I recently put together a report on the top reasons why people visit LDS.org.  I thought the answer might interest a wider audience, so here you go. 

Methodology: I tried to base the rankings on events, or instances of an action happening, though I must admit, in some cases this is like comparing apples and oranges.  Therefore, there is, admittedly, some subjectively in these rankings, and they shouldn’t be taken as hard and fast standings.

1. Internal Site Search. The LDS.org site search gets millions of searches every year, and the data shows that it is clearly the top activity on LDS.org.  The prominence of this activity should not come as a surprise because studies have shown that many site users don’t want to mess around with browsing through a site or navigating the menus.  As soon as they get to a site, they find the search box and type in a keyword, and they have the expectation (thanks to Google) of finding exactly what they are looking for. The most common searches are topical, such as “faith” and “baptism,” but there are also a lot of navigational searches such as “primary” and “scriptures.”

2. Gospel Library.  The Gospel Library, as an entity, is one of the most popular Church sites, and the majority of internal site search results send users to content in the Gospel Library, which consists of the Church Magazines online content, lesson manuals, and other materials. Within the Gospel Library, some of the most popular content, according to the Web analytics data, is the Gospel Topics pages, the Friend, the Ensign, and other past magazine issues.

3. Scriptures.  The Scriptures is another one of the most popular Church sites.  Almost needless to say, the online Scriptures is one of the main reasons why people come to LDS.org.

4. General Conference. If you ever have a chance to look at Church Web analytics data, you will notice a spike in traffic every April and October for General Conference.  The live Conference streams are, of course, the reason for those spikes, but the General Conference archives are also very popular year round. 

5. Browser Home Page. Many of you know someone or are perhaps guilty yourself of making LDS.org your browser home page.  Millions of visits to LDS.org each year are a result of it simply being bookmarked as the visitor’s browser home page.

6. FamilySearch.org.  FamilySearch.org, in it’s own right, is one of the most trafficked Church sites.  But many people visit LDS.org in an effort to find their way to the Church’s genealogy research site. In fact, every year millions of LDS.org visitors click that home page link to go to FamilySearch.org.

7. Videos. LDS.org visitors have viewed millions of videos on the home page over the last year.  It was about a year ago that the Church started posting videos on the front page of LDS.org, and these videos have quickly become very popular. Also, some of the most followed links from LDS.org are to content on YouTube.com.

8. Serving in the Church. The Serving in the Church section of LDS.org, as an entity, is consistently one of the most trafficked Church sites. Serving in the Church has information and resources for folks with priesthood callings and callings in the auxiliary organizations.  The most popular sections are for Primary, Young Women, and Relief Society.

9. Newsroom. From time to time, depending on the news of the day, the LDS Newsroom is among the most trafficked Church sites. The Newsroom receives millions of referrals from LDS.org every year, making it one of the top reasons why people visit.

10. Local Unit Web Sites. The Stake and Ward Web sites, as a whole, are consistently one of the most trafficked Church sites.  The site receives millions of referrals from LDS.org every year making it another one of the big reasons why people come to LDS.org.

Honorable Mentions

• LDS Maps. LDS Maps is a relatively new site that replaced the meetinghouse locator over a year ago.  The site is very popular and growing in features and usage. 
• Mormon.org. Many users come to the LDS.org home page simply to find the link to Mormon.org, the Church’s site on Mormon basic beliefs. Mormon.org is one of the most trafficked Church sites, with millions of referrals coming from LDS.org. 
• LDScatalog.com. LDScatalog.com is the online LDS distribution center and one of the most trafficked Church sites. The most popular items in this e-commerce site are Church DVDs, Temple Clothing, Books, and Manuals.
• Non-English Content. This one was hard to quantify but there are millions of page views each year of the non-English language selection page on LDS.org. It is hard to compare this data point with the others, but it does appear that many users depend on LDS.org to find non-English LDS Church content.

LDSMediaTalk also maintains a full list of Church Web sites.