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Internet plays a key role in voter registration following election announcement

Voter registration searches increase 9-fold following election announcement

Political websites use Internet marketing techniques to attract visitors

Younger people registering to vote, but politics websites attract older voters

London, 12 April 2010 - Experian Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reveals that British citizens flocked to the Internet to register to vote last week following the announcement that the General Election will take place on May 6^th. UK Internet searches for the term ‘register to vote’ increased 9-fold between the week ending April 3^rd and the week ending April 10^th, while UK Internet visits to About My Vote (www.aboutmyvote.co.uk), the primary voter registration website, increased by 252%.

Voter registration searches increase 9-fold following election announcement

Between the week ending April 3rd and the week ending April 10th, UK vote-related searches increased by 169%. During the week ending April 10^th, British Internet users searched for almost 4,500 distinct search terms containing the word ‘vote’, with searches for the most popular term, ‘register to vote’, increasing 9-fold over the previous week.

“Looking at the range of election related search terms used by British Internet users last week, it is clear that people are turning to the web for advice and information about the upcoming election,” commented Robin Goad, Director of Research at Experian Hitwise. “In addition to voter registration related searches such as ‘register to vote’ and ‘postal vote’, people are also searching for voting advice. The terms ‘vote match’, ‘vote for policies’ and ‘who should I vote for’ were all extremely popular last week.”

Political websites use Internet marketing techniques to attract visitors

The biggest recipient of UK Internet traffic from searches for ‘register to vote’ last week was About My Vote (www.aboutmyvote.co.uk), the official voter registration website. As a result, UK Internet visits to the site increased by 252% between the week ending April 3rd and the week ending April 10^th. The website is currently receiving traffic from a wide range of vote-related search terms, with 28% of its search traffic coming via paid or sponsored links on the major search engines.

Commented Goad: “Given the important role that the Internet will play in the election, we expect political parties and the government bodies overseeing the process to make use of Internet marketing techniques - such as paid search, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing – that are already well established in the commercial world. We are seeing this via the use of paid search in voter registration campaigns, as well as the ability to download a voter registration form from Facebook that was launched over the weekend.”

Younger people registering to vote, but politics websites attract older voters

During the 4 weeks ending April 10^th, people aged between 18 and 24 were 33% more likely than the average Internet user to visit About My Vote, making them the most over-represented age group on the voter registration website. Similarly, the most over-represented Experian Mosaic lifestyle groups to visit the site over the last four weeks were Study Buddies (defined as “Students Living in halls of residence and vibrant but unloved private housing”) and Brownfield Pioneers (“Young people living in affordable city housing, much of which is brownfield infill”).

Commented Goad: “It is clear that voter registration websites are attracting younger voters, and that they are using search engines and social networks to engage with politics. However, more traditional political websites, such as the party homepages and blogs, remain the preserve of older voters. UK Internet visits to politics websites increased by 31% last week, but over a third of visitors were aged 55+”.

ENDS

About Experian Hitwise

Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million Web sites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.

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For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Experian Hitwise research blog at www.ilovedata.com and the Experian Hitwise Data Centre at www.hitwise.com/datacentre

About Experian
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