Chartbeat’s long-term review of traffic to more than 560 US and UK publishers suggests that Google remains a steady hand for news websites. The share of visits coming through search has hardly moved in six years. It was about 15% in early 2019, jumped above 20% during the first Covid months, and has hovered around 19% this summer. Google’s dominance in that slice of traffic has barely wavered either, holding between 95% and 97% the whole time.
One detail matters here: the count includes Discover, which has taken over as a key route for people reaching publishers. Much of the “search stability” shown in the numbers reflects how Discover feeds have grown into a traffic driver alongside traditional search clicks.
Direct Visits Lose Ground
The picture looks different for direct visits, the readers who go straight to a homepage or use bookmarks. That traffic made up more than 16% of visits at the start of 2019, fell during the pandemic, clawed back for a while, and has since slid again. In July, the share was just over 11%. Despite years of talk about building loyal “front-door” audiences, many publishers are still struggling to turn that into reality.
Social Referrals in a Long Drop
The sharpest declines have come from social networks. Their share of referrals has slipped from more than 17% in 2019 to 13% today. Facebook, which once drove close to a billion monthly visits, has lost half of that traffic. Its highs came during the pandemic, followed by a steep drop as it shifted to personal posts over publisher content. Even with a small recovery this year, it is still well below its former levels.
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has shrunk even more. Monthly referrals have dropped from around 129 million to barely 32 million. Instagram has moved up a little, while Reddit has surged ahead, reaching about 19 million referrals in July. The jump for Reddit coincided with a visibility boost in Google results after its content deal last year, which also gave the site a new role in training AI systems.
External Links and On-Site Journeys
Traffic patterns from other sources show mixed movement. Visits coming from links placed on outside sites, such as blogs or other publishers, have doubled since 2019. Internal clicks — readers moving from one page to another within the same outlet — have edged down from 43% to 39%. Holding audience attention once they arrive has become a bigger focus as a result.
Aggregators: Google News Still Leads, But Lower
Aggregator traffic tells another story. Google News remains the biggest, though its referrals dropped in late 2023 and have not climbed back. In July it drove around 107 million visits, which is roughly the same as six years ago but nearly a third lower than in 2023. SmartNews, Newsbreak and Flipboard all saw growth during the pandemic but have since fallen away, with Flipboard down the most.
H/T: Pressgazette
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen.
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