The Irish Times on the Web has recorded an increase of more than 40 per cent in traffic to the Web site in the last six months, according to officially audited figures released this week.
The latest figures, certified by the electronic publications arm of the Audit Bureau of Circulation, reaffirm The Irish Times on the Web as the busiest Irish site.
ABC //electronic measured the Web site as having 620,623 users, with almost six million page impressions or individual Web page accesses, in the month from March 3rd to April 2nd, 1998.
This is an increase of 41 per cent on the audit figures from October 1997, which measured 396,131 users and 4.25 million page impressions. Visits to the site have also increased from 1.28 million in October to 1.57 million in March.
The busiest day in March was St Patrick's Day, when close to 200,000 page impressions were recorded in 24 hours, the highest number since the site was launched in 1994.
Acknowledging the substantial growth in Web site traffic, Mr Richard Foan of ABC //electronic said: "We are delighted to be issuing this second certificate to the Irish Times Web site and congratulate them on their results." ABC //electronic audit certification provides advertisers, agencies and media buyers with independent audience verification. The Irish Times on the Web was the first Irish Web site to achieve independent certification. Around 40 newspaper and magazine Web sites are registered in Britain and Ireland with ABC //electronic.
In Britain 5.2 million page impressions were recorded at The Times for March.
The marketing executive for the Irish Times site, Ms Una McEvoy, said: "Measuring page impression, visit and user traffic to The Irish Times on the Web is a more valid and quantifiable way of evaluating site usage than relying on `hits' and provides a more concrete picture of the volume of traffic to the site."