Website statistics October 2008 to September 2009

The year overall

Visitors

The average number of visitors to our site from October 2008 to September 2009 remained around 140,000 per month.

Page views

The number of pages viewed each month dropped to under 800,000 during the Christmas period and peaked at over 1.7 million during July. These broad peaks and troughs are roughly repeated each year, reflecting the start of the new school year and the summer holiday period.

This year, the figures were also affected by the unusual weather at the beginning of the year as well as the county council elections in June.

Seasonal variation across the most popular sections

The unexpected snow in February caused a dramatic spike in visitors to our Roads and Transport pages. Numbers rose to over 35,000 – almost four times the normal web traffic for that time of year.

This also caused an unseasonal peak of 34,000 visitors to the Education pages as parents looked for news of school closures. A second peak of over 30,000 came in September with annual school admissions followed by the publication of dates for the coming school year.

The June elections saw visitor numbers to the Your Council section – featuring live results on our election map – rise by a third. The monthly average of around 15,000 rose by a further 8000 visitors.

But, overall, the Leisure and Tourism section won the greatest number of visitors per month, with almost 40,000 in August.

In other sections, visitor numbers remained consistent. As usual, both the Libraries section and A-Z of Services had around 11,000 visitors, and the Children and Families pages as well as the Community and Environment sections had 9,000 to 10,000.

Our job vacancies section has been visited by a steady 6,000 people per month this year, with expected dips for Christmas and the summer holidays.

What people are searching for on our website

The seasonal variation is also reflected in what people search for on our website each month.

September 2009

1. czone, 2. jobs, 3. term dates, 4. google, 5. sussex student card, 6. walks, 7. planning, 8. council tax, 9. housing, 10. map, 11. highways, 12. buy with confidence, 13. blue badge, 14. school holidays, 15. money, 16. schools, 17. vacancies, 18. pensions, 19. trading standards, 20. renew

August 2009

1. term dates, 2. jobs, 3. sussex student card, 4. google, 5. walks, 6. camber sands, 7. czone, 8. trading standards, 9. planning, 10. council tax, 11. buy with confidence, 12. dogs, 13. renew, 14. school holidays, 15. hastings, 16. highways, 17. blue badge, 18. housing, 19. money, 20. rye

July 2009

1. swine flu, 2. czone, 3. jobs, 4. term dates, 5. google, 6. walks, 7. planning, 8. blue badge, 9. trading standards, 10. housing, 11. buy with confidence, 12. council tax, 13. schools, 14. vacancies, 15. c zone, 16. map, 17. renew, 18. christmas tree, 19. rights of way, 20. school holidays

June 2009

1. jobs , 2. election results , 3. czone , 4. term dates , 5. google , 6. election , 7. walks , 8. elections , 9. vacancies , 10. trading standards , 11. highways , 12. planning , 13. school holidays , 14. map , 15. schools , 16. christmas tree , 17. council tax , 18. c zone , 19. parking , 20. camber sands

May 2009

1. jobs, 2. czone, 3. term dates, 4. walks, 5. planning, 6. google, 7. elections, 8. council tax, 9. blue badge, 1.0 camber sands, 11. schools, 12. trading standards, 13. housing, 14. rights of way, 15. vacancies, 16. cycling, 17. map, 18. grants, 19. bus tickets, 20. complaints

April 2009

1. jobs, 2. czone, 3. planning, 4. term dates, 5. walks, 6. google, 7. christmas tree, 8. council tax, 9. blue badge, 10. school holidays, 11. housing, 12. map, 13. vacancies, 14. parking, 15. trading standards, 16. , 17. rights of way, 18. procurement, 19. buy with confidence, 20. cycling

Availability – consistent at over 99%

Website weekly performance charts