Chartbeat: Social Media Referrals Are Down, but Direct Traffic Is Up ⇥ axios.com

Sara Fischer, Axios:

The big picture: Since January 2017, per Chartbeat…

• Twitter and Facebook have declined in their share of traffic sent to news sites.

• Facebook traffic to publishers is down so much (nearly 40%) that according to Chartbeat, “a user is now more likely to find your content through your mobile website or app than from Facebook.”

• Google Search on mobile has grown more than 2x, helping guide users to stories on publishers’ owned and operated channels.

• Direct mobile traffic to publishers’s websites and apps has also steadily grown by more than 30%.

The declining influence of social networks is a promising sign, but their dominance over publishers’ business decisions should be heeded as a warning — particularly with the rising influence of Google Search, Google News, and Apple News.