Find below the complete analysis of the first 2 presidential debates that took place in June and September of 2024. We have tracked hundreds of keywords collected automatically from all new and emerging trends every 15 minutes in the US. This analysis covers pre-debate day, debate day and post-debate day.

• First Presidential Debate - June 27, 2024 - Trump vs Biden
• Second Presidential Debate - Sept 10, 2024 - Trump vs Harris

Methodology

NewzDash employs a cutting-edge approach that surpasses conventional keyword tracking methods. By tapping into real-time conversations, we identify all relevant keywords surrounding a topic, going beyond a limited list of manually selected high-potential terms.

For this analysis, we focused on the conversation surrounding the first US presidential debate of 2024, occurring on June 27th. While we consistently track all new, top and emerging trending news keywords, this report specifically highlights the prominence of these keywords during the three-day period from June 26th to June 28th, capturing the pre-debate buzz, the debate itself, and the post-debate discussions. While we tracked top 500+ emerging news trends, we acknowledge the vast landscape of long-tail keywords that play a role in the overall discourse, though they are not the primary focus of this analysis.

Get the complete list of the top 100 sites for all the US Presidential Debates.

Search Visibility: A Deeper Dive

Our main metric to determine top ranking news sites in Top Stories is Search Visibility.

Search Visibility is a crucial SEO metric that represents the estimated percentage of clicks (traffic) a website receives from its rankings for a particular keyword or set of keywords. It is a measure of how visible your website is in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific queries.

Key Points about Search Visibility:

• Visibility Beyond Rankings: While ranking positions are important, search visibility goes beyond just where you rank. It considers the click-through rate (CTR) associated with each ranking position.
• Click Potential: A higher search visibility means your website is more likely to be clicked on by users searching for specific keywords. This is because higher rankings typically result in more clicks.
• Keyword-Level and Overall Visibility: Search visibility can be calculated for individual keywords to see how well you're performing for each one. It can also be aggregated across multiple keywords to give you an overall picture of your website's visibility in search engines.
• SEO Performance Indicator: Search visibility is a valuable metric for tracking the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. An increase in search visibility over time usually indicates that your SEO strategies are working.

How Search Visibility is Calculated:

There isn't a single, universally agreed-upon formula for calculating search visibility. However, it generally involves these factors:

• Ranking Position: The higher you rank for a keyword, the more visible you are and the more likely you are to get clicks.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The CTR for each ranking position is estimated based on historical data and user behavior. Higher rankings usually have higher CTRs.
• Search Volume: The number of searches for a particular keyword. A keyword with high search volume can contribute more to your overall search visibility if you rank well for it.

How NewzDash Calculates Search Visibility:

NewzDash's calculation of Search Visibility for SERP features like Top Stories involves several factors:

• Ranking Position: The higher you rank for a keyword, the more visible you are and the higher your potential for clicks.
• Estimated CTR: The CTR for each ranking position is estimated based on historical data and user behavior. Higher rankings typically yield higher CTRs.
• Ranking Duration: We measure rankings every 15 minutes to accurately capture the length of time a website appears in the Top Stories carousel.
• Number of Ranked URLs: The more URLs from a domain that rank for relevant keywords, the higher the total visibility.

Note: Search volume is not included in our calculations due to the difficulty of estimating it for all new and trending search terms.

Note: The data gathered in the report below is a default report in NewzDash, you simply specify the topic, and NewzDash will cluster all the keywords semantically to generate the data. It takes a couple of seconds!

Search Popularity

Google Trends data indicates that the first presidential debate of 2024 was 47% less popular compared to the first debate of 2020. We predicted that the second debate will become much more popular at least by 50%, Google trends reports that it had at least 70 more points of search interest. 

Comparing 1st debate to 2020 debates
 

Comparing 1st debate to 2nd debate of 2024

Second US Presidential Debate (Trump vs Harris): Top 10 Ranking Sites in Top Stories (News Box) Carousel in Google Mobile Search (Sept 9-11, 2024)

Below you will find

• Top Trending Keywords
• Overall Top News Site - Jun 26-28
• Top News Site - Debate day June 27, 2024
• Top News Sites - Day after Debate June 28, 2024

Here are some of the most popular emerging news trends we tracked pre, during and post-debate

• Debate-specific keywords: Presidential debates, US presidential debate, Trump-Harris debate, Debate prep, Debate Ratings, Debate attacks, Debate recap
• ​Candidates: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Joe Biden
• Results, Polling and Public Opinion: Snap poll, election polls, national poll, CNN polls, ABC News debate, NPR poll
• ​Key Issues: Immigration, Climate Change, Abortion, Fracking
• Locations and Local Interest: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Minnesota, Florida, Ohio, Philadelphia
• Media and Moderators: David Muir, ABC debate moderators, Chris Wallace, Steve Kornacki
• Viewing Parties and Public Engagement: Debate Viewing Parties, Watch parties, Angelenos Trump-Harris debate
• Fact-checking: Fact-checking, CNN Fact-Checks Trump Debate, ABC debate fact-checking
• International Issues: Ukraine Russia, Haitian Immigrants
• Unexpected topics: Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, SpaceX, Lung cancer

Get the complete list of the top 100 sites for all the US Presidential Debates.

Overall Top News Site - Sept 09-11

 

Rank		Domain	Authority	Top Stories Visibility	Avg. Position	Topic Coverage	Appearances	Unique URLs
1		cnn.com	100x	6.68%	5.74	50.97%	1,048	86
2		nytimes.com	80x	5.33%	8.68	59.46%	1,362	134
3		npr.org	69x	4.62%	7.05	43.63%	983	64
4		usatoday.com	60x	4.03%	8.01	43.63%	879	96
5		foxnews.com	59x	3.97%	7.86	51.35%	969	148
6		washingtonpost.com	52x	3.49%	9.03	48.26%	1,126	74
7		cbsnews.com	48x	3.19%	8.33	46.33%	771	83
8		bbc.com	46x	3.07%	12.05	34.36%	778	49
9		thehill.com	36x	2.37%	11.15	49.42%	863	143
10		politico.com	33x	2.23%	8.94	44.40%	756	78

 

1. Top performers: The top 5 sites by search visibility were:
   1. cnn.com (6.68%)
   2. nytimes.com (5.33%)
   3. npr.org (4.62%)
   4. usatoday.com (4.03%)
   5. foxnews.com (3.97%)
2. Distribution:
   • There's a significant gap between the top performer (cnn.com at 6.68%) and the rest of the field.
   • The top 5 sites account for about 24.63% of the total search visibility, indicating a concentrated influence among major news outlets.
3. Diversity of sources:
   • The list includes a mix of traditional news outlets, cable news networks, public broadcasters, and digital-native news sites.
   • Both left-leaning and right-leaning outlets are represented in the top rankings (e.g., foxnews.com at #5, thehill.com at #9).
4. Average position:
   • Most top performers have an average position between 5 and 9, with cnn.com having the best average position at 5.74.
5. Topic coverage:
   • nytimes.com leads in topic coverage (59.46%), followed closely by foxnews.com (51.35%) and cnn.com (50.97%).
6. Appearances:
   • nytimes.com has the highest number of appearances (1,362), followed by washingtonpost.com (1,126) and cnn.com (1,048).
7. URL Strength:
   • Some sites with lower search visibility have high URL strength, like abc7ny.com (21,000) and postandcourier.com (10,352), suggesting strong domain authority but less debate-specific content.
8. Unique URLs:
   • foxnews.com leads with 148 unique URLs, followed by thehill.com (143) and nytimes.com (134).
9. Public broadcasters:
   • NPR (npr.org) and PBS (pbs.org) both appear in the top 25, indicating strong performance for public broadcasting outlets.
10. Digital-native news sites:
    • Axios (axios.com) and Politico (politico.com) perform well, ranking #22 and #10 respectively, showing the growing influence of digital-native news sources.
11. International outlets:
    • BBC (bbc.com) ranks highly at #8, and other international sources like aljazeera.com and reuters.com are present in the top 25.
12. Sports and entertainment:
    • Some sports-related sites like cbssports.com (#24) and espn.com (#33) appear in the list, possibly due to coverage of debate-related sports events or analogies.
13. Local news:
    • Several local news outlets appear in the list, such as inquirer.com (#35) and statesman.com (#37), indicating the importance of local coverage for the debate.

Top News Site - Debate day Sept 10, 2024

 

Rank		Domain	Authority	Top Stories Visibility	Avg. Position	Topic Coverage	Appearances	Unique URLs
1		cnn.com	100x	8.42%	4.83	58.00%	396	31
2		usatoday.com	92x	7.78%	5.96	53.00%	410	39
3		bbc.com	67x	5.67%	10.18	38.00%	299	21
4		nytimes.com	65x	5.46%	8.84	67.00%	494	50
5		foxnews.com	62x	5.20%	6.95	58.00%	291	46
6		npr.org	42x	3.54%	9.60	48.00%	337	29
7		cbsnews.com	41x	3.49%	7.82	57.00%	285	32
8		washingtonpost.com	40x	3.33%	8.56	58.00%	332	27
9		thehill.com	32x	2.69%	12.06	58.00%	301	57
10		theguardian.com	23x	1.97%	12.40	45.00%	205	34

 

 

Get the complete list of the top 100 sites for all the US Presidential Debates.

Top News Sites - Day after Debate Sept 11, 2024

 

Rank		Domain	Authority	Top Stories Visibility	Avg. Position	Topic Coverage	Appearances	Unique URLs
1		cnn.com	100x	6.71%	6.45	52.05%	456	50
2		npr.org	75x	5.02%	5.93	47.26%	467	42
3		nytimes.com	60x	4.06%	9.72	56.85%	564	86
4		washingtonpost.com	53x	3.54%	9.25	47.95%	534	40
5		foxnews.com	52x	3.51%	8.02	56.16%	458	88
6		yahoo.com	43x	2.86%	7.05	37.67%	197	42
7		bbc.com	34x	2.30%	11.73	36.99%	329	34
8		politico.com	29x	1.94%	8.58	41.78%	322	43
9		wsj.com	28x	1.88%	6.49	31.51%	216	22
10		apnews.com	24x	1.64%	12.87	47.26%	328	45

 

Get the complete list of the top 100 sites for all the US Presidential Debates.

First US Presidential Debate (Trump vs Biden): Top 10 Ranking Sites in Top Stories (News Box) Carousel in Google Mobile Search (June 26-28, 2024)

The table below showcases the top 10 websites that secured prominent positions in the Top Stories carousel during the analyzed period.

Below you will find

• Top trending keywords
• Overall Top News Site - Jun 26-28
• Top News Site - Debate day June 27, 2024
• Top News Sites - Day after Debate June 28, 2024

Get the complete list of the top 100 sites for all the US Presidential Debates.

Here are some of the most popular emerging news trends we tracked pre, during and post-debate

• Presidential Debate and General Terms: Presidential debate, United States presidential debates, Presidential debate Live, CNN presidential debate, US presidential debate, Presidential debate 2024, Presidential debates, Debate, Debate time, Debate Live, General election debate, First presidential debate, Final debate, Thursday's debate, Debate night, Debate prep
• Specific Debate Events: Biden-Trump debate, Trump-Biden debate, Biden-Trump Presidential Debate, Biden vs. Trump debate, CNN's Presidential Debate, 2024 presidential debate, Biden Trump CNN Debate
• Candidates and Key Political Figures: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Bernie Sanders, Tim Scott, Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Gavin Newsom
• Political Parties and Affiliations: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Trump-backed candidate, Biden Administration
• Debate Performance and Analysis: Debate performance, Debate analysis, Weak debate performance, Biden debate performance, Trump debate performance, Debate coach, Debate transcript, Debate highlights, Debate fact check
• Election-related Topics: 2024 election, Presidential election debate, Election 2024 debates, Biden campaign, Trump campaign, Biden vs Trump, Trump vs. Biden 2024
• Political Issues: Immigration debate, Biden Trump immigration, Trump Black jobs debate, Biden Student Loan, Supreme Court Trump immunity, Trump classified documents, Biden border restrictions
• Media and Coverage: CNN Debate, Jake Tapper, Stephen A. Smith, Debate viewers, Debate ratings
• Controversy and Criticism: Biden age debate, Trump hush money, Biden struggles, Democrats replacing Biden, Trump immunity ruling, Biden dropping out
• International Relations: Putin Trump NATO, Biden Trump foreign policy, Trump Biden Moscow

Please note, the data is grouped by top level domains which includes all its subdomains. For example CNN.com includes amp.cnn.com, edition.cnn.com. go.com is abcnews.go.com 

Overall Top News Site - June 26-28

The table paints a compelling picture of the news landscape surrounding the first 2024 presidential debate. Key insights include:

• Distribution:
  • ​There's a significant gap between the top performer (nytimes.com at 3.34%) and the rest of the field.
  • The top 10 sites account for about 16% of the total search visibility, indicating a concentrated influence among major news outlets.
• Diversity of sources:
  • The list includes a mix of traditional news outlets, cable news networks, public broadcasters, and digital-native news sites.
  • Both left-leaning and right-leaning outlets are represented in the top rankings (e.g., foxnews.com at #3, msnbc.com at #13).
• nytimes.com has the highest number of total rankings (587), followed by apnews.com (420) and usatoday.com (389).
• While foxnews.com ranked for more keywords and better average ranking position, it has 30% ranked articles which what drove visibility down to 3rd place.
• Some sites with lower search visibility have high URL strength, like abc7ny.com (10594) and postandcourier.com (10352), suggesting strong domain authority but less debate-specific content.
• foxnews.com leads in topic coverage (5.43%), followed closely by thehill.com (5.22%) and apnews.com (4.78%).
• NPR (npr.org) and PBS (pbs.org) both appear in the top 20, indicating strong performance for public broadcasting outlets.
• Axios (axios.com) and Politico (politico.com) perform well, ranking #12 and #6 respectively, showing the growing influence of digital-native news sources.
• Some international news sources like bbc.com, aljazeera.com, and reuters.com are present in the top 50, indicating global interest in the U.S. presidential debate.

Overall, the data illustrates a competitive yet concentrated landscape for news visibility during major political events. While established players dominate, there are opportunities for smaller outlets or those with niche focuses to gain visibility through high-quality, relevant content.

Get the complete list of the top 100 sites for all the US Presidential Debates.