01 October 2016

Genealogy Websites Benchmark Update for September

What happened? There's a surprise in this month's regular look at how your favourite genealogy sites did according to Alexa.
Is it possible that genealogy websites suddenly are attracting a lot less attention? When only two of the sites regularly followed here gained in popularity, including major sites like familysearch and ancestry, something is happening.
More likely is a change in the algorithm used. There's nothing announced about that.

Here, for the record, are the results, remembering that a positive trend in the table indicates an improvement in popularity.

Site30-Sep31-AugTrend (%)
familysearch.org2,8292,426-14.2
ancestry.com534455-14.8
ancestry.co.uk8,1786,701-18.1
ancestry.ca17,91116,407-8.4
myHeritage.com4,5143,975-11.9
thegenealogist.co.uk407,139303,421-25.5
findmypast.co.uk28,08222,450-20.1
findmypast.com42,73624,573-42.5
canadiana.ca915,384879,001-4.0
familytreedna.com17,25114,887-13.7
23andMe.com7,9136,525-17.5
isogg.org177,216157,067-11.4
                                 
genealogyintime.com356,651342,585-3.9
eogn.com165,182145,729-11.8
lostcousins.com816,820636,248-22.1
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk119,049116,166-2.4
newspapers.com8,0127,065-11.8
cyndislist.com122,283113,168-7.5
freebmd.org.uk107,83893,799-13.0
canadianheadstones.com686,049662,296-3.5
deceasedonline.com743,565620,792-16.5
bifhsgo.ca2,199,3581,843,432-16.2
ogs.on.ca662,016677,7782.4
qfhs.ca4,350,7555,926,62536.2
torontofamilyhistory.org6,244,5176,143,132-1.6
ngsgenealogy.org413,533380,568-8.0
americanancestors.org134,653106,052-21.2
scgsgenealogy.com1,615,8271,464,166-9.4
sog.org.uk907,003854,669-5.8
anglo-celtic-connections1,588,8321,258,834-20.8

Also for the record, there's also been a bit of a shake up in the lower half of the overall top ten sites:

1. Google.com (1)
2. Youtube.com (2)
3. Facebook.com (3)
4. Baidu.com (4)
5. Yahoo.com (5)
6. Wikipedia.org (7)
7. Google.co.in (9)
8. Amazon.com (6)
9. Twitter.com (10)
10. Qq.com (8)

2 comments:

Celtictwigs said...

It would be good to hear the definition of each of the columns. Thanks.

Sophronia said...

I'm not surprised that use of a lot of the genealogy websites has dropped. Perhaps, like me, many genealogists have aged and no longer have the energy to pursue their family history. Then there is the cost and the number of paid sites you need to join to get all the records. Faced with a choice, I chose NONE. If the cost ever becomes realistic I will rejoin, but for now I will make do with what I can get at my local library.