The Top Sites on the Internet (by Anybody’s Standards)

There’s nothing like being well-armed with information, and here’s just a little more to add to what you’ve already got.

Ever wonder where all the Web traffic you’re not getting is actually going? The lists below show you the most popular websites on the Internet, as measured by their respective publishers.

Doubleclick Ad Planner by Google
This is Google’s list of the top 1,000 websites, as ordered  by the number of unique visitors per month. For each site, the list also provides you with the site category, the number of page views per month, the site’s reach (the percentage of all Internet users accessing the site for the month reported), and whether the site displays ads or not.

This top-1000 has only been published since May, 2010. It was created for the purpose of assisting advertisers in trying to figure out what websites they should advertise on, but there are a lot of other uses for the resourceful and creative.

Just to point it out, Google does not include Google.com on its list—ah, the modesty.

Alexa Top 500
Alexa’s list is only half the length of Google’s, but it’s every bit as big.

First, Alexa lets you view the top 500 sites globally, or the top 100 within any specific country. You can even go so far as to view the top 500 most popular websites within specific subject categories.

And that’s just getting started. Drill down into any specific site on the list and you’ll get a narrative summary of the site and the business in general, followed by detailed statistics on traffic and traffic trends, search and keyword info, and much more.

Alexa is a great place to start in researching any specific company, industry, or online business in general.

Quantcast’s Top 1 Million
Did you even realize there were that many? Apparently so, and apparently Quantcast can name them all!

This list tracks number 1 through number 1 million, but by U.S. traffic only. Drill down for any specific site to see traffic trending by the date range you select, a very nice set of demographics on a representative sampling of US users, and the other categories of websites these users are likely to visit.