Traffic Concentration

Also known as: Source concentration, Channel concentration

How much of a property's traffic comes from a single source. High concentration is a risk discount regardless of how good the number looks.

Traffic concentration measures dependence on one source, usually organic search from one engine. A property with 98 percent of its traffic from a single source is priced against the risk of that source changing, and the risk is not theoretical.

The same logic applies to revenue: one affiliate program, one ad network, or one client is a single point of failure that a buyer will price in whether or not the seller mentions it.

Diversification has a cost, and chasing it too early spreads a small property thin across sources that will never carry it. The useful version is knowing the concentration number and deciding about it, rather than discovering it during due diligence.