NASA.gov is an award-winning, highly-trafficked website. Here's a historical look at some of the metrics from NASA.gov

1. Metrics,
2003-2012
NASA.gov Web Team
March 29, 2013

2. www.NASA.gov:
Annual Sessions and 240.0 85
Customer Satisfaction
Sessions (Millions)
Traffic to www.NASA.gov increased 200.0 Customer Satisfaction
ten-fold from 2003 to 2012.
In the same period, the global online 160.0 80
population increased about three-fold,
indicating the growth in traffic to
NASA’s website was real growth, not
just a reflection of more people getting 120.0
online.
NASA’s customer satisfaction scores 80.0 75
(measured by an online survey)
climbed steadily through the decade
reaching levels closer to successful
commercial websites than to 40.0
government websites.
0.0 70
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

3. 3.5
3.0
Mobile.nasa.gov
The mobile version of the NASA
website was introduced in late 2.5
2010, but configuration changes in
early 2012 lead to ten-fold increase in
traffic. At right are the monthly visits 2.0
(Millions)
to mobile.nasa.gov in 2012.
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0

4. 100%
Reaching
Target 90%
Audiences
In 2003, the NASA 80%
Administrator
directed the Office 70%
of Public Affairs and
the CIO to use
NASA’s website to 60%
reach three primary
target audiences: 50%
the general
public, K-12 students
and K-12 teachers. 40% Other
Contractor/Sub
Over the 30% PI/Co-I/team member
years, proportion of News Media
members of the 20% NASA Employee
target audience has
College Student/Educator
grown to more than
K-12 Educator
70 percent of the 10%
site’s total audience. K-12 Student
General Public
0%
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

5. Missions
Images
Reason for Visiting
News and Features
Users have said continuously that
their primary interests are
Universe
mission coverage imagery and
video. Traffic statistics bear this
Other
out.
Shuttle and Space Station
From 2011 to 2012, the broader 2011
“Missions” category gained over Solar System
Shuttle and Station.
Multimedia
Aeronautics
2012
Earth

6. • Amazon.com: 89 • CNN.com: 75
• NASA: 82 • All eGov sites: 74
• Google: 82 • NYTimes.com: 74
• Barnes and Noble: 82 • All federal sites: 72
• eBay: 81 • YouTube: 73
• Bing: 81 • All public sector: 71
• Netflix: 81 • All websites: 69
• Google+: 78 • Huffpost: 69
• Wikipedia: 78 • Pinterest: 69
• Yahoo: 78 • Twitter: 64
• MSN: 78 • Facebook: 61
* December 2012 from the Foresee Results online survey.

7. Customer Satisfaction Benchmarks*
• Nhlbi.nih.gov: 87 • All eGov sites: 75
• Cancer.gov: 83 • Fed. dept. main sites: 74
• CDC.gov: 82 • All federal sites: 73
• USCIS (Spanish): 82 • All public sector: 72
• NASA: 81 • All websites: 69
• USCIS (English): 81
• 27 others: ≤ 80
* Fourth quarter 2012 from the Foresee Results online survey.

9. Wikipedia uses NASA.gov to illustrate “Website”

10. Image of the Day

11. Time Uses NASA.gov to Explain 2012

12. Ustream Highlights NASA TV

13. 800
www.NASA.gov 700
Page Views
600
Reflects all downloads of
HTML files for the year.
500
The most consistently
popular pages remain
the image and video 400
galleries, the multimedia
page, and the section
pages for the missions in 300
the news that year.
200
The only pure feature
story to make the list
was the “2012 won’t be
Doomsday” explainer in 100
2011 and 2012.
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Page Views (Millions) 102 410 488 518 409 505 689 562 668 616

14. 2003 2004 2005 2006
1 NASA Home Page 63,200 NASA Home Page 105,768 NASA Home Page 129,681 NASA Home Page 111,199
2 News Highlights 4,708 MER Interactive 20,078 Return to Flight Interactive 14,308 NASA TV Page 20,110
3 NASA 45th Interactive 2,880 VSE Interactive 5,934 NASA TV Page 12,764 Shuttle Main Page 16,524
4 NASA Today 2,165 Image Gallery 5,406 Return to Flight Main Page 12,423 News Highlights 6,444
5 Image Gallery 1,818 News Highlights 5,267 Image Gallery 7,720 Multimedia Highlights 6,404
6 Multimedia Highlights 1,764 Cassini Main Page 4,189 KSC Home Page 6,892 Image Gallery 6,212
7 MER Interactive 1,128 Multimedia Highlights 3,238 Cassini Main Page 6,366 Mission Highlights 5,009
8 Mission Highlights 892 NASA TV Page 3,118 Deep Impact Main Page 6,075 KSC Home Page 4,681
9 Columbia Main Page 828 Mission Highlights 2,843 VSE Anniversary Interactive 5,850 STS-121 Interactive 4,647
10 Video Gallery 684 MER Main Page 2,651 News Highlights 5,562 STS-115 Interactive 4,311
11 Highlights 660 For Kids / Games 2,078 Multimedia Highlights 5,306 ISS Main Page 3,831
12 Multimedia Downloads 595 Video Gallery 1,516 Mission Highlights 4,147 Exploration Main Page 3,692
13 About Highlights 570 For Kids Main Page 1,460 Deep Impact Images 3,443 Video Gallery 3,570
14 Universe Features 531 Cassini Interactive 1,401 Deep Impact Interactive 2,618 Kids Club 3,192
15 NASA TV on the Web 507 Highlights 1,394 Video Gallery 2,475 Shuttle Launch Page 2,553
Figures are in thousands

15. 2007 2008 2009 2010
1 NASA Home Page 103,293 NASA Home Page 145,949 NASA Home Page 199,266 NASA Home Page 206,045
2 Shuttle Main Page 15,495 NASA TV Page 15,650 NASA TV Page 24,929 NASA TV Page 13,323
3 NASA TV Page 14,525 Shuttle Main Page 13,467 Shuttle Launch Blog 23,309 Shuttle Main Page 8,573
4 Video Gallery 9,529 Mars Phoenix Main Page 10,631 Shuttle Main Page 20,670 Launch Schedule 5,869
5 Image Gallery 7,510 Video Gallery 7,881 Video Gallery 8,213 Video Gallery 4,558
6 Multimedia Highlights 5,317 Image Gallery 6,202 Shuttle Landing Blog 5,465 Image Gallery 4,531
7 News Highlights 5,178 Kids Club 5,095 ISS Main Page 5,212 Image of the Day 3,589
8 ISS Main Page 4,843 Image of the Day 4,970 Image Gallery 5,060 Kids Club 3,410
9 Mission Highlights 4,107 ISS Main Page 4,624 Launch Schedule 5,017 ISS Main Page 3,366
10 Kids Club 3,877 Missions Main Page 4,265 Image of the Day 4,898 News Topics 3,102
11 KSC Home Page 3,818 KSC Home Page 3,432 Kids Club 4,674 Missions Main Page 2,835
12 For Kids Page 2,731 Launch Schedule 3,293 Missions Main Page 4,383 Shuttle Station Topics Page 2,812
13 Launch Schedule 2,013 Multimedia Main Page 3,206 Shuttle Station Topics Page 4,017 Solar System Topics Page 2,399
14 HQ Home Page 1,968 News Topics 3,201 Multimedia Main Page 3,438 Multimedia Main Page 2,398
Shuttle Station Topics
15 Shuttle Launch Page 1,967 Page 3,036 KSC Home Page 3,315 Universe Topics Page 2,205
Figures are in thousands

16. 2011 2012
1 NASA Home Page 211,607 NASA Home Page 200,772
2 NASA TV Page 14,919 MSL Main Page 18,349
3 Video Gallery 12,820 Video Gallery 17,023
4 Shuttle Main Page 10,949 2012 Feature 14,970
5 Launch Schedule 4,602 NASA TV Page 11,898
6 Image of the Day 3,790 Image of the Day 6,048
7 Image Gallery 3,779 MSL Multimedia Gallery 5,432
8 Shuttle Station Topics Page 3,078 News Topics 5,161
9 Kids Club 2,937 Image Gallery 4,746
10 ISS Main Page 2,832 Solar System Topics Page 3,274
11 Solar System Topics Page 2,667 ISS Main Page 3,093
12 2012 Feature 2,617 Microgravity (Angry Birds) 3,022
13 News Topics 2,500 Mars Main Page 2,940
14 News Releases 2,343 News Releases 2,910
15 Universe Topics Page 2,319 Universe Topics Page 2,909
Figures are in thousands

17. Live Events
Since moving to a more robust
infrastructure in 2003, NASA.gov has
carried more than 60 live events that Most Visits*
have at time driven traffic to more
than 100 times higher than normal Curiosity landing 6-Aug-2012 14,798,362
levels.
Mars, Spirit landing 4-Jan-2004 5,550,495
The smooth handling of such large LCROSS lunar impact 9-Oct-2009 5,447,329
events, some of them unplanned, has
become the trademark of NASA.gov. STS-135 Launch 8-Jul-2011 4,866,453
All but one have been carried with no
Deep Impact 1-Jul-2005 4,321,237
major technical issue.
Venus Transit 1-Jun-2012 4,260,380
Astrophysics Life Press Conference 1-Dec-2010 3,862,436
Mars, Oppurtunity landing 1-Jan-2004 3,714,963
STS-125 Launch 1-May-2009 3,653,205
STS-114 Launch 1-Jul-2005 3,561,779
* During the 48 hours surrounding peak traffic.

18. Peak Webcasts Total webcasts *
Curiosity landing 06-Aug-12 1,236,010 Curiosity landing 06-Aug-12 36,437,231
Venus Transit 1-Jun-12 576,743 Venus Transit 1-Jun-2012 7,741,158
STS-135 Launch 8-Jul-11 562,818 STS-114 Landing 1-Aug-2005 2,048,477
STS-114 Launch 26-Jul-05 438,825 STS-121 Launch 1-Jul-2006 1,757,002
STS-114 Landing 9-Aug-05 394,354 STS-114 Launch 1-Jul-2005 1,714,822
LCROSS lunar impact 9-Oct-09 393,472 STS-135 Launch 8-Jul-2011 1,428,588
STS-134 Launch 16-May-2011 360,172 STS-121 Landing 17-Jul-2006 924,353
STS-133 Launch 24-Feb-2011 284,822 STS-133 Launch 24-Feb-2011 919,770
STS-121 Launch 4-Jul-06 257,028 STS-134 Launch 16-May-2011 789,505
STS-135 Landing 21-Jul-2011 177,420 STS-115 Launch 9-Sep-2006 645,320
* During the 48 hours surrounding peak traffic.

19. Web content delivered (MB) * Web & Video Content Delivered (MB) *
Curiosity landing 6-Aug-12 68,270,000 Curiosity landing 06-Aug-12 1,098,270,000
STS-135 Launch 8-Jul-11 59,639,440 Venus Transit 1-Jun-2012 662,976,419
Venus Transit 1-Jun-12 34,908,328 STS-135 Launch 8-Jul-2011 539,909,926
STS-134 Launch 16-May-2011 25,781,682 STS-134 Launch 16-May-2011 296,246,501
LCROSS lunar impact 9-Oct-09 21,915,238 STS-135 Landing 21-Jul-2011 171,488,549
STS-135 Landing 21-Jul-2011 20,090,425 STS-133 Launch 24-Feb-2011 78,042,342
Deep Impact 4-Jul-05 17,615,780 MSL Launch 26-Nov-2011 77,027,000
Phoenix Landing 25-May-2008 17,330,671 LCROSS lunar impact 9-Oct-2009 68,636,125
STS-133 Launch 24-Feb-2011 17,280,426 ARES I-X 28-Oct-2009 62,012,493
STS-127 Launch 15-Jul-09 14,584,451 Phoenix Landing 25-May-2008 59,918,859
* During the 48 hours surrounding peak traffic.

20. Search Satisfaction Rises
as Rate of Searches Falls
30.0% 80
Search
A combination of quantitative and 79
qualitative data shows that users are 25.0%
generally satisfied. They are using 78
search less frequently, but they are
Search Queries as Pctg. of All Visits
Search Satisfaction (from online survey)
happier with it. 77
20.0%
The last redesign, released in late 76
2007, accelerated both trends.
15.0% 75
74
10.0%
73
72
5.0%
71
0.0% 70
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

21. Search Terms
There remains some dissatisfaction with
search, for which there are several
factors:
• NASA has a broad array of online
content (1,600 websites; 200,000+ Distinct Search Terms
pages on www.nasa.gov alone)
• There is no overarching information 2003 250,903
architecture organizing that content
• Content is often placed online with 2004 371,220
no regard for search-engine
optimization 2005 684,997
2006 692,166
Users enter hundreds of thousands of
distinct search terms each year, though
2007 679,687
only a handful account for 1 percent or
more of all queries. (See following
tables.) 2008 348,307
2009 365,262
The bulk of NASA’s online content focuses
on current missions, news and 2010 409,305
multimedia. There may not be much
content available on a particular topic, 2011 368,311
and NASA’s distributed web and lack of
an overall search strategy makes it hard
2012 359,914
to find.

22. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
mars 1.61% mars 0.62% mars 0.91% mars 1.08% mars 1.41%
picture+of+the+day 0.88% columbia 0.29% pluto+ 0.48% pluto 0.51% moon 0.65%
hubble 0.67% hubble 0.28% world+wind 0.38% moon 0.47% iss 0.53%
moon 0.51% moon 0.28% hubble 0.36% pluto+ 0.43% saturn 0.53%
jobs 0.40% pluto 0.27% moon 0.35% hubble 0.42% hubble 0.49%
Mars 0.38% wallpaper 0.26% apollo 0.27% iss 0.34% planets 0.48%
pictures 0.38% saturn 0.24% columbia 0.27% saturn 0.34% nasa+tv 0.43%
columbia 0.37% apollo 0.23% saturn 0.26% planets 0.33% jupiter 0.42%
apollo 0.35% jupiter 0.22% planets 0.23% jupiter 0.29% pluto 0.41%
jupiter 0.32% cassini 0.21% Mars 0.22% nasa+tv 0.28% sun 0.36%

23. 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
mars 4.11% mars 3.32% mars 2.11% elenin 2.04% curiosity 2.09%
nibiru 1.98% 2012 2.15% jupiter 2.00% mars 1.55% mars 1.99%
nasa tv 1.88% nasa tv 1.97% saturn 1.36% 2012 1.10% 21 december 2012 1.38%
space shuttle 1.32% jupiter 1.47% 2012 1.29% moon 1.00% 2012 1.11%
moon 1.23% moon 1.39% earth 1.24% games 0.90% moon 0.92%
2012 end of
jupiter 1.19% the world 1.28% sun 1.21% sun 0.89% sun 0.91%
saturn 1.19% saturn 1.27% venus 1.17% saturn 0.76% end of the world 0.86%
nasa pictures 1.18% games 1.16% neptune 0.93% uars 0.76% nibiru 0.75%
ufo 1.14% hubble 1.13% mercury 0.91% jupiter 0.70% december 21 2012 0.71%
planet x 1.13% venus 0.96% games 0.87% mercury 0.63% venus 0.66%
2012 “Doomsday” query

24. Top Videos
2010 – 2013 2010
Asteroid 2005 1.2 million NASA Sees Fast- 298,152
Videos YU55 Moving Solar Flare
Since switching the VMIX service in Complex Solar 291,577
2010, NASA editors have uploaded Eruption
more than 6,000 videos, more than 7
Seven Minutes of 1 million Fermi/Bubbles in 238,795
per business day. Terror the Milky Way
Black Hole Eats Star 957,826 Supernova/Black 232,464
Hole Animation
Curiosity’s Descent 843,166 NASA Examines 147,228
New Forms of Life
Having a Solar Blast 737,106
– Zoom
2011 2012
Asteroid 2005 925,290 Seven Minutes of 991,871
Total 137 Billion
YU55 Terror
Loads
Black Hole Eats Star 881,410 Curiosity’s Descent 838,032
Having a Solar Blast 689,650 GRAIL video of 632,733
moon’s far side
SDO Catches 396,026
Plays 78.7 million Black Marble 843,166
Comet Passing Sun
SDO Captures X1.9 322,815 Sunspot 1429: Two 427,308
Plays completed 45.5 million Solar Flare X-class Flares
Unique Plays 67.9 million

25. www.NASA.gov: Sources of traffic
100%
90%
80%
Other
70% Social media
Slashdot
60%
Drudge Report
CNN.com
50%
Bing
40% MSN
Yahoo
30%
Other nasa.gov sites
Google
20%
No referral (net)
10%
0%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
No referrals: Direct visits from bookmarks, e-mail links or RSS servers, or from sites
that mask their identities.

26. www.NASA.gov: Sources of traffic (excluding “no referrals”)
100%
90%
80%
70% Other
Social media
60% Slashdot
Drudge Report
50% CNN.com
Bing
40% MSN
Yahoo
30% Other nasa.gov sites
Google
20%
10%
0%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

27. 14,000,000
12,000,000
Social media referrals
Though social media channels are
designed to take NASA content off the
10,000,000
site, they are growing as a source of
traffic.
8,000,000 Bitly
% of all % of all Pinterest
sessions referrals Tumblr
Twitter
6,000,000
Reddit
2008 0.37 0.71 Facebook
4,000,000
2009 1.36 2.20
2010 2.78 4.22 2,000,000
2011 3.24 6.46
0
2012 5.06 9.86 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

28. 90
Facebook
Sharing from NASA.gov 80 Twitter
via Social Media Other
Facebook and Twitter are the primary 70
venues people use to share content
directly from www.NASA.gov.
60
Facebook started out as the dominant
Percent of Total
service, but Twitter has recently pulled 50
even.
40
30
20
10
0
2010 2011 2012

29. 2010
Sharing from Type Shares Clicks
www.NASA.gov Face in Space Interactive 6,211 0
In late 2010, NASA.gov started using NASA Home Page 6,386 1,189
the AddThis service to allow users to Image of the Day Gallery Multimedia 3,557 701
NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology
share NASA content through social Discovery (HQ) Media Advisory 3,369 14,081
media services. Though social media is Multimedia
designed to put content where users NASA TV 3,137 1,350
are, sharing from NASA’s site brought a NASA's Space Rock Interactive 2,122 0
NASA Research Discovers Life Built with Toxic
net return of visits back to the site. Chemicals Feature 2,086 5,700
Space Shuttle Main Page 1,536 577
Unique Earthquake May Have Shortened Earth's Day Feature 1,318 15
Shares of Clicks content 2012: Beginning of the End or just Another Day Feature 1,017 688
NASA back to pieces Watch the Skies! Meteors Feature 773 1,273
content site shared
Clicks Shares
NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Media Advisory
Discovery (HQ) 14,081 3,369
NASA Research Discovers Life Built with Toxic
2010 98,086 65,194 660 Chemicals Feature 5,700 2,086
Media Advisory
NASA Announces Chandra News Conference 4,522 593
Cumulonimbus Cloud over Colombia Image 3,313 87
2011 258,369 314,673 2,571 NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Media Advisory
Discovery (ARC) 2,495 363
Lunar Eclipse: Up All Night Chat 1,539 428
NASA TV 1,350 3,137
Fermi Finds Giant Structure Feature 1,296 428
2012 555,965 578,173 3,352
Watch the Skies! Meteors Feature 1,261 780
First Potential Habitable Exoplanet Feature 1,207 688

30. Content Type Shares Clicks back to NASA.gov
NASA Home Page 43,996 2,778
NASA TV Main Page 10,376 12,587
Image of the Day Gallery 6,002 7,700
2012: Beginning of the End or Just Another Day? Feature 4,188 11,772
Kepler Confirms its First Planet Feature 4,132 7,387
Hurricane Irene News Page 3,722 11,006
Space Shuttle Main Page 3,562 3,192
NASA TV in HD on Ustream 2,979 2,211
UARS Mission Ends Feature 2,248 4,303
ISS Crew Views Shuttle Landing Feature 1,571 4,958
Clicks back to NASA.gov Shares
NASA Imagery of the Japanese Earthquake Image Gallery 21,723 200
NASA TV Main Page 12,587 10,376
2012: Beginning of the End or Just Another Day? Feature 11,772 4,188
Hurricane Irene News Page 11,006 3,722
Image of the Day Gallery 7,700 6,002
Kepler Confirms its First Planet Feature 7,387 4,132
Aurora Australis from Space Feature 5,298 380
ISS Crew Views Shuttle Landing Feature 4,958 1,571
Major Winter Storm Takes Aim at Central U.S. Feature 4,425 594
UARS Mission Ends Feature 4,303 2,248

31. Type Shares Clicks
2012: Beginning of the End or Just Another Day? Feature 32,985 61,249
NASA TV Main Page 10,436 13,180
12-21-2012 Just Another Day Podcast 4,254 11,936
New York City on Sept. 11, 2011 Image Feature 1,846 9,886
Space Shuttle Discovery to Fly Over Washington Media Advisory 172 8,662
Hubble Sees Red Giant Blow a Bubble Image Feature 1,082 8,241
Mars Science Lab Mission Page 7,682 7,682
Angry Birds Space Feature 6,635 6,635
Moon and ISS Image Feature 6,061 6,061
Image Gallery
Shares Clicks
NASA Home Page 73,829 5,104
2012: Beginning of the End or Just Another Day? Feature 32,985 61,249
NASA TV Main Page 10,436 13,180
Image of the Day Gallery 7,913 5,474
Curiosity Raw Images Page Image Gallery 5,455 5,136
Mars Science Lab Mission Page 7,682 7,682
Angry Birds Space Feature 6,635 6,635
NASA TV in HD on Ustream 4,722 4,312
Blue Marble Feature 4,278 5,431
12-21-2012 Just Another Day Podcast 11,936 4,254

32. HTML Pages and Related Files in NASA.gov CMS
(as of Dec. 31 each year)
Content 700,000
Publishing
600,000
Publishing has been
fairly steady for the
last four years. Editors 500,000
have published about
20,000 web pages
and 100,000 400,000
associated files each
year. HTML
300,000
Related Files
200,000
100,000
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
HTML 58,552 163,465 182,248 202,603 220,081 239,229
Related Files 153,120 189,131 305,252 397,052 501,402 601,007

33. History: NASA.gov, 1994-97

34. History: NASA.gov, 1997-2003

35. History: NASA.gov, 2003-07