Yesterday afternoon, comScore announced the latest rankings in the financial news and research site category, which attracted more than 64 million U.S. visitors in May, an increase of 35 percent versus year ago.
Yahoo! Finance was the leader in the category during May with 18.5 million visitors, up 58 percent versus year ago, followed by AOL Money & Finance with 15.2 million visitors (up 48 percent) and MSN Money with 13.7 million visitors (up 13 percent).
Here are the top 10 Financial News and Research Sites:
Total Unique Visitors (millions) May 2008
1. Yahoo! Finance 18.5
2. AOL Money & Finance 15.2
3. MSN Money 13.7
4. Forbes Property 7.0
5. Dow Jones & Company 6.6
6. CNN Money 6.0
7. BNET 5.6
8. TheStreet.com Sites 5.3
9. Reuters Sites 4.8
10. Reed Business Information 3.8
The category displayed visitor growth across virtually all demographic segments. However, certain segments contributed more than others.
The number of visitors to the category age 50 and older grew 46 percent versus year ago, while visitors under 50 grew by 32 percent. Above average growth was also seen in the following segments: households earning at least $60,000 annually (40 percent), households with children (38 percent) and households with at least 5 people (57 percent).
In other words, the segments displaying the greatest growth are those more likely to have greater financial responsibilities or challenges, such as paying for their kids to go to college, or needing to figure out how best to handle rapidly escalating monthly payments on home mortgages. And don’t get me started on rising gas prices.
Why should search engine marketers pay attention to this trend? Check out your favorite financial news site, search for a couple of publicly traded companies, and see how many press releases you can find in the results. Most of them have been distributed by Business Wire, Marketwire, PrimeNewswire and PR Newswire.
It kind of makes you think.
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