HGTV leads home and garden sites in April visits

Spring brought double-digit increases in visits to four home and garden web sites in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. HGTV experienced the largest increase, with visits climbing 39% to 3.9 million from 2.8 million a year earlier.

Art.com posted an increase of 33%, with visits rising to 2 million from 1.5 million in April 2004 and The Home Depot increased 33% to 8.9 million from 6.7 million. DIY Network experienced a 27% increase to 1.9 million from 1.5 million; followed by Lowe’s, up 5% to 5.9 million from 5.6 million, and GardenWeb, up 1% to 1.67 million from 1.66 million.

Only one site experienced a decline in visits—Pottery Barn—where visits dropped 12% to 2.3 million from 2.6 million a year earlier. Visits to eBay Home were flat at 10.5 million.

EBay Home experienced the most visits, followed by The Home Depot, Lowe’s, HGTV, eBay Crafts (3.5 million), Pottery Barn, Art.com, DIY Network, Tide (1.7 million), and GardenWeb.

In the top 10 ranked by time per visit, ltdcommodities.com led with 27 minutes, 47 seconds; followed by Collections Etc., 16 minutes, 32 seconds; decoratetoday.com, 14 minutes, 35 seconds; Harborfreight.com, 14 minutes, 27 seconds; BrylaneHome, 14 minutes, 19 seconds; northerntool.com, 11 minutes, 30 seconds; eBay Home, 10 minutes, 31 seconds; GE Appliances, 10 minutes, 19 seconds; joann.com, 10 minutes, 17 seconds; and HGTV, 9 minutes, 53 seconds.

Also in April, Sears, Roebuck and Co. Craftsman had the most online ad impressions in the consumer goods home and garden category, according to Nielsen’s AdRelevance report. The leading brands in the report and their number of impressions (in millions):

Sears, Roebuck and Co., Craftsman, 29.5
Georgia-Pacific Corp., Brawny, 14.4
The Procter & Gamble Co., Mr. Clean, 10.4
The Brita Product Co., Brita, 10.4
Unilever, ALL, 7.1
Flooring Industries Ltd., Uniclic, 6.8
Cosentino USA, Silestone, 6.9
Sunbeam Corp., Sunbeam, 4.4
Unilever, Wisk, 4.0
Lennox International Inc., Lennox 3.0