For the second year in a row, Americans visited Facebook more than any other website.

And for the third year in a row, people in the U.S. keyed the word “Facebook” into search engines more than any other term.

That’s according to Experian Hitwise, which also found:

• Facebook accounted for 3.1 percent of all searches, a 46 percent increase from 2010.
• Four variations of the term “Facebook” were among the top 10 terms and accounted for 4.42 percent of searches overall, a 24 percent increase from 2010.
• Social networking–related terms dominated the results, accounting for 4.18 percent of the top 50 searches. This is an increase of 12 percent compared with 2010.
• Common search terms for Facebook — e.g., facebook and facebook.com — accounted for 3.48 percent of all searches in the U.S. among the top 50 terms, which represents a 33 percent increase compared with 2010.
• Facebook was the top-visited website for the second year in a row.
• Facebook accounted for 10.29 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November of 2011, a 15 percent increase from 2010.

Visits to the website and searches for the word “Facebook” represent two different fact sets. People who search for the word “Facebook” and variations thereof might be newer users of the site or folks who seek news stories mentioning Facebook.

Regardless, both sets of data show that Facebook’s popularity isn’t waning.

Simon Bradstock, general manager of Experian Hitwise, said in a prepared statement:

Navigational searches dominated the top search results as users typed in terms versus typing in the URL in the browser bar. Hitwise saw 11 percent growth of single-word searches in 2011 as terms like ‘face’ and ‘you’ made the top 50 searches.

Marketers need to be particularly brand-savvy when managing their search optimization campaigns because of this behavior, which is a result of predictive search functionality across major search engines. Other top 2011 searches reflect ongoing fascination with celebrities online, and many of the top fast-moving searches centered on natural disasters or notable personalities passing away.

Readers, what insights do you glean from Experian Hitwise’s statistics?

Facebook has yet to release a plugin that websites can install to ask for subscribers to Facebook profiles. Here’s how to create your own, using the social network’s badge creator.

Whether you use it in addition to a page or as an alternative to one, Facebook’s subscribe feature can help you amass a sizeable audience for your public status updates.

The more subscribers your profile gets, the more you emerge as a thought leader, and the greater your ability to drive traffic gets. So here’s how to create a subscribe badge.

4 Steps to Creating a Subscribe Badge

1. If you don’t already have a subscribe button on your profile, visit the about page for this feature and click “allow subscribers.”

2. Type “notes” in the search field at the top of the site, and choose the application entitled “my notes.” On the landing page click on “write a note.” On the ensuing page, write in the title a call for action to appear in your badge. For example:

• Click this badge to visit my profile and subscribe to my public updates.
• To receive my public Facebook updates in your news feed, click here and then click the button labeled “subscribe.”

You can repeat that text in the body of the note. Then click the blue button labeled “publish” to

3. Click here to go to the profile badge creator on Facebook. Then click on the button labeled “create a new badge.”

Select a layout that fits your website, and check the Items boxes to include your profile picture, name, and latest notes, and then save your badge.

Your badge will now display the title of your latest note, so if you publish any new, unrelated notes you’ll need to delete the old note asking for subscribers, then post a new one and redo steps three and four to update your badge.

4. Click the preview button, and then click the “other” button.

Copy the badge’s HTML code and paste it into your website’s code wherever you want the subscribe badge to appear. Save the page and upload it.

You’ll now have a profile badge that displays a call to action to subscribe to your updates. When viewers click the badge, they’ll land on our Facebook profile where they can click the subscribe button. Soon you’ll grow a base of subscribers who can follow your posts.

For more advice on how to use the latest Facebook features to grow your business, check out the Facebook Marketing Bible.

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A recent analysis of search terms found that the search term Facebook was the top U.S. search term for the four weeks ending March 27, 2010.  Facebook related terms accounted for eight searches across the three top 10 lists for three different search engines.  Yahoo related terms had six spots and MySpace had four.

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HitWise is reporting that for the week ending March 13, Facebook overtook Google as the site to get the most US visits.  Facebook also reached the top spot for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, when people logged on to send best wishes to relatives. Last time we suggested that the next time Facebook took the number one spot, it would be permanent, and if the Hitwise data is accurate, this could be a sustained lead.
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