December’s top 100 most visited US websites list showed an impressive 8% traffic surge compared to November’s traffic numbers. Traffic growth wise, 77% of websites were in the positive territory, with only 23 websites losing some visitor numbers.
With Google as the absolute traffic leader (as usual), even the biggest search engine saw a significant 11% increase in visitors. After tracking the US top 100 for over a year, the only time we saw a comparable audience spike was in August 2021.
Regarding the top 10 most visited US sites, nine of them witnessed some substantial audience gains, with Facebook (+12%) leading the way. Wikipedia (-1%) was the only domain within the top-tenners that saw its audience numbers go down. With the continuation of November’s shopping bonanza, Walmart managed to maintain its previously gained spot within the top 10, while Bing remained out.
If we look at sites that witnessed the biggest growth, we can immediately spot the arrival of December — a month filled with gifts surge, delivery craze, and…high advertising activity.
It’s actually advertising platforms that saw the most impressive traffic gains. The only two sites that had a 100%+ visitor increase — a spike that won them a spot among the top 100 — were Criteo and Jivox. These platforms help digital advertisers make sure their ads reach the target audience. Good old Outbrain also saw a notable +38% traffic increase. And this is not surprising — in the digital marketing world, December equals shopping.
But of course, no shopping comes without delivery. So web surfers jumped to the likes of UPS (+30%) and FedEx (+27%). This gift/shopping-related traffic spike resulted in another newcomer to our top 100 — Narvar (+44%), a post-purchase platform for ecommerce.
We saw one of our Digital Marketing Trends predictions for 2022 come true in December — December’s top 100 list only proves how digital accessibility will become a mainstay in years to come. With a 74% growth in visitors, Usablenet — a platform that helps to enable digital accessibility — has entered our most popular US sites list for the first time to date.
Yet not every site managed to capitalize on December’s traffic splash. As we’ve been seeing for months, work/education-related software sites like Instructure (-30%), Zoom (-18%) and Quizlet (-22%) keep losing audience numbers.
Curiously, Wayfair also saw a notable 10% traffic drop despite a typically active December. This decline eliminated the site from top 100.