nature of linked tweets make them less attractive to potential link clickers?

A lot of us following the search industry thought Google’s move into providing, for free, the kind of data about website traffic and where it goes would be a tremendous boon for its advertising clients. Through the Google Ad Planner, one should be able to determine with a reasonable expectation of accuracy where the best places for their advertising exist.

Battelle dug into this with a look at comScore and the data it provides about traffic hitting third-party websites. On Battelle’s blog, he showed how the numbers coming from comScore’s panel-based approach hewed much closer to real traffic levels on a monthly basis than Google.

“The world expected that Google, with its unparalleled access to web-wide data, would validate publishers’ concerns and show that Comscore’s numbers were significantly under-reporting reality,” said Battelle.

“Turns out, the reverse is true.”

ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni served up a couple of samples of data as evidence. One compared monthly traffic figures for 20,163 sites from comScore and Google Ad Planner; the second smaller sample looked at sites that are part of Google’s AdSense network.

Both comparisons showed far less traffic by Google’s reckoning, though the AdSense network member sites seemed to be less undercounted by Google. It doesn’t sit well with Battelle, who noted comScore’s observation of a “significant bias in Google Ad Planner data” pushing ad planners toward Google’s partner sites.

This may be happening as a result of Google biasing numbers toward what it gleans from usage of its Toolbar by online surfers. Others have made that claim, but the real issue of underreporting traffic is the disappointing problem. How can Google, with its access to data, provide figures so easily disproved publicly?

That’s where Hitwise research director LeeAnn Prescott places YouTube, Google’s $1.65 billion video acquisition.

Said Prescott:

YouTube’s growth has not begun to slow yet this year. Hitwise traffic data shows that the market share of US visits to YouTube has increased by 70% when comparing January 2007 to May 2007 (this only includes site visits, not streams or streams from views on embedded videos).

Those 64 other video sites, in a custom category measuring US visits, grew by only 8 percent during the same period.

MySpace videos picked up 16 percent market share, good enough for second behind YouTube. Google, Yahoo, and MSN Video rounded out the top five, respectively.

Much of the traffic arriving on YouTube and other video sites comes from search engines. Prescott said about 20 percent of their traffic starts at a search engine result. “Clearly, optimizing your videos for search is just as important as getting your videos up on the web,” said Prescott.

SComScore, Nielsen Respond To IAB Letter

Last week, measurement firm comScore released a report about the use of cookies to measure traffic. They contended the practice led to overinflated audience figures for many websites.

Since site traffic is tied closely to advertising rates, the report spurred a lot of controversy and discussion. The Interactive Advertising Bureau challenged comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings to open their methods to a third-party audit.

IAB has a vested interest in accurate counts. Marketing budgets for online campaigns continue to increase, and if marketers feel websites are providing overblown traffic numbers because they conflict with comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings, negotiations for rates could become tense.

Both companies have responded to IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg. Nielsen//NetRatings president and CEO William Pulver said in his letter the company has already completed the pre-audit process run by the Media Rating Council.

“We are currently executing on a formal Research Plan jointly developed with the MRC

Rand Fishkin, “the wizard of (SEO)moz,” wants to help site owners attract those visitors.

In an article on the SEOmoz Blog, Fishkin listed ten “remarkably effective strategies for driving traffic.”

His, um, number zero was to “offer something incredible,” an “idea whose time is come.” For examples of this, Fishkin gave Zillow, Flickr, and Craigslist.

Number two might be more easily achieved. “Blogging and blogging comments” are must-haves, according to Fishkin.

“Regularly blogging about your industry, passion or profession can have enormous payoff if done properly,” he wrote.

“Graphic and web design” are a vital element, as well – Fishkin placed them fourth on his list. “Use pure CSS, graphics, color and layout that mesh well and make it not only easy to use your site, but aesthetically remarkable, too.”

Fishkin’s ninth suggestion was to draw visitors by “creating controversy.” This approach has some inherent risks, and as the writer pointed out, “heavy traffic levels come through multiple channels, but your biggest source is often the direct response of the disagreeing party.”

Fishkin advised readers to “be sure you’re handling the dispute in a professional and even-handed manner.”

Of course, another top ten list (or top one hundred list, more likely) could be written about each of these points, but they are helpful tips nonetheless.

The rest of Fishkin’s strategies, and his in-depth explanations of those covered in this article, can be seen here.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.