The third quarter of 2022 saw mobile traffic and engaged time remain largely unchanged while loyalty increased and search traffic slipped in some regions.

Read on for more global insights from our third quarter research below.

Compare to our previous insights: Q2 2022 |  Q1 2022 | Q4 2021

Engaged Time highest in the Middle East and Africa

Readers in the Middle East were the most engaged audience in the second quarter with 44 seconds of Average Engaged Time. Africa and Central / Eastern Europe followed with 36 and 34 seconds, respectively.

Average Engaged Time in the Middle East increased by 5 seconds while Africa experienced a decrease from its second quarter average of 39 seconds.

Mobile traffic largely unchanged outside of Central Asia, Central / Eastern Europe

Audiences in Southeast Asia and Africa continue to access content primarily on Mobile with 83% of pageviews in these regions coming from mobile devices in the third quarter. Central Asia followed at 79%, down from 88% in the second quarter.

With all but one region getting 70% or more of their pageviews from a mobile audience, there will continue to be minor fluctuations from quarter to quarter, but the overall trend of mobile dominance will remain.

Search traffic declines in Central and Southeast Asia

47% of pageviews in Central Asia came from Search in the third quarter, followed by Southeast Asia at 41% and Africa at 36%.

Search audiences in Central Asia drove 54% of pageviews in the second quarter of 2022, while Search in Southeast Asia had driven the second most at 44%.

Africa, Central / Eastern Europe lead in pageviews from social

Africa continues to lead the world in percentage of pageviews from social platforms. In the third quarter, 25% of their pageviews came from Social. Central / Eastern Europe and North America followed at 20%.

Social audiences drove 23% of pageviews in Africa in the second quarter, while Social in Central / Eastern Europe drove 13%.

Loyalty remains high throughout Europe

For the second quarter in a row, Central / Eastern Europe saw more than half of its pageviews come from loyal readers. Northern Europe and Southern Europe continue to boast a loyal readership as well with 46% and 39%, respectively.

While European regions remained relatively static at the top of the chart, North America and Southeast Asia saw nice gains in loyalty with the former increasing from 29% to 35% and the latter increasing from 17% to 27% loyal pageviews.

Takeaways from our third quarter research

1. Search traffic continues to outpace social.

While most regions saw a decrease or no change in their percentage of pageviews from Search, it’s worth noting that the channel as a whole is on the rise. Raw traffic from Google in particular has risen in 2022, while Facebook traffic has remained flat.

2. About 75% of pageviews now occur on mobile devices.

From 2021 to 2022, Mobile has grown its share of overall traffic about 3%. In recent weeks, about 3 out of every 4 visits across our network are happening on phones.

3. Loyal readers are a smaller, but more valuable segment of your audience.

The largest proportion of traffic in our network is driven by loyal readers (those who return to your site at least 50% of the days in a two-week period). Though smaller in number, they consume about 2.5 times as much content per visit as new readers.

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