The share of search engines Google and Seznam on the Czech internet

20. 11. 2016 Autor Jaroslav Vidim

There is no meaningful and relevant comparison of ratio the number of search on Google and Seznam in the Czech Republic. Google doesn’t provide the official search volume. That is why we have decided to compare both search engines based on agency data.

For many years, it is considered that the ratio between the proportions of search engines Google and Seznam on czech search market is approximately half to half, resp. that oscillates somewhere between 45-55% for one or second. In professional circles, however, has long been unofficially speculation, the former majority stake of Seznam slowly, but for sure spill over the side of Google.

We decided to investigate, if this thesis is correct, how the ration develops over time and how are the two mentioned search engines currently. (2nd half of the year 2016).

What we monitored:

Development of the ratio of search engines on natural (organic) traffic from the beginning of the year 2014 to the middle of the year 2016. Especially the development:

• overall ratio across all devices (desktops, mobile phones, tablets) together
• ratio on desktops
• ratio on mobiles
• ratio on tablets
• ratio on mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets)

In order to maintain objectivity and consideration of the trends we examined the development the quarter. We watched only development of organic visits. Development of the ratio visitors we took no account. However, it can say that mirrored the trends visits.

How we evaluated:

The resulting values are the average of the ratios of search engines all individual clients. In other words – we took particular ratios of individual search engines and these are averaged. This method of development we consider consistent, because it is not so much influenced by the factors mentioned in the following chapter.

When we evaluate search engines share the sum of the absolute values of traffic from various search engines, we came to very similar conclusions.

When you evaluate search engines share the sum of the absolute values of traffic from various search engines, we came to very similar conclusions. The resulting values differed by about 1-2%.

Sample data:

The conclusions we have drawn from a comparison of data almost 100 Czech websites of our clients with overall organic traffic in the order of millions visits for the quarter. The sample is sufficiently representative and has a high inherent value.

Variables which could affect the results:

• Clients themselves:
  • Size – There were represented small, medium and large sites. Their size however is not uniform.
  • Various fields – projects from e-commerce area and outside of it
  • Various target groups
  • Competitiveness in environment – high and low competing projects
  • composition and intensity of individual clients marketing activities
• Search engines updates during reporting period (1. 1. 2014 – 30. 6. 2016).
• Condition of on-page and off-page factors each website on the beginning and during reporting period.
• (SEO) activities conducted on those sites during the reporting period
• Goals, which individual sites monitor and their settings if necessary their changes

Realized results:

What we have come?

Google and Seznam brought from natural (organic) search result on clients website throughout the period together about 96 and 97% traffic (visits). Other search engines (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex…) in sum they contributed on the remaining 3-4%.

All values are rounded to whole numbers without decimals. Unrounded values can be found in the table below.

1) Overall organic traffic (mobile and desktop devices together):

>While at the beginning of the period (Q1/2014) was ratio between Google and Seznam 47:53, at the end of the reporting period (Q2/2016) was this ratio already 63:37.

Google therefore rose in 2,5 years from 47% to 63% at the expense of Seznam, which in turn decreased from 53% to 37%. If this trend continues at the same pace, Seznam will get on 0 at the end of the year 2022 🙂

2) Organic traffic from desktops:

Since the beginning of 2014 to mid-2016 the ratio of Google vs. Seznam turnde in desktops from 46:54 to 61:39. We note that in favor of Google.

Google therefore increased by 15 percentage points from 46% to 61%. Seznam declined from 54% to 39%.

3) Organic traffic from mobiles:

Since the beginning of 2014, Google has strengthened between mobiles and from original ratio 56:44 has swung from 44% to 31%.

4) Organic traffic from tablets:

While at the beginning of the reporting period, the ratio between Google and Seznam was 56:44, at the end (the middle of 2016) was already this ration 61:39.

Developments on tablets is therefore the slowest. Google a raise and Seznam got worse “only” by 5 percentage points.

5) Mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets)

Google strengthened its dominance in this segment and jumped out of ratio 67:33. Therefore, there was a change of 11 percentage points. Exact values rounded to 1 decimal place show following summary table:

And infographic: