If April showers bring May flowers, then millions of Americans must have been busy with home improvement projects this spring, as more than one in three Americans used the Web to visit home and garden websites in May. Looking forward to summer parties and backyard barbeques led 73 million Americans to visit websites in the home and garden category during May.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the top two websites for these DIYers were retailers—the Home Depot and Lowe’s—which cater to these projects. Home improvement publishers like Better Homes and Gardens and HGTV’s website also attracted significant audiences, while Web publishers like iVillage and About.com rounded out the list of top sites in the category.
Top 10 Home & Garden Web Brands By Unique Audience (U.S. Total)
| Rank | Website | Unique Audience | Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | Total home & garden sites | 73,103,000 | 0:25:29 |
| 1 | The Home Depot | 20,002,000 | 0:11:04 |
| 2 | Lowe’s | 16,185,000 | 0:10:35 |
| 3 | Better Homes and Gardens (BHG.com) | 6,126,000 | 0:06:57 |
| 4 | HGTV – Home & Garden Television | 5,604,000 | 0:12:35 |
| 5 | iVillage GardenWeb | 4,192,000 | 0:04:09 |
| 6 | About.com Home | 3,887,000 | 0:02:34 |
| 7 | Home Shopping Network | 3,744,000 | 0:29:19 |
| 8 | Wayfair | 3,642,000 | 0:08:02 |
| 9 | DIY Network | 3,187,000 | 0:05:18 |
| 10 | IKEA | 3,070,000 | 0:07:45 |
| Source: Nielsen |
More than 205 million Americans were active on the Web in May 2013, and more than 77 percent of them (165 million) found their way to Google, making it the top Web brand during the month. Overall, Americans spent more than 27 hours surfing the Web in May, visiting 88 unique domains per person. Among the top 10 Web brands, visitors to Facebook.com spent the most time—an average of about 6.5 hours per person in May.
Top 10 Web Brands By Unique Audience (U.S. Total)
| Rank | Website | Unique Audience | Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 165,597,000 | 2:02:13 | |
| 2 | 135,719,000 | 6:27:44 | |
| 3 | Yahoo! | 128,837,000 | 2:24:54 |
| 4 | YouTube | 123,851,000 | 2:07:58 |
| 5 | MSN/WindowsLive/Bing | 120,720,000 | 1:17:19 |
| 6 | Microsoft | 84,427,000 | 0:45:57 |
| 7 | AOL Media Network | 78,603,000 | 1:59:39 |
| 8 | Amazon | 77,419,000 | 0:35:24 |
| 9 | Wikipedia | 72,578,000 | 0:22:25 |
| 10 | Ask Search Network | 64,166,000 | 0:13:30 |
| Source: Nielsen |