The Missoula Current had a story up today touting their new look.
Folks…changing the way you look isn’t going to make people like you more.
Well, that’s what I figure and since we have the data, let’s prove it.
As you know, since May 2016 we’ve been tracking the blog traffic of all the major Montana blogs and newspapers.
We do this using Alexa and their website traffic statistics feature.
As usual with these types of things, consistency is what counts.
Every three months or so we come back, look up the sites, and compare and contrast.
So let’s do that again.
Folks…changing the way you look isn’t going to make people like you more.
Well, that’s what I figure and since we have the data, let’s prove it.
As you know, since May 2016 we’ve been tracking the blog traffic of all the major Montana blogs and newspapers.
We do this using Alexa and their website traffic statistics feature.
As usual with these types of things, consistency is what counts.
Every three months or so we come back, look up the sites, and compare and contrast.
So let’s do that again.
Here are the 24 most visited sites in Montana news and politics:
- Missoulian: #9,709
- Billings Gazette: #10,093
- Bozeman Daily Chronicle: #11,312
- Helena IR: #26,052
- GF Trib: #26,902
- MT Standard: #37,875
- KPAX: #38,310
- NBC Montana: 43,596
- Flathead Beacon: #52,766
- Missoula Independent: #101,053
- KXLH: 155,547
- Big Sky Words: #177,062
- KFBB: #184,290
- Missoula Current: #207,332
- Flathead Memo: #276,727
- Last Best News: #331,973
- Intelligent Discontent: #336,950
- MT Cowgirl: #396,242
- Combat Blog: #424,203
- Logicosity: #9.4 million
- Montana Political Review: #9.6 million
- Big Sky Rising: #11.5 million
- Western Word: #11.6 million
- Reptile Dysfunction: No Ranking
So how does that compare to 3 months ago?
Let’s start with the newspapers:
- Flathead Beacon: Up 38,403 places
- Missoula Independent: Up 11,447 places
- Missoulian: Up 6,020 places
- GF Trib: Up 5,055 places
- MT Standard: Up 4,545 places
- Helena IR: Up 4,537 places
- Billings Gazette: Up 2,167 places
Now to the blogs:
- Flathead Memo: Up 613,273 places
- Big Sky Words: Up 194,068 places
- Missoula Current: Up 171,464 places
- Logicosity: Now ranking
- Western Word: Now ranking
- Intelligent Discontent: Down 23,160 places
- Last Best News: Down 91,100 places
- MT Cowgirl: Down 299,511 places
- Reptile Dysfunction: Still no ranking
Now let’s analyze this a bit.
We see that the Missoulian has overtaken the Billings Gazette to become the most visited newspaper in the state.
Good job!
Still, I’m sure that’ll change in a day or two.
What we really notice is that the Flathead Beacon is really on a roll.
I’m also quite surprised that the Missoula Independent has gone up by so much…considering they’re no longer independent.
When we come to the blogs we see that Flathead Memo has pulled itself out of the abyss, going from a pitiful #8.9 million ranking to a #613,000 ranking.
Good job!
I’ve managed to increase my site’s traffic over the past 3 months as well, becoming the most-visited MT political blog in the process.
What’s interesting is that most of the Montana sites have a lot more social shares than I do, but I still get more visitors than they do.
Go figure.
Missoula Current is right behind me, and it’s really boosted itself a lot over the last 3 months…171,000 places to be exact.
I personally don’t think the site’s design or format had anything to do with that.
People come to our sites because of what they say, not how pretty they are.
It’s why I never change the design of my site – you don’t give a shit.
Last Best News continues to falter, losing 91,000 positions. Remember, 6 months ago they were doing a lot better.
In fact, they’ve lost half their website traffic during that time.
What happened?
Intelligent Discontent is down slightly, something that continues it’s year-long, gradual decline in traffic.
Remember, I see traffic declines as being caused by declines in quality content.
The real big news is how far MT Cowgirl has fallen. Used to be that this was one of the top political sites in Montana, if not the top.
Now it’s a sad joke that you shake your head at.
One New Yorker ran it for several years with success, but the New Yorker he had take it over did a real shitty job…not the least of which because she was called out and identified by Matt Rosendale’s staff.
Besides that I decided to include Combat Blog, Mtpol Review, and Big Sky Rising in the rankings.
I also added in some TV stations.
We’ll use that data again in about 3 months to see where things stand.
Until then…keep visiting.
