Mail Online has ousted Guardian.co.uk as the UK's most popular online newspaper website.
The news is significant because, although the Guardian was one of the first UK newspapers to develop a significant online presence, the Mail was one of the last. In this industry, longevity is no indicator of popularity.
However, the rankings have changed because the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has changed its reporting system. Instead of measuring the number of monthly unique users, it now measures the average daily number of browsers. The system has the advantage of not disregarding daily or regular users of the sites - the old method only counted them once.
The average daily number of browsers attracted by the Mail in January was 2,156,077, with the Guardian trailing on 1,931,826. Compared to January 2009, those numbers represent a 56.83% and 20.6% rise respectively.
The Telegraph, Sun and Times occupied the third, fourth and fifth most popular slots.
The figures show that great content is always popular on the web, and that it is the central plank of any SEO strategy. Good content will also help your own website to prosper – just don't forget you need online marketing too.
