Research: History Drives Web Traffic

At the risk of playing Captain Obvious here—it’s easy to see why people would want to go online for more information after big events—I’ll conclude that feltron’s research into CNN.com’s traffic over the last 13 years is proof that historic events drive pageviews and unique visits.

At least that’s true if you’re a well-known baseline news source like CNN. Feltron’s graph below, aside from plotting the site traffic’s steady rise, also points out the 10 busiest weeks, shows how much of the traffic each part of the site enjoys, and marks important events in recent (American) history.

The research also makes it clear that the aftermath of the September 11 attacks represented a turning point for CNN.com’s traffic, bringing a 1053% rise in views. September 12 itself was the day when CNN had the most average page views. Apparently, with everyone wondering what happened, they turned to the internet to satisfy their curiosity.

The ten busiest weeks were during these events:

1. 2004 US presidential election
2. September 11 attacks
3. 2008 US presidential election
4. Iraq War begins
5. Hurricane Katrina
6. Virginia Tech Shooting
7. 2006 US mid-term elections
8. Week 2 of the Iraq War
9. Barack Obama’s Inauguration
10. Week after the September 11 attacks

Feltron’s research also reveals that CNN.com had nearly 122 billion page views (121,853,965,311) between May 1, 1996 to September 30 of this year. It also shows that every officially recognized country in the world visits the site.

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