Crime stories drew most online traffic in 2011

As the number of visitors to the Banner Graphic website -- www.bannergraphic.com -- continued to increase in 2011, it was the stories of crime and controversy that drew the most readers' attention.

The number of page views and unique visitors to bannergraphic.com, reached new heights in 2011, with both measures of traffic up more than 10 percent.

The site has registered 8,644,688 page views for an average of 23,684 per day. The total page views tops the 2010 total of 7,431,451 by more than 16 percent.

Unique visitors to bannergraphic.com numbered 1,466,051 in 2011 -- a daily average of 4,017. This is up from 1,306,126 in 2010, a jump of 12 percent.

Page views are measured by the number of files requested from the site.

The unique visitors measurement indicates the number of users who visit a website within the specified period of time. It is in indicator of people who are getting continued use out of a site as opposed to those who visit just once.

Unique visitors are measured according to their unique IP addresses, which are like online fingerprints, and unique visitors are counted only once no matter how many times they visit the site.

The highest traffic day of the year in both categories was Wednesday, Oct. 19. The site saw 44,624 page views and 7,777 unique visitors that day.

Two different posts of the story "Roachdale physician arrested in drug, sex case" drew 5,929 and 2,253 page views respectively on Oct. 19. Additionally, "Cuts at South Putnam result in nine terminations by Oct. 28" registered 1,433 page views.

The increase in traffic continues a three-year trend of traffic increase at bannergraphic.com. In 2009, there were 6,809,706 page views and 1,134,989 unique visitors.

The current version of bannergraphic.com and its tracking software launched in April 2008, so complete annual numbers are not available further back.

The most viewed stories on the Banner Graphic website in 2011 were mainly crime stories. Fifteen of the 20 most viewed pages related to some sort of crime or suspected crime.

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1. Local man charged following Saturday morning homicide (Aug. 14) -- 10,342 page views

2. Male body found behind Refuse Handling (Aug. 8) -- 8,835 page views

3. Roachdale physician arrested in drug, sex case (Oct. 19) -- 8,418

-- Oct. 18 original post -- 5,631

4. Authorities investigating 'suspicious crime' at Autumn Glen condos (Aug. 31) -- 7,922

5. Final whistle blows at Monon (Sept. 9) -- 7,278

6. Accident on U.S. 36 kills one, injures two (Aug. 26) -- 7,126

7. Roachdale woman charged with having sex with minor (Oct. 7) -- 6,224

8. Corpse identified as Crawfordsville man (Aug. 10) -- 6,021

9. Hyten retains job in face of battery charge (June 17) -- 5,854

10. Roachdale man arrested after firing weapon in domestic incident (May 13) -- 5,643

11. Woman faces charges of sex with underage boys (Oct. 4) -- 5,397

12. Late-night meth raid nets 5 arrests (April 30) -- 5,171

13. Mitchener arrested for probation violation (March 7) -- 5,108

14. Arrests made in Bottoms' death (Feb. 12) -- 4,999

15. North Putnam athletic director arrested (March 1) -- 4,780

16. Becky Brothers, 1956-2011 (Dec. 1) -- 4,640

17. Becky Brothers: A distinguished life of service (Nov. 28) -- 4,464

18. Missing man found dead (Feb. 23) -- 4,351

19. Man charged with battering four-month-old (July 13) -- 4,324

20. Frisbie facing more legal troubles (April 15) -- 4,238