Top 50 Web Rankings Issued; Love, Taxes, Politics, Economy on Visitors’ Minds

March 19, 2008

This article is included in these additional categories:

Financial Services | Media & Entertainment | Retail & E-Commerce

Yahoo Sites barely edged out Google Sites among US web properties with 137 million visitors vs. nearly 136 million, as traffic to the tax, greetings/Valentine’s Day, politics, and news sites quickly increased, according to a monthly analysis by comScore‘s Media Metrix service.?

Among the February data released by comScore:

Top 50 Properties (Unique Visitors)

comscore-top-50-online-properties-us-february-2008.jpg

Among the highlights:

  • Microsoft Sites, with more than 118 million visitors, was third behind Yahoo Sites and Google Sites.
  • Wikipedia Sites and Ask Network each moved up one position in the top 10, to spots seven and nine, respectively.
  • Glam Media jumped 10 spots to reach position 18 with more than 29 million visitors during the month.
  • Tax season propelled IRS.gov into the Top 50 ranking, to No. 45.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking (Advertising Reach)

comscore-ad-focus-ranking-us-february-2008.jpg

Among the highlights:

  • Platform A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, led the Ad Focus ranking in February, reaching 90% of the more than 185 million Americans online during the month.
  • Ad networks DRIVEpm and Traffic Marketplace each gained two positions, capturing positions 11 and 14, respectively.
  • Collective Media jumped four spots to position 19.
  • IB Local Network entered the ranking this month at position 39, reaching 26% of Americans online.

High-Growth Sites and Categories

Tax Category Again Fastest-Gaining

comscore-top-10-gaining-categories-us-february-2008.jpg

  • For the second month in a row, the tax category was the fastest-gaining, with a 34% increase from January levels, to more than 31 million visitors, as Americans continued preparing their taxes in advance of April 15.
  • The category was led by IRS.gov with nearly 18 million visitors (up 43% from Jan.), followed by TaxACT with 9.6 million visitors (up 66%) and H&R Block with 6.7 million visitors (up 26%).

Primaries Drive Traffic to Presidential Candidates’ Sites

comscore-top-10-gaining-properties-us-february-2008.jpg

  • With much-hyped Super Tuesday (February 5) and other primaries across the country occurring in February, visits to the politics site category increased for the second consecutive month, increasing 9% from Jan. to 15 million visitors.
  • BarackObama.com led the category with 3.2 million visitors, up 46% from January, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.5 million visitors (up 31%).
  • Republican-party nominee John McCain’s site visits increased 49%, to 888,000 visitors.

Economy, Primaries Spur News Sites

Visitor numbers to news categories, both business/finance and general news, increased in February as economic worries and presidential primaries dominated the national agenda:

  • Business/finance news sites gained 6% from Jan. to reach nearly 62 million visitors, with Yahoo Finance, AOL Money & Finance, and MSN Money leading the category.
  • The general news category gained 2% to nearly 107 million visitors led by Yahoo News, CNN, and MSNBC.

Valentine’s Day Stimulates Greeting Site Visits

  • The Valentine’s Day holiday caused the flowers/gifts/greetings and e-card site categories to grow 17% and 14%, respectively.
  • The flowers/gifts/greetings category registered substantial gains by flower sites, with ProFlowers.com (up 244% to 3.8 million visitors), FTD.com (up 273% to 3.8 million visitors), and 1-800-flowers.com (up 125% to 2.7 million visitors) showing strong growth.
  • The e-cards category was led by AmericanGreetings Property with nearly 20 million visitors, followed by Evite.com with 5.8 million visitors and Hallmark.com with 5.1 million visitors.
Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This