Google+ continues to add features fast and furious.
Fresh on the heels of opening up Google+ Pages to the public, Experian Hitwise is reporting that Google+ saw it’s third highest week of traffic ever. And the largest since the social network received a bump after opening to the public.
Now that brands are innovating on Google+ and investing into the platform, they have a vested interest in promoting the new social network to their customers. This can only help the network. Below are some of the highlights from the Hitwise report.
- Last week Google+ recorded its 3rd largest week in terms of total US visits for the week ending Nov. 12, 2011 receiving more than 6.8 million total US visits. The growth represents a 5% increase versus the previous week and a 25% increase compared to a month ago. The recent growth could possibly be attributed to several new announcements that have come out recently.
- The top two weeks for overall visits to Google+ took place when the service opened up to all users the week ending Sept. 24, 2011 and the week directly after.
- Google+ traffic also increased 3% overall in terms of total US visits and the average visit time increased 15% in October vs. September 2011.
- Google+ benefits from other Google properties for referral traffic. Among the top ten referral sources, eight are Google properties and accounted for 73% off all upstream traffic last week, up from 65% during the peak week of Sept. 24, 2011.
- Another positive sign for the site is the share of visits from returning visitors (defined as having visited the website in past 30 days) has been increasing over the last few weeks. The average of the first two weeks of November versus the same time in October shows the share of returning visitors to the Google+ site increased 18%. Last week, 74% of the traffic to Google+ was from returning visitors, suggesting that Google+ users are returning to interact and engage with their networks (aka circles).
