Ranking websites is an inexact science. There are multiple ways to measure success, including pageviews, users, unique site visitors and, perhaps most important, influence. To create this list of the top conservative sites, PJ Media looked at a variety of sources that rank them and determined the average score for each center-right site. Alexa, SimilarWeb, and Quantcast all look at different data sets, so considering all three helps to present a more complete picture.
Alexa's ranking is based on "a combined measure of Unique Visitors and Pageviews" over a three month period. According to Quantcast, they measure "
We did not include in this ranking websites associated with TV networks or radio shows (Fox News, Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) and we also excluded websites related to daily print newspapers (New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, etc.) because we wanted to focus solely on web-based content.
The big winner this year was, not surprisingly, Drudge Report. According to SimilarWeb, Drudge had 157.06M total visits in November. That dwarfs number two Breitbart, which had 82.75M visits. Beyond raw traffic numbers, Drudge has an outsized influence as a top referral source, with some sites on our list getting 10 to 20 percent of their traffic as a result of Drudge links. In fact, for many of the sites on our list, Drudge drives more traffic than Google and Facebook. In some cases, Drudge traffic is more than Google and Facebook combined.
Rounding out the top five are The Daily Caller, Zero Hedge, and newcomer The Daily Wire, the Ben Shapiro-led venture that launched in 2015. PJ Media came in at #13 this year, with 12.59M total visits.
National Review, which staked out an early position as a site critical of Trump, came in at a robust #12, defying predictions that the site's "Never Trump" bent would lead to its demise. The site had 9.25M total visits in November.
And now, the 50 top conservative websites in 2017, based on an average of rankings from Alexa, Quantcast, and SimilarWeb:
Using only SimilarWeb's total visits metric, the top five sites were Drudge Report (157.06M), Breitbart (82.75M), Zero Hedge (50.56M), The Daily Caller (25.33M), and The Daily Wire (23.23M). The list tracks closely with the overall rankings, though there are a few variations.
Based on total visits in November reported at SimilarWeb:
Drudge Report (157.06M)
Breitbart (82.75M)*
Zero Hedge (50.56M)
The Daily Caller (25.33M)
The Daily Wire (23.23M)
Conservative Tribune (18.74M)*
The Blaze (16.32M)
Newsmax (14.79M)
The Week (14.17M)
Washington Examiner (14.09M)
PJ Media (12.59M)
Townhall (10.38M)
National Review (9.25M)
WorldNet Daily (WND) (9.22M)
Independent Journal Review (IJR) (8.17M)*
Twitchy (5.85M)
Free Republic (5.84M)
HotAir (5.69M)
The Federalist (5.61M)*
American Thinker (5.17M)
Reason (4.7M)
The Washington Free Beacon (4.47M)
Lucianne (4.45M)
Newsbusters (4.29M)
RedState (3.85M)*
The Conservative Treehouse (3.76M)
The Federalist Papers (3.64M)
The Weekly Standard (3.21M)
The Western Journal (3.03M)
CNS News (2.86M)
Weasel Zippers (2.72M)
Powerline Blog (2.57M)*
Jihad Watch (2.36)
BizPac Review (2.34M)
The Daily Signal (2.26M)
Bearing Arms (2.07M)
The College Fix (1.86M)
FrontPage Mag (1.66M)
The Right Scoop (1.37M)
The Spectator (1.2M)
Judicial Watch (1.18M)
Conservative Review (1.11M)*
Campus Reform (1.05M)
Cato (1.04M)
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) (930.1K)
Legal Insurrection (909.5K)
OneNewsNow (594.1K)
The Resurgent (371.5K)
Young Cons (249K)*
As noted above, this is an inexact science and the rankings only capture a moment in time (the last 30 days for Quantcast, the previous three months for Alexa, and the month of November for SimilarWeb). But even though the definitions of success vary and the metrics fluctuate monthly — often daily — these rankings and data sets provide a glimpse of the center-right media landscape as it currently stands.
How can Free Republic be considered "Conservative" when they've banned me several times? WHILE supporting Jackass-Globalist and 0bama-Supporter, George Dubya Bush UNTIL this past year?
I've got a problem with the definition of "conservative"...(and obviously so too does the media.)
"Conservatives" do NOT get banned for exercising free-speech in support of conservative values and issues. OR for dissing Dubya for his Globalist policies. Or for criticizing and his liberal, pro-abortion Stepford wife. OR for criticizing the phony reasons for the phony Iraq-Afghanistan Wars. Or for merely questioning the "Official" 911 investigation. And for inconveniently pointing out that JR shilled for and supported Dubya's pro-Illegal Invasion policies back in 2005 and joined in demonizing the Minutemen. (oh wait -- ok, THAT will still get you banned there.)
Anyway, isn't it funny that THOSE kinds of Conservatives and reasons for being purged are now normalized and lauded? Better late than never.
Notice that they didn't make the first list at all. But if they were the #1 or #2 on the second list, then the average of the three rankings could make them #17 on the second list.
I guess that is what caught my eye. And we did used have one of these ranking lists every year or two back at LP so I decided to post one here to see if there was any interest or any real surprises. I notice some crapsites get more traffic than much better news sites if these rankings really are anywhere close to accurate.
OTOH, this listicle came from PJMedia so...you know.
