WordPress.com Is Ranked #8 For Internet Traffic in the US

WordPress.com has just passed Yahoo for the #8 spot on Quantcast’s assessment of US internet traffic with 72,868,680 monthly visits. In these most recent rankings posted, WordPress.com edges out Yahoo, Microsoft, Yelp, Pinterest, and Tumblr.com in traffic to claim its spot among the top ten.

Shortly following his announcement on Twitter, Matt Mullenweg replied to inquiries about the stats, noting that these figures don’t even account for mapped domains. Quantcast only takes sub-domains of wordpress.com into account.

WordPress.com Monthly Visits Have Increased by 45% in the Past Year

Looking back at internet archives of Quantcasts’ data, you can see that WordPress.com was ranked #21 in September of 2011. In 2012, it climbed to #20 with 50,146,992 monthly visitors. In the span of just one year, WordPress.com has jumped 12 places in rank and has increased its monthly visitors in the US by 45%. It’s no wonder that investment firms Tiger Global and Iconiq are increasing their stakes in Automattic.

This is an exciting day for the team at Automattic and the WordPress community in general. The news comes alongside new data showing that 19.9% of websites are powered by WordPress and very soon these numbers will surpass 20%, if they haven’t already. That means that 1 in 5 people or companies are making their home on the web using freely available, GPL-licensed software.

What Do These Numbers Mean For the WordPress Community in General?

If you’re a developer or designer who is building your business around WordPress software, the recent data about WordPress usage around the world should encourage you. WordPress expertise is in high demand. More than likely people are already banging on your door asking for WordPress help and will continue to do so in the future.

If you’re a student, wondering where to apply your talents and wanting to jump into an open source project, WordPress is looking pretty promising right now. While contributing to open source you can improve the software for millions of people and acquire some marketable skills while you’re at it.

Bottom line is that the WordPress mission to democratize publishing is working. Every year more people are choosing WordPress software to help them publish their own thoughts to the web. If you’re a contributor submitting patches to the core, creating new features, helping with documentation, volunteering in the forums or in some other capacity, you are making a real difference for all those sites that depend on this software. Here at the Tavern we love to shine the spotlight on these folks who are contributors. Everything you do to improve the WordPress experience helps to give a voice to millions of people around the world.