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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

« BBQ searches take off as the sunshine comes out | Political blogs in the run up to the election »

Online voter registration

April 13, 2010

British citizens flocked to the Internet to register to vote last week following the announcement that the General Election will take place on May 6th. UK Internet searches for the term ‘register to vote’ increased 9-fold between the week ending April 3rd and the week ending April 10th.

Between the week ending April 3rd and the week ending April 10th, UK vote-related searches increased by 169%. During the week ending April 10th, 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. 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.

The biggest recipient of UK Internet traffic from searches for ‘register to vote’ last week was About My Vote, 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 10th. 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.

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.

During the 4 weeks ending April 10th, 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 group 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 (defines 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”).

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+.

Follow Hitwise UK on Twitter to keep up with the latest online election data.

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:50 AM | (0)
In Categories 2010 General Election | Demographics | Fast moving search terms | Mosaic lifestyle | Politics | Search