CLEVELAND, OH - A record 851,000 hits was recorded on the new Marble Institute of America (MIA) Web site in October, according to the fast-growing natural stone industry organization, a more than seven-fold increase over the number of visits during October 2004.

“This tremendous outpouring of interest shows that our recent re-design of the Web site is providing the kinds of information that members, others in the stone industry and consumers desire,” said Gary Distelhorst, executive vice president of MIA. “Upgrading will be a continual process, with new features developed as opportunities arise.”

The latest MIA hit report shows that successful hits averaged 21,479 a day, with the average visitor session length of 9 minutes, 36 seconds.

The site's “find a member” feature was one of the most popular locations. Others favorites included common descriptions used in the industry and care and cleaning instructions.

“It's obvious that the MIA site is rapidly becoming the major domestic source for information on natural stone,” said Distelhorst. “We expect within the next several months to top a million hits a month.”