Digital science communication: assessing the impact of outreach actions on a carbon research center website

Science communication has become increasingly strategic to expand the visibility and societal impact of scientific knowledge, particularly in fields related to climate change and sustainable land management. This study analyzed the access patterns and traffic sources of the website of the Center for Carbon Research in Tropical Agriculture (CCARBON/USP), a research center focused on advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics in tropical ecosystems, including topics such as soil organic matter, greenhouse gas mitigation, and sustainable land use. With the study, we aimed to assess how digital dissemination actions and social media channels drove traffic to the institutional website in 2025. The analysis compared the performance of dissemination strategies used in digital communication such as the use of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to produce content for the website and publications on social media, evaluating which one has the greatest capacity to generate traffic to the center's website. The data were extracted from Google Analytics, a web traffic analysis platform used to monitor website access, traffic sources, and user interactions with the institutional website. The data showed consistent traffic growth throughout the year, with intensification from the second half of the year and peak between November and early December. Google was the main source of website access, indicating strong reliance on organic search. Other sources, such as LinkedIn and secondary search engines, contributed marginally. These results highlight the role of digital communication strategies in expanding the visibility and dissemination of scientific knowledge related to soil organic matter and climate change.