Long Term Search Volume (popularity) by Web Host

By examining the search volume for particular web host companies we can effectively see their collective popularity over time. In the chart below, we can see quite clearly that DreamHost's popularity has gone sideways for the past few years, with their competitor – hostgator – overtaking them in search query volume.

Now, taking a look at the shared hosting popularity comparisons for bluehost, ipage, and hostgator, it is clear that DreamHost has had a big problem creeping up on it. It's competitors are all more popular than it!

Now let's compare the search popularity for more reputable, geek-customer oriented, hosts, in the VPS category. Digital Ocean has appeared out of nowhere, in 2013, and just dominated the market in terms of popularity. New companies will often offer deals to acquire initial customers. So we will see whether this levels off in the future or not.

Remember, greater popularity does not necessarily mean greater quality of service in all instances. It may be a good, overall indicator, when comparing web hosting companies. But an obscure, sideways, looking line, like Liquid Web's, could simply reflect the fact that their prices are too high for bargain-basement customers and that their business model does not necessitate overselling promotions.

If you look at the charts closely, you will notice regular surges in search traffic around December and the new year; this is when many hosting company's have their big promotions and may be an ideal time for you to get a good deal for the year.

This last chart, above, compares Weebly and Wix.com, two sites oriented toward total beginners who need web hosting. It looks like August is the ideal time to get a deal from Weebly. This chart seems to indicate that, without insane promotions, the average traffic volume would likely be about the same for these two competitors.

About

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This circa 2015 project was a fun public data discovery & analysis of DreamHost and its users. How might the comparative stats for your industry and customers look like?

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Email Josh Schultz.

Disclosure: I receive a small commission if you click our links to web hosters I endorse. I only support those hosts I feel are worth it.