I recently ran global popularity ranking statistics from Alexa.com for some of my favorite and least favorite Mormon websites. (I’m not going to name which is which.)
(But you can probably guess.)
This is by no means a comprehensive list of Mormon websites because, in spite of evidence to the contrary, I don’t spend all my time on the Internet and so I am not familiar with every website in existence. Also, websites with very small followings are not ranked by Alexa. The rankings are constantly changing, so if anyone wants to check my work today, you are likely to find different results. Alexa rankings are based on web popularity over three months. I happened to test them on a date which did not include a General Conference within the previous three months, which may make Mormon websites appear less popular in general. The most popular websites have low rankings.
Not surprisingly at all, LDS.org was the most popular Mormon website. I was surprised, however, that the commercial website LDS Living edged out Mormon.org for Number Two.
Meridian Magazine and Ordain Women were neck and neck, with Meridian coming out ahead. (Darn it!) Although they have about the same readership, I am pretty confident that their readers are completely distinct cohorts.
When Wheat and Tares conducts its annual Wheaties contest, By Common Consent and Feminist Mormon Housewives compete against each other one-on-one in the “Big Blogs” category. From these stats, it is apparent why. But make room for Rational Faiths! Wow, has this newbie got readership! Hey, Barker brothers, how did you get so many readers so fast?
Here at the Exponent, we could use some tips. Our little sister, Young Mormon Feminists, is already more popular than us! Fortunately, I am used to reining in my jealousy because my biological little sisters are more popular than me, too.
Our other Mormon feminist sister blog, Zelophehad’s Daughters, is at the bottom of the chart, which makes sense, because ZD posts less often than the other Mormon feminist bogs, most of which post something new almost daily. When I created this chart, ZD’s newest post was three days old! That is like 75 in Internet years. Also, their URL is too hard to spell if you don’t happen to be one of the geniuses that blogs over there. Yet, their overall awesomeness compensates enough that they still made the Alexa rankings.
So, Exponent readers, what do you think of our status near the middle of this chart? Do you think we are reaching all the people who would be interested in what we have to offer here? What do you think we could do to grow our audience? Do you have any suggestions for us?
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One tip would be to add some share buttons to the blog. For instance, when I want to tweet a post I have to wait until I’m back home at my laptop and open a second window in Twitter in order to Tweet your posts. I’m diligent that way, but other readers might prefer a button in the posts to allow easy sharing. Offer more options to share the content via FB, Tumblr, etc.
Thanks for this fantastic post, April. The graphic is wonderful.
I think it is a worthy goal to find ways to reach more readers. The comment above is an excellent idea. I think we could all do more “sharing” on social media too.
On the positive side: The-Exponent is positioned very well to be a stable, relevant, long-lasting resource for many, if not all, LDS feminists. We don’t use “click-bait” titles. We don’t feel a need to “compete” in the bloggernacle. So, while I agree we can find ways to reach a wider audience, most of all I feel a sense of pride and security that we are right there near the top-middle-ish, doing our job, holding our own. And we’ll keep doing it for another forty-plus years!
Thanks for blogging about this, April. Fascinating stats! I’m most impressed by OW’s high ranking achieved in a relatively short period of time. Also, sorry that we at ZD are such intermittent bloggers. 🙂
I love this post, April. Kari – I like your suggestions a lot. I think we should also have a “follow” button like many WordPress blogs do.
I think about number of comments and views, too, but I also like to think The Exponent is putting out great content, whether or not it elicits lots of comments. I’m with Melody – The Exponent is going to be around for the long haul.
Ziff, you guys are awesome. Never let speed take priority over the great writing that you do.
Thanks, Emily U!