2009 was a record year for Buffalo Rising as our traffic grew to just over 2.3 million visits, a 17% increase over 2008. Even better, the site received 769,628 unique visits during 2009, a 28% growth rate over the previous year. We'd like to thank all of our visitors and commenters for your support.
We also launched our Buffalo Rising Store during 2009 and, with nearly 200 products offered by more than 15 different vendors, we've sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise in the 9 months the store has been live and we enjoyed a tremendous Christmas shopping season. We intend to continue to introduce new Buffalo-related merchandise to our store so be sure to check back often.
Like most established sites, we have seen some seismic shifts in where our traffic comes from. Direct traffic - visitors who type BuffaloRising.com directly into their browser's url - was up 31% from 2008 and now accounts for 39% of our traffic. Another 35% of our traffic comes from Google through organic searches, 3% comes from Yahoo (people still use Yahoo?), and 2.5% from Facebook (up from .2% in 2008). It's notable that we received as many visitors from Twitter (approximately 20,000) as we did from Bing (sorry Microsoft).
The 10 network locations (not counting consumer-focused ISP's like Road Runner) that sent the most visitors to BuffaloRising.com during 2009 were:
1.) SUNY Buffalo (up 5% from 2008)
2.) City of Buffalo (up 39% from 2008)
3.) HSBC Bank (up 25% from 2008)
4.) Buffalo State College (up 32% from 2008)
5.) Roswell Park (up 44% from 2008)
6.) Erie County (down 1% from 2008)
7.) Canisius College (up 1% from 2008)
8.) Kaleida Health (up 36% from 2008)
9.) Citicorp (up 74% from 2008)
10.) Erie County Public Library (up 101% from 2008)
The 10 search terms that drove the most traffic to BuffaloRising.com (not counting branded terms like 'Buffalo Rising') during 2009 were:
1.) Buffalo events
2.) 31 Club
3.) Anthony Bourdain Buffalo
4.) Buffalo Restaurant Week
5.) Benchwarmers Buffalo
6.) YNN Buffalo
7.) Encore Buffalo
8.) Sugar City Buffalo
9.) Della Terra Buffalo
10.) Five Points Bakery
Over 2009, there were 209,037 unique search phrases that drove people to BuffaloRising.com. While the top 10 reveal what's new and hot in Buffalo, we also look at some of the stranger terms to fully appreciate the 2009 Buffalo zeitgeist.
1.) Firepole for sale (79 visits)
2.) Bubble man Buffalo (72 visits)
3.) Aud Buffalo hole (62 visits)
4.) Red mark of death (50 visits)
5.) Cats like us (58 visits)
6.) My city smells like Cheerios (55 visits)
7.) The T.O. Show (40 visits)
8.) Flutie flakes (38 visits)
9.) Airport Plaza Jewelers Commercial (27 visits)
10.) Ralph Wilsons death (21 visits)
11.) Do you see what I'm saying (20 visits)
13.) Why is Tim Horton's coffee so delicious? (11 visits)
14.) Patrick Kane do you know who i am (2 visit)
15.) Why is the virgin mary shown in a tub (1 visit)
15.) Dick Jauron why are you punting? (1 visit)
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We also launched our Buffalo Rising Store during 2009 and, with nearly 200 products offered by more than 15 different vendors, we've sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise in the 9 months the store has been live and we enjoyed a tremendous Christmas shopping season. We intend to continue to introduce new Buffalo-related merchandise to our store so be sure to check back often.
Like most established sites, we have seen some seismic shifts in where our traffic comes from. Direct traffic - visitors who type BuffaloRising.com directly into their browser's url - was up 31% from 2008 and now accounts for 39% of our traffic. Another 35% of our traffic comes from Google through organic searches, 3% comes from Yahoo (people still use Yahoo?), and 2.5% from Facebook (up from .2% in 2008). It's notable that we received as many visitors from Twitter (approximately 20,000) as we did from Bing (sorry Microsoft).
The 10 network locations (not counting consumer-focused ISP's like Road Runner) that sent the most visitors to BuffaloRising.com during 2009 were:
1.) SUNY Buffalo (up 5% from 2008)
2.) City of Buffalo (up 39% from 2008)
3.) HSBC Bank (up 25% from 2008)
4.) Buffalo State College (up 32% from 2008)
5.) Roswell Park (up 44% from 2008)
6.) Erie County (down 1% from 2008)
7.) Canisius College (up 1% from 2008)
8.) Kaleida Health (up 36% from 2008)
9.) Citicorp (up 74% from 2008)
10.) Erie County Public Library (up 101% from 2008)
The 10 search terms that drove the most traffic to BuffaloRising.com (not counting branded terms like 'Buffalo Rising') during 2009 were:
1.) Buffalo events
2.) 31 Club
3.) Anthony Bourdain Buffalo
4.) Buffalo Restaurant Week
5.) Benchwarmers Buffalo
6.) YNN Buffalo
7.) Encore Buffalo
8.) Sugar City Buffalo
9.) Della Terra Buffalo
10.) Five Points Bakery
Over 2009, there were 209,037 unique search phrases that drove people to BuffaloRising.com. While the top 10 reveal what's new and hot in Buffalo, we also look at some of the stranger terms to fully appreciate the 2009 Buffalo zeitgeist.
1.) Firepole for sale (79 visits)
2.) Bubble man Buffalo (72 visits)
3.) Aud Buffalo hole (62 visits)
4.) Red mark of death (50 visits)
5.) Cats like us (58 visits)
6.) My city smells like Cheerios (55 visits)
7.) The T.O. Show (40 visits)
8.) Flutie flakes (38 visits)
9.) Airport Plaza Jewelers Commercial (27 visits)
10.) Ralph Wilsons death (21 visits)
11.) Do you see what I'm saying (20 visits)
13.) Why is Tim Horton's coffee so delicious? (11 visits)
14.) Patrick Kane do you know who i am (2 visit)
15.) Why is the virgin mary shown in a tub (1 visit)
15.) Dick Jauron why are you punting? (1 visit)
i'm offended... i love yahoo. these are great numbers. my day isn't complete with out at least one visit to buffalorising. you all do a great job and are a real asset to the city. thanks