Dramatic 39% Drop in Web Traffic Hits Outsourcing Industry

SPECIAL REPORT

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The websites of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies worldwide experienced a severe decline in traffic in Q1 2023.  Overall the combined market lost 8,439,395 monthly visitors, representing 38.7% of traffic; while 11 firms lost 95%+ of their traffic, and 75 lost over 75% of their traffic. 

An analysis by outsourcing marketplace Outsource Accelerator found that the top 434 BPO outsourcing firms, representing 98% of industry traffic, experienced a dramatic loss of website traffic between January 2023 and March 2023. Overall the top cohort generated 21,349,668 combined monthly web visits in January and plunged 38.7% to 13,096,308 by March.

Of the 434 top companies, a staggering 320 websites saw a significant decrease in traffic, with only 74 seeing an increase in visitors. 

Of the 320 losing websites: 11 lost over 95% of their traffic, 75 lost over 75%, and 164 lost over 50%.

The 10 biggest losers collectively lost 5.9 million monthly users, representing 51.7% of their traffic.

Some of the biggest traffic losers of the list are Simply Contact with 99.8%, Conneqt with 93.5%, and FirstSource with 88.3% losses. 

Many of the big names were heavily impacted by this phenomenon. BPO and IT giants Capgemini, Wipro, Infosys, and Accenture dropped 76.1%, 62.6%, 48.4%, and 19.0%, respectively, losing a combined 2,065,627 monthly web visitors. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was the biggest single loser with a drop of 2,635,396 monthly visitors, representing 75.9% of their traffic.

Outsource Accelerator Founder and CEO Derek Gallimore said these numbers should be a wake-up call for the BPO industry.

“While Google is notorious for traffic volatility, this dramatic drop across the entire industry is unprecedented. A continued drop in website traffic could have serious commercial consequences for the industry as a whole,” Gallimore added.

Some winners

There were only 74 winners across the period, although their gains were far more meager.

Overall the winners increased from a small base of 1,1179,904 to 1,626,755 monthly visitors, seeing a gain of 446,851 traffic, or 37.9%. The biggest single winner was Atento which gained 81,026 monthly visitors, a jump of 84.4%. None of the big players saw an increase in traffic over this period.

The Outsource Accelerator website was one of the few winners in the period, jumping 70,677 to 251,474 monthly visitors representing 39.1% growth.  Although the site has more recently seen a drop.

Recovery

The first quarter was brutal for outsourcing traffic, dropping about 38% in total.  However, the second quarter saw a stabilization and recovery of traffic, although it is still 22.7% lower than the January volumes. 

Cause for concern

While the specific reason is unknown, the general significant downward trend across 2,171 websites is unmistakable.

Typical factors for decreasing website traffic, such as weak Search Engine Optimization (SEO), outdated content, or a drop in paid advertising, are not relevant here, as it is unlikely the entire market would move in unison due to these individual performance factors.

Concern has been raised for potential drops in search traffic due to changing internet and search habits. Also, the recent rise of ChatGPT may also undermine the nature of Google-based search and exploration, although it is unlikely that the recent and gradual introduction of ChatGPT would have had such a significant impact.

It is hard to unpick whether the drop in traffic is a result of lower consumer demand (or interest) or a result of changing Google habits and search interfaces. However, Google Trends suggests that the search volume for “outsourcing” has remained stable for the last 12 months.

Regardless, there has been a significant drop in traffic without clear expansion. It is something that the industry should be monitoring.

Google core update March 2023

Google released one of its core updates in March 2023, and it is likely this has something to do with the depression in search traffic. Core updates are described by Google as ‘significant, broad changes to our search algorithms and systems’, and they generally cause ranking and traffic disruption when they occur. Google usually releases two-to-three core updates each year, and is usually secretive about what, and how, changes are implemented. However, it is unusual for it to impact an entire industry.

Methodology

Outsourcing marketplace Outsource Accelerator monitors the website performance of the leading 2,171 outsourcing firms globally. Of the 2,171 firms, only 394 (18.1%) generate over 2,000 monthly visitors; and collectively generate 97.8% of the entire industry’s web traffic. 

For the purpose of this analysis, only the larger 394 firms were included. The analysis used Ahrefs as the main data source, which can miscalculate traffic numbers, although the tool is generally directionally reliable. Semrush was also used to corroborate the findings, which were broadly consistent.

About Outsource Accelerator

Outsource Accelerator is the world’s leading aggregator marketplace representing the $250bn global outsourcing industry. It provides the conduit between world-leading outsourcing suppliers and businesses – clients – across the globe.

For more information, please contact: [email protected]