Dailymail.co.uk And Guardian.co.uk Are Most Visible On Social Networks
09 Nov 11
Study reveals visibility of top UK newspaper web sites on Facebook, Twitter and four other social networks
Dailymail.co.uk and Guardian.co.uk are the most visible UK newspaper web sites on social networks such as Facebook, StumbleUpon and Twitter, according to a study by Searchmetrics.
The research, which analysed how often content from 12 leading newspaper sites was shared on six popular social networking and bookmarking sites, placed Dailymail.co.uk in top position, with links to its pages being shared 2,908,779 times a week on average. Guardian.co.uk came second with an average 2,587,258 links being shared on social sites every week.
“Social news – that is news and articles that are shared or recommended by your friends and followers on social sites – is potentially an important source of traffic for online news sites,” explained Dr Horst Joepen, CEO of Searchmetrics, which provides online tools for search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media marketing.
The Searchmetrics study monitored links from 12 newspaper web sites (see underneath) which were shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Delicious and Google+ over a period of ten weeks.
Average Social Links per Week of UK Newspaper Web sites
http://www.dailymail.co.uk (2,908,779 links/week)
www.guardian.co.uk (2,587,258 links/week)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk (879,783 links/week)
http://www.independent.co.uk (617,148 links/week)
http://www.thesun.co.uk (195,311 links/week)
http://www.ft.com (83,382 links/week)
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk (82,151 links/week)
http://www.mirror.co.uk (54,881 links/week)
http://www.heraldscotland.com (13,063 links/week)
http://www.express.co.uk (9,600 links/week)
http://www.dailystar.co.uk (702 links/week)
http://www.thetimes.co.uk (256 links/week)
“It’s worth noting that search engines, such as Google and Bing are starting to include popularity on social networks as a factor when judging the quality of web pages and how they should be ranked in search listings. So it’s important for news and other web sites to build and monitor visibility on social sites if they want to rank highly and attract visitors via search,” said Dr Joepen.
Searchmetrics also analysed the spread of social networks on which Dailymail.co.uk’s pages were shared over a six month period, revealing that the site received over half of its links (50.78 per cent) on StumbleUpon, with Facebook activity (likes, shares and comments) accounting for 45.87 per cent and links on Twitter 3.21 per cent.
More than half (56.77 per cent) of Guardian.co.uk’s social links came from Facebook with StumbleUpon accounting for 31.35 per cent and Twitter 10.98 per cent according to the study.
“Some people we have shown this data to have been surprised at the volume of links generated for UK newspapers on the StumbleUpon social bookmarking site. This is a very popular site globally and the links could have been generated throughout the world from English speakers who use StumbleUpon,” added Dr Joepen.
The most frequently shared content on Dailymail.co.uk was shown to be an article (with images) about the Japan earthquake which had been shared 392,521 times on the monitored social sites. Guardian.co.uk’s most frequently shared content was a humorous quiz discussing quotes from Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen.
Dailymail.co.uk’s top three most frequently shared articles
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365318/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-The-moment-mother-nature-engulfed-nation.html (392,521 links)
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2018020/Amy-Winehouse-dead–Found-dead-London-flat.html (253,561 links)
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013870/Robber-broke-hair-salon-beaten-black-belt-owner-kept-sex-slave-days–fed-Viagra.html (252,650 links)
Guardian.co.uk’s top three most frequently shared articles
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/quiz/2011/mar/01/muammar-gaddafi-charlie-sheen-quiz (363,938 links)
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit (210,468 links)
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks (187,987 links)
About the research
Searchmetrics analysed data on the links from 12 UK newspaper web sites which were shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Delicious and Google+. The data which measured the average links per week was collated in the ten weeks preceding 24 October 2011. The ‘social spread’ data was based on analysis of the total social links for each newspaper on the six social networks and bookmarking sites over a six month period from May to October 2011.
The data for the study was taken from the global social media database which Searchmetrics operates to power its online software tools. This is a regularly updated store of data points related to web sites and their visibility on social networks.
About Searchmetrics
Searchmetrics is the global expert in search analytics software, empowering marketers to increase visibility and market share on the world’s leading search engines. We create value by providing the best quality data on a global scale. Clients and partners worldwide rely on Searchmetrics to maximize return from search investments with actionable insights that help better manage, improve and scale search marketing campaigns
Searchmetrics’ robust search marketing tool, Searchmetrics Suite, is supported by a unique server infrastructure that offers monitoring of over 100 search engines in over 30 countries worldwide. Searchmetrics Suite is also home to the Searchmetrics Essentials data modules, SEO+SEM and Social, encompassing the largest, fastest databases for search and social media available.
Headquartered in Berlin, with subsidiaries and offices in New York, London and Paris, the company delivers real web intelligence to a growing international customer base. You can follow Searchmetrics on Twitter @Searchmetrics or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Searchmetrics. For more information, please visit: www.searchmetrics.com.
