SIDNEY — Facebook traffic for the Sidney Visitors Bureau nearly tripled in the month of July compared to a year ago.

Jeff Raible, director, shared with the board website traffic for July and August 2015 and compared all the numbers for the previous year.

Facebook traffic in July included 1,558 views in 2015. There were 539 views in 2014.

There were 2,840 web sessions to the Visitor’s Bureau website in 2015, compared to 1,675 web sessions in 2014. There were 2,551 unique users, up from the 1,468 unique users in 2014.

There were 4,920 page views, also up from the 3,547 page views in 2014. The time on site averaged 1:07, slightly down from the 1:40 average time on site in 2014.

For the month of August, there were 2,475 web sessions, down from the 3,572 web sessions in 2014. There were 2,230 unique users, also down from the 3,298 unique users in 2014. There were 4,107 page views, down from the 6,491 page views in 2014.

Facebook views for the month of August were significantly up. There were 1,049 Facebook views in August 2015. There were only 272 views in 2014.

Time on site averaged 1:04, which was exactly the same average time on site in 2014.

Sidney Visitors Bureau information was sent to 3,726 individuals in July interested in learning more about this area after visiting the web site or seeing ads in the Discover Ohio Travel Planner, Midwest Living Magazine, Country Living Magazine and the Madden Media Regional Newspaper Insert. There were 609 reader response requests were fulfilled for the same period in 2014.

For the month of August, Sidney Visitors Bureau information was sent to 982 individuals. There were 928 reader response requests were fulfilled for the same period in 2014.

The bureau concluded in August a four-month search engine marketing campaign with Madden Media to attract a higher volume of traffic to the Sidney Visitors Bureau web site. This “key word search” plan began on May 1 and ended Aug. 31. In total an electronic link to the Sidney Visitors Bureau web site was presented to 143,000-plus individuals conducting west Ohio travel searches using Bing or Google online search engines. Of those presented with the link, 3 percent clicked through to the Visitors Bureau site. This click-thru rate is considered successful in that the average click-thru rate for travel sites is 2.9 percent. Google Analytics considers any click thru rate greater than 1 percent to be successful.

The bureau also submitted a press release to OhioTraveler.com for publication in their Aug. 1 eNewsletter circulated to 150,000 subscribers. In addition, the press release will be sent to 950 regional radio, television, newspaper, magazine and eMagazine media outlets.

Information and graphics about three upcoming events were submitted for publication on OhioTraveler.com, a consumer travel web site that receives more than 1.5 million visits per year. The events highlighted included the Field of Valor/Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, the Rebel Run Rod & Custom Nationals Car Show and the Whistling Goat Music & Arts Festival.

Information about the Field of Valor and Whistling Goat Music & Arts Festival was submitted for publication of DiscoverOhio.com, the state of Ohio’s web site for travel and tourism.

For a complete calendar listing of upcoming events in Sidney and Shelby County, please visit www.VisitSidneyShelby.com and be sure to Like Us on Facebook at Sidney Visitors Bureau.