Many of the UK’s national newspapers have reported dramatic annual increases in traffic to their websites.
It is no secret that the majority of Brits have been turning to the internet to catch up on the latest news for some time, but new figures displaying the exact extent of this increase might come as a surprise to some.
The Guardian recorded the biggest rise in monthly traffic over the past year. 44.8 per cent more people visited their website this August compared to the previous year. The Mail Online recorded a 44.1 per cent increase during the same time period.
The figures highlight the potential improvements which tailored news feeds could make to an online business. As well as drawing more people to a business website, news feeds can improve a website’s SEO and improve its reputation as a thought leader within its industry.
The Drum report that visits to newspaper websites proved particularly impressive in August, as thousands of people took to their computers to grab the latest news surrounding the London riots.
Paul Sawers, who is editor of The Next Web, claimed that the massive spikes in online news readership may lead to the introduction of more paywalls in the future. At present The Times and The Independent are the only publications who charge some users for reading their news content.
