For a Sunstone Presentation I’m giving in August at the 2006 SLC Sunstone Symposium, I gathered together the rankings of all the prominent Mormon-themed web sites and blogs that I could find. The data comes from https://alexa.org/. The ranking represents world ranking on the Internet.
If there are any major web sites or blogs that I have omitted, please advise. Also, I’d love to hear thoughts/analysis on this list from anyone who is interested in sharing.
| Top Mormon-Related Web Sites | Worldwide Web Rank |
| lds.org | 2,387 |
| byu.edu | 2,890 |
| familysearch.org | 8,832 |
| ldssingles.com (dating) | 31,226 |
| ldsplanet.com (dating) | 31,493 |
| deseretbook | 35,363 |
| mission.net (mission info) | 38,435 |
| mormon.org | 58,593 |
| exmormon.org (anti) | 84,451 |
| meridianmagazine | 126,633 |
| timesandseasons (blog) | 131,802 |
| lds-mormon.com (anti) | 160,918 |
| ldschurchtemples.com | 185,505 |
| jefflindsay.com (apologetic) | 191,282 |
| bycommonconsent (blog) | 226,907 |
| irr.org (anti) | 235,480 |
| ldstoday.com | 380,659 |
| millenialstar (blog) | 383,210 |
| utlm.org (anti) | 387,997 |
| fairlds.org (apologetic) | 446,237 |
| affirmation.org (gay & lesbian) | 463,066 |
| feministmormonhousewives (blog) | 533,133 |
| i4m.com — -rethinking mormonism (anti) | 544,305 |
| josephsmith.net | 565,339 |
| signaturebooks.com | 661,052 |
| saintsalive.com (anti) | 684,130 |
| mrm.org (anti) | 752,494 |
| bloggernacle.org (blog) | 816,374 |
| newordermormon.org | 845,282 |
| www.www.mormonstories.org (blog & podcast) | 852,648 |
| Dave’s Mormon Inquiry (blog) | 869,570 |
| mormanity.blogspot.com (blog) | 988,707 |
| mormoncurtain.com (anti) | 1,037,302 |
| sunstoneonline.com | 1,120,534 |
| ldsblogs.org | 1,235,567 |
| postmormon.org (anti) | 1,280,959 |
| ldsliberationfront.net (blog) | 1,356,045 |
| Nine Moons (blog) | 1,769,563 |
| splendidsun.com (blog) | 1,810,189 |
| sunstoneblog.com (blog) | 1,815,089 |
| shields-research.org (apologetic) | 2,194,342 |
| mormontruth.blogspot.com (anti) | 2,202,643 |
| Mormon Wasp (blog) | 2,359,379 |
| exponentblog.blogspot.com (blog) | 2,406,301 |
| spockwithabeard.com | 3,098,061 |
| snarkernacle (blog) | 3,454,312 |
| thismormonlife.com (blog & podcast) | 3,533,691 |
| reformmormonism.org | 4,131,484 |
| ldselect.org | 4,709,599 |
| newcoolthang.com (blog) | 6,041,039 |
20 Comments
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A couple more data points:
Google Trends: Noticeably “LDS” and “Mormon” related searches appears to be erractically searched with a long term declining trend over the last two years. These terms significantly outweigh other terms relating to LDS dating, Desert Book, et al. (However many of those show, if they have volume enough to show up on the charts, demonstrate increasing trends or seasonal trends.)
Conversely, Keyword Selection (inventory.overture.com) in May 06: “LDS dating” owns the category with 153,580. (Add another 10K if you add derivatives of this.) “LDS” combined with “LDS Church” and “CoJCof LDS” –even adding “LDS family search” accounts for only 47105 searches.
Geez, I’m at the bottom, huh? Just another item to mess with my head. Thanks a bunch, John! :-)
Dallas! Dude! I’m sure it’s messed up. I know a ton of people who listen to your podcast. It’s a statistical aberration…I’d bet good money on it.
You are still the man.
What? Someone tracked the fact I’ve been to NewCoolThang six million times?
Our Thoughts is ranked 1,865,373, for the record. :)
For high-traffic sites that pull a wide number of visitors, Alexa gives a fair approximation of rank.
But the less traffic a site gets, the more likely its ranking can be dramatically changed by even a single visitor who is running Alexa’s browser toolbar.
My personal website, https://ericjamesstone.com, has an Alexa traffic rank of 71,539 — which would put my site in the top ten on your list above if I blogged more about LDS issues.
There is no way my site gets more traffic than Times and Seasons, for example. But since I have Alexa’s toolbar installed in my browser, it counts all my visits to my own site, including when I check my email through the web interface. It then takes my visits to my own site and extrapolates that a percentage of visitors to my site are visiting it just as often and seeing just as many page views as I do, even though no one else does.
That gives my site a disproportionately high traffic rank.
I’ve looked at Alexa traffic rank on small sites that I start to visit frequently, and their rank often spikes after I start coming. The sample size is so small that I can have an impact.
So, while I’d like to think that my personal site gets more traffic than exmormon.org, I’m afraid it isn’t so.
One more note: Despite its limitations, Alexa is still the best source for traffic information that I know of. You might want to try ranking by their “Reach” statistic rather than “Traffic Ranking,” though, because the “Reach” stats aren’t influenced as much by a single user repeatedly visiting a site.
This is all very good feedback. Thanks, Eric!
I use Firefox (personally), and there’s no Alexa toolbar for that.
I wonder who in the world actually installs the toolbar? That’s what I’m wondering.
Anyway, thanks again for the thoughts.
P.S. Cool blog, by the way!!!
> I wonder who in the world actually installs the
> toolbar? That’s what I’m wondering.
You mean, other than me? :)
Other than buffing up my Alexa stats, I use it because it shows the traffic rank of the site I’m on and lists related sites.
Another data point, Eric. The toolbar only runs on Internet Explorer on Windows. It is therefore biased against sites whose users are disproportionately using non-Windows operating systems or browsers based on Mozilla or Konqueror.
Using LDSelect visitors as an example, 62% of them use Internet Explorer, which is a rate of usage quite a bit lower than IE’s actual market share. Moreover, only 86% of them use Windows based machines, the rest is split evenly between Mac and Linux (I use a Mac myself, but I filter log entries containing my own IP addresses from the activity reports.)
Makes me wonder how valuable the stats are. Totally worthless? Kinda decent indicators? Pretty valuable?
Interesting….
Well, I’m going to put a link to the Alexa toolbar on my site, and we’ll see if that improves the ratings.
I’d be very surprised if lds.org is really that much higher than familysearch.org. Familysearch.org gets a great deal of non-LDS visitors, looking for genealogy information. I suppose that more lds visitors might go to lds.org, since we’re notoriously bad at getting around to genealogy, but I would have expected the genealogy hobbyists to put familysearch about lds.org. So I’d question that stats too.
Let Your Mind Alone ranks 1,820,970… putting it right after Sunstone Blog :)
bycommonconsent (blog) 226,907
irr.org (anti) 235,480
ldstoday.com 380,659
millenialstar (blog) 383,210
utlm.org (anti) 387,997
fairlds.org (apologetic) 446,237
affirmation.org (gay & lesbian) 463,066
feministmormonhousewives (blog) 533,133
Hmm … adrr.com: 454,442
That is at about 70k hits a week.
Traffic Rank for ethesis.blogspot.com: 685,551
At about 200 hits a day right now.
I’d think they would be a lot further apart. They are in google page rank.
# The Millennial Star http://www.millennialstar.org – Site info Site Info
# WordPress wordpress.org – Site info Site Info
# LDS Gospel Doctrine Class Index ldsgospeldoctrine.net – Site info Site Info
# Splendid Sun, Inc. http://www.splendidsun.com – Site info Site Info
# A Soft Answer http://www.asoftanswer.com – Site info Site Info
# Pitas.com http://www.pitas.com – Site info Site Info
# DiaryLand http://www.diaryland.com – Site info Site Info
# Blog-City.com http://www.blog-city.com – Site info Site Info
# C4-creative.com cafelog.com – Site info Site Info
# Free-Conversant http://www.free-conversant.com – Site info Site Info
I’m amazed that people who visit my blog spend a lot of time at wordpress.
Wait a moment. At 685,551 …
josephsmith.net 565,339
signaturebooks.com 661,052
saintsalive.com (anti) 684,130
mrm.org (anti) 752,494
bloggernacle.org (blog) 816,374
I’m ahead of
Dave’s Mormon Inquiry (blog) 869,570
mormanity.blogspot.com (blog) 988,707
??
Gee, wonder what would happen if I dropped firefox for something that supported Alexa?
BTW, would you be interested in exchanging blogroll links?
Guess not. If you change your mind and are interested in exchanging blogroll links, let me know.
ethesis@aol.com
Stephen, I would give them a few weeks, I bet you’ll hear from them. Summer is awful and a lot of people don’t check their e-mail regularly.
They would certainly benefit from your suggestion.