Press release: search engines and direct visits drive growth, advertising running since 8 October
Key facts at a glance
- In October 2026, 40,831 users visited Net Trends (netz-trends.de), 114 per cent more than in September (19,083) and 210 per cent more than in August (13,161).
- The number of sessions (visits) rose to 55,783, up from 23,807 in September and 16,825 in August.
- Around half of all visits come from search engines, above all Google. Just over 44 per cent are direct visits.
- AI assistants such as ChatGPT still play only a minor role, at 0.24 per cent of visits.
- Until now the portal has been run without any income of its own; in future it is to pay for itself. A small first step: since 8 October 2026 the portal has shown Google AdSense ads for the first time. Up to the end of the month they brought in an average of €8.59 per day, or €5.76 excluding the three peak days. 0.52 per cent of ads were clicked.
- Since 1 November 2026, Net Trends has also been published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Croatian. The offering is being expanded week by week.
The news portal Net Trends (netz-trends.de) more than doubled its reach in October 2026: 40,831 users visited the portal, up from 19,083 in September. Growth is driven by search engines and by readers who go to the portal directly.
Since late summer 2026, Net Trends has been publishing several new articles every day on technology, mobility, money and consumer affairs. The portal is based in Germany; until the end of October it appeared in German only. The figures come from Google Analytics 4 (Google’s web analytics service) and Google AdSense (Google’s advertising network) and refer to each calendar month.
Reach: 40,831 users in October
| Metric | August 2026 | September 2026 | October 2026 | October vs September |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 13,161 | 19,083 | 40,831 | +114% |
| Sessions (visits) | 16,825 | 23,807 | 55,783 | +134% |
| Engagement rate | 34.3% | 29.2% | 47.3% | +18.1 points |
Readers are also staying longer: the engagement rate rose to 47.3 per cent in October. It measures the share of visits that last longer than ten seconds, include more than one page or trigger an action such as a click. In September it stood at 29.2 per cent.
Search engines bring every second visit
28,064 visits came from search engines in October, more than twice as many as in September (12,527, up 124 per cent). That is 50.3 per cent of all visits. In August the share was 63.5 per cent, because far fewer readers were coming to the portal directly at that time.
Google is the most important source with 20,880 visits, plus 913 visits via Google News. Around one in five search visits (20.9 per cent), however, comes from other providers: Bing (3,136), DuckDuckGo (1,395), Ecosia (1,033) and Yahoo (311). Visitors from Bing are particularly engaged: their engagement rate is 65.3 per cent, compared with 51.9 per cent for Google.
Direct visits: 24,863
44.6 per cent of visits in October were direct visits, 24,863 in total, up from 10,055 in September (plus 147 per cent) and 5,316 in August. Google Analytics counts as direct any visit without an identifiable source: typed addresses, bookmarks, but also links from messengers, emails and apps that do not pass on their origin.
The quality of these visits has also risen significantly: the engagement rate of direct visits climbed from 12.2 per cent in September to 42.2 per cent in October. On 18 October the portal recorded around 4,000 direct visits in a single day.
AI assistants: still a niche
Visits via AI assistants (chatbots based on artificial intelligence) such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Microsoft Copilot have so far been negligible. Google Analytics reports them as a separate channel: 47 visits in August, 289 in September and 136 in October. That corresponds to 0.24 per cent of all visits in October.
The most important source is ChatGPT with 92 visits in October. September saw more: Google Analytics counted 425 visits from ChatGPT, split between the AI channel and referrals. For Net Trends, classic search engines therefore remain many times more important.
Advertising: ads running since 8 October
Since 8 October 2026, Net Trends has been showing advertising regularly via Google AdSense. In August and September practically no ads ran on the portal, so a comparison with previous months is not possible.
| Advertising, 8–31 October 2026 | All 24 days | Excluding the 3 peak days |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | €206.21 | €120.97 |
| Revenue per day (average) | €8.59 | €5.76 |
| Ad impressions per day | 6,726 | 5,034 |
| Clicks per day | 34.8 | 26.1 |
| Click-through rate | 0.52% | 0.52% |
| Revenue per 1,000 ad impressions | €1.28 | €1.14 |
The three peak days were 18 October (€18.04), 20 October (€52.13) and 21 October (€15.07). These three days alone brought in €85.24, just over 41 per cent of October revenue. Excluding them, the typical value is €5.76 per day; the middle day (median) is €6.10.
The click-through rate (the conversion rate of the ads) shows how many ads are clicked: at Net Trends it is 0.52 per cent, or just over five clicks per 1,000 ads. The figure stays the same without the peak days. The reach peaks therefore bring more revenue because more ads are served, not because readers click more often. In the last week of October (25–31 October) the click-through rate rose to 0.60 per cent, with an average of €6.76 per day.
Almost 60 per cent of the advertising revenue recorded in Google Analytics comes from search engine visits. Readers from Bing are particularly valuable: they account for 5.6 per cent of all visits but 10.5 per cent of recorded advertising revenue.
Seven languages since 1 November
Net Trends is significantly expanding its presence in Europe. Since 1 November 2026 the portal has been published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Croatian as well as German, each with its own edition and its own address (for example netz-trends.de/en/ or netz-trends.de/fr/).
Articles are not only translated but adapted to each country, for example with local prices and market launch dates. The number of articles in the language editions is being increased week by week. The aim is for readers in these countries to find Net Trends directly via search engines.
How it was measured
All reach figures come from Google Analytics 4 for each calendar month, the advertising figures from Google AdSense (daily values from 8 to 31 October 2026, estimated earnings according to AdSense; average = total divided by number of days). Google Analytics only records visitors who consent to analytics in the cookie banner, so actual reach is higher. People who read on several devices or browsers are counted more than once. Monthly user figures cannot be added up, because returning readers are counted again each month.
About Net Trends
Net Trends (netz-trends.de) is a news portal covering technology, mobility, money and consumer affairs. It publishes separate editions for the UK and the English-speaking world, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Romania and Croatia. Each edition focuses on the topics that matter in its own country, with local prices, rules and sources. Only stories that apply equally to every country appear in the same form in all editions. Further information on reach and advertising opportunities can be found in the media kit on netz-trends.de.
Sources and status: Google Analytics 4, property www.netz-trends.de, reports “User acquisition” and “Traffic acquisition” (session source, primary channel group), periods 1–31 August, 1–30 September and 1–31 October 2026; Google AdSense, report by site, month and date. Retrieved on 2 November 2026.
Transparency notice: AI-assisted tools were used in researching, structuring and creating this article. The sources used are listed in the article. Publication only takes place after manual editorial approval.
