Orleans Hub breaks record again for traffic

February had highest average for unique visitors, daily pageviews

Photo by Tom Rivers  – Jeremy Graham uses a snowblower on Feb. 2 to clear out his driveway on East State Street in Albion when a snowstorm hit the area, shutting down local schools for the day. February was a month of punishing winter weather.

Orleans Hub set a new record in February with highest daily average for unique visitors and daily pageviews.

The site was coming off a big month in January when we crushed our record for average daily unique visitors. The 6,650 average for unique daily visitors in January topped the December record of 5,650 by 17.7 percent or 1,000 “uniques.”

I was hoping we could stay above 6,000 for February, which is usually a slow news month. A lot of our January traffic was driven by interest in the Medina village dissolution issue. Village residents voted down that referendum on Jan. 20.

But we topped January’s numbers with a 6,780 daily average for unique visitors in February. We had 615,029 total pageviews over 28 days for a 21,965 daily average, which tops the 21,317 daily average in January, when we had 660,825 pageviews over 31 days.

We frequently posted winter weather advisories, wind chill warnings and hazardous cold outlooks from the National Weather Service. Orleans Hub frequently wrote about the brutal weather and school closings, which are always a draw for readers.

Photo by JC Photography (Jesse Colmenero)

A story about the life of Brian Bellan and his 12 children was the most popular story of the month in February on the Orleans Hub. The Bellan family is pictured last fall at Mount Albion Cemetery. The group includes, front row, from left: EmmaLee and Karina; Second row: MiKayla, Richie, Da’Ron, Austin and Elizabeth; Back row: Briana, Porter, William, Kyson, Bryce, Kim and Brian.

In February, brutally cold weather was often in the news. The temperatures set a new record for coldest month ever for Buffalo and Rochester.

But we didn’t just write about the weather. Nor did readers of the Orleans Hub. We’ve been receiving lots of letters to the editor, and one by Dr. David Stahl of Medina was the second most popular story of the month in terms of “clicks,” or how many times the story was clicked on.

Here are the top five stories for the month:

1. Father of 12 leaves legacy of love in Medina

2. Doctor says billing irregularities at Medina hospital

3. County sells former Apollo Restaurant in Albion

4. Injunction seeks to stop ‘Squirrel Slam’

5. Community will rally for Rustay family

Mike and Cheryl Wertman have also been busy covering the local sports scene. Mike’s story on Feb. 9 was the first story about Roosevelt Bouie being inducted in the Syracuse University Hall of Fame.

Bouie, a former Kendall High School star, had his No. 50 retired by Syracuse. He is pictured here with several of Kendall’s senior players. They include, from left, Mookie Nauden, Will Condo, Taylor Kingsbury and Tania Arellano. They are in front of the case that displays Bouie’s retired Kendall jersey.