According to Hitwise, classified web traffic is climbing.
“U.S. online traffic to classified ad Web sites increased 84% in February 2009, compared with a year ago, according to a new report from Hitwise, an Experian company. The industry has experienced positive sequential growth in U.S. visits for all but one month during the past three years. As the state of the U.S. economy worsens, visits to these sites continue to climb, up 28% from December 2008 to February 2009. “
Although all classified traffic rose, Craigslist.com traffic rose by 90% and “Other Classifieds” rose 22%. They stated that traffic to other classified sites was down in 2008 but that it began to grow in January, suggesting that the economy actually helped those smaller classified sites. They also suggested that smaller classified sites could benefit by SEO efforts.
