Social Networking Traffic Exceeds Search Engine Visits

According to Hitwise’s report the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube received more visits than search engines last month in the UK. During May, 11.88 percent of the UK traffic went to social networks while only 11.33 percent went to search engines. The difference is not so big, and it’s only about UK Internet users, but still knowing that you are not the most popular website in a particular region may cause Google to reconsider its UK-targeted strategy.

Experian Hitwise also stated that 55 percent of all UK social networking traffic went to Facebook, the second and third most popular social networks in the UK being YouTube and Twitter, respectfully.

However, Facebook does not have the largest share in the UK’s social networking market yet, and Google keeps dominating the search market. Google.co.uk together with google.com make up 99 percent of all web searches carried out in the UK during May. Google UK therefore was the most visited web site in the UK during the mentioned period, accounting for 9.29 percent of all visits. Facebook made up only 7.04 percent of all UK Internet visits.

Research Director for Experian Hitwise, Robin Goad said, "social networks are a key part of the online landscape in the UK, and their popularity continues to grow. Although social networks and search engines perform different functions, they both act as gateways to the wider internet. This data perfectly illustrates the key role that social media now plays in so much online behaviour."