A report published by UKOM reveals that the sites traffic is most active when the party comes under public scrutiny and not a constant flow as they would like to claim.
The Conservative website received the most traffic of political party sites last month, according to figures from the UK Online Measurement Company.
The Conservative site had the greatest proportion of women visitors, with 44%, compared with Labour (43%) and the Liberal Democrats (31%). Its audience is also more widely spread in terms of social classes, with 58% of visitors being ABC1, while Labour’s website was made up of 71% ABC1 and the Liberal Democrats’ 75%.
The British National Party site has seen dramatic increases in visits over the past year, but according to UKOM the spikes come during times of public scrutiny. The party’s traffic grew to 152,000 unique users in October 2009 when party leader Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time, and reached 192,000 last June during local elections.
James Smythe, UKOM general manager, said the data reflected how dynamic the race for voters’ attention had become. “Over the past 12 months the parties have taken turns to peak and dip in popularity, but it has become more important to deliver their party message as we get closer to the General Election. Our research suggests the Tories are attracting online interest from a bigger and broader section of society than the other parties. But as the BNP data shows us, visits don’t necessarily turn into votes.”
nma