Yahoo has traditionally been recognized for the quality content it offers consumers, and this only strengthened since the company acquired Associated Content last spring. Marketers may take note that rich content pays off as Yahoo sites garnered the most visitors of all web properties in August.
ComScore's Media Metrix ranking of the top 50 U.S. web properties for August 2010 shows that Yahoo sites gained 5 million unique visitors last month over July. Yahoo sites boasted a total of 179 million visitors, while Google sites showed little change over the previous month, catching 178 million unique visitors.
This is the first time in months that Google sites are not the top web properties. In June 2010, comScore reported Google was well in the lead, garnering nearly 179 million unique web visitors, while runner-up Yahoo had 170 million visitors for the month. In July, Yahoo properties demonstrated gains, according to comScore, reaching 174 million unique consumers. Meanwhile, Google maintained a narrow lead with more than 178 million visitors.
While the number of visitors to Yahoo's sites is rising, the company claims it will be making updates to improve user experience. As Brafton reported last week, Yahoo says it will launch a more "entertaining" experience for online visitors. Kaushal Kurapati, senior director of product management for Yahoo Search, explains that the site will focus on creating visually rich content to consumers.
In light of the increasing number of visitors Yahoo properties draw, marketers may want to optimize their sites for the company's visually oriented user experience. Still, optimizing websites for Google may be marketers' best bet for getting consumers to see their online content.
According to the latest search enging rankings from comScore, which Brafton reported earlier this month, Google accounted for nearly two-thirds (65.4 percent) of explicit core searches in August.
