Over the past five years, search engines have grown in importance as a source of traffic to news websites, while the role of social media has slightly declined.
This trend was analyzed by the Press Gazette using data from 546 UK and US news sites.
Google dominates search engine traffic, accounting for 95% of page views generated from searches.
Despite Facebook‘s shift away from news, it continues to generate significantly more traffic than other social networks, including Twitter.
In fact, Facebook drives over eight times as many page views as Twitter.
Smaller social networks like LinkedIn, Reddit, and Pinterest have experienced a substantial increase in traffic generation, with a 70% increase in page views from April 2022 to March 2023 compared to the same period in 2018-2019.
Aggregators, such as Google News, News Break, Smartnews, Flipboard, and MSN, have seen rapid growth as traffic referral sources.
Their combined page views have increased by 88% in five years.
Among them, Google News generates the most page views.
To maintain and diversify their traffic, publishers should focus on creating engaging content tailored to each platform.
This can help convert external visitors into more frequent readers.
When exploring new platforms, publishers should start with small experiments to collect data on reader behavior and identify the most engaging content types for that audience.
By doing so, publishers can make informed decisions about investing in emerging platforms and avoid overcommitting resources without adequate data.
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