• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 15, 2016

Britain's residents will vote on June 23, as to whether they want their country to "Leave" or "Remain" as part of the European Union. The outcome will have far-reaching consequences for politics, the economy, defense, migration and diplomacy.

While recent national reports of polls suggest the vote has swung to the "Leave" camp, or what they call a "Brexit," analysis of Google search data from Mavens of London remains mixed results.

The Mavens research shows that interest in the Referendum overall rose between January and April. In January, Mavens estimates 221,170 relevant search queries on Google, which grew to more than 1.2 million in February.

The data also shows that when searching for information, voters are more likely to read articles and content focused on "Leave" compared to those who seem to be in favor of "Remain."

Mavens analyzed more than 3.5 million Google search queries across 1,048 keywords. Findings also reveal that information about the economy in relation to the Referendum is three times as popular among UK voters as the topic of immigration, while the NHS and national security attract comparatively little interest. Media outlets BBC, the Financial Times,The Week, the Telegraph and the Guardian attract a majority share of traffic.

Analyzing millions of Referendum-related UK searches allowed Mavens to identify the kind of information that citizens want to read in relation to voting, how their interests change over time, and identify the sites visited to inform their decision.

While readers are more interested in reading articles on "Leave," the research suggests more readers clicked on articles focusing on "Remain" rather than "Leave." Among the top 50 sites ranking in Google for Referendum-related queries, seven are built intentionally to focus on leaving, such as betteroffout.net and eureferendum.com compared with just two dedicated to remaining, such as strongerin.co.uk.

The sites dedicated to content that focus on leaving the EU generate a higher amount of traffic from organic search.

The Mavens report identifies the BBC and the Financial Times as the two sites claiming most clicks from Referendum-related search queries during the research period. The BBC recorded more than twice as much traffic as the FT. Third on the list of most influential sites for Referendum-related organic search is The Week, followed by the government’s Referendum page, the Telegraph and the Guardian. 

In aggregate, the six sites have an estimated 61% of organic interest from readers originating from Google.co.uk in the past few months.

Mavens of London aggregated online data from January to May, 2016, in relation to the UK Referendum on EU membership. The strategy and research consultancy categorized 1,048 Google keywords, analyzed 3,692,700 search queries and identified the sites that rank for this information.