As Rasmussen and NBC/ WSJ released polling data last week indicating that Rick Perry has pulled ahead of the GOP pack, the candidates’ websites showed similar performance.
In the lead-up to Ms. Bachmann’s successful performance in the Ames Straw Poll (August 13th, 2011), her website lead amongst top GOP contenders in market share of visits. But as speculation around Mr. Perry’s candidacy grew during the week ending August 13th, culminating with his official announcement on the 13th, his market share of visit quickly jumped. Indeed, even after the post-announcement drop-off, RickPerry.org’s share of visits is up 506% (week of September 3rd vs. week of August 6th).
Mitt Romney’s site has since received the most traffic among candidates for the week ending September 10, 2011.
But exposure across the United States ultimately means little if a candidate can’t clear the way through the GOP primary and caucus season. Ms. Bachmann’s website over-indexes in visits from early primary and caucus states Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in comparison to the online population as a whole, but under-indexes in visit share from Nevada.
In comparison, though the bulk of traffic to Mr. Perry’s site still comes from his home state of Texas, his site also has a strong showing in key primary/caucus states.
Thanks to Margot Bonner, Analyst on the Custom Data & Insights team for helping with today’s analysis.