Figures released for website traffic- how some fan sites beat official club and MSM visitor numbers

With most publishers switching their focus from print to digital the old school monthly circulation figures are of less interest to advertisers. 

Reach, traffic and page views are what matter in 2022 with Google Analytics able to break figures down by location, age group and gender. 

Traditional publishers are scrambling on board but it looks like they have a lot of catching up to do against established websites like Video Celts and a couple of others. 

Last year Reach, owners of the Daily Record, Daily Express and Daily Star revived Football Scotland in a bid to engage with an audience that had turned away from traditional titles. 

According to SimilarWeb the figures don’t look great. 572,000 visits in December scaled to 848,900 in January due to the transfer window but that slipped back to 622,300 in February with three less days. 

By comparison SimilarWeb recorded traffic to Video Celts at 1.6m, 1.4m and 1.2m over the same period, January impacted by a welcome and much needed break in Gran Canaria! The actual figure for February was a fair bit more than SimilarWeb picked up on. 

Surprisingly official club websites aren’t faring much better, despite the global reach of Celtic and a win in the Glasgow Derby alongwith other favourable results less than 1m visits were made during February. 

The official Celtic website had 952,700 visits during February, across the city their Sydney bound business partners managed 1.2m visits.

Last August, dismayed by plunging print sales, Newsquest, owners of the Evening Times/Herald decided to launch subscription sites for each Glasgow club. Subscriptions seem to average out at around £5/month with discount offers constantly available. The Celtic Way had 171,500 visits during February, their Ibrox counterpart had 439,300 visits.