Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2004-May-17 18:37
I think the May/June update has hit again. My site was ranking well until a few days ago. Now traffic is about 1/2 of what it was from a week ago. I don't know if this is just a fluke for the past few days or other people here are noticing something similar.
This seems to happen every May/June and around November each year.
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2004-May-17 18:40
I was hoping Yahoo would be sending more traffic than it is, but apparently it's not offsetting Google's traffic drop very well.
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webconfusion
Joined: Jun 24, 2002
# Posts: 125
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Posted: 2004-May-17 19:35
I've noticed two things:
1. Our site has dropped off the first and to the second page for our primary search term.
2. A dramatic drop in traffic that began before (1).
I forecast that the number of visitors to our website will be down 16% from last month(from about 30,000 to 25,000 visitors) unless something dramatic happens in the latter half of the month.
We get the majority of our traffic from two sources: SERPs (organic search) and direct click thrus from other websites. The breakdown is as follows:
Organic search, 40%
Direct click thrus, 46%
PPC (Overture and Google), 13%
Other, 1%
I can't explain the dramatic fall off in activity. Seasonal? Something we're doing wrong? Very strange.
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2004-May-18 02:55
Last month was great for traffic. This month has been a bit more disappointing. Counts have really dropped for traffic coming from Google. With that I was wondering if Google is going through another major change in adjustments.
I envy you getting 46% click thrus from direct links from other sites. You are fortunate to get that kind of traffic. I get about 16-20% of my traffic from direct clicks... rest comes from the engines. Perhaps this is a short-term fluke <crossing fingers>
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hexed
Joined: Apr 21, 2004
# Posts: 8
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Posted: 2004-May-18 09:42
What keywords are you getting 30,000 uniques a month for?
hexed
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webconfusion
Joined: Jun 24, 2002
# Posts: 125
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Posted: 2004-May-18 20:27
Hexed,
We get 30,000 total visitors per month. If you multiply the percentages I gave in my earlier post by this number you can get a feel for how they get to our site. Only 13% are from PPC keyword activity.
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Pongo
Joined: May 27, 2002
# Posts: 665
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Posted: 2004-May-19 02:03
Hey this may seem funny to most of you folks but I have also seen a drop in traffic due to less interest in everthing I sell - I think it's the great weather and American Idol 
Less people are in front of the PC right now.
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lilyfok
Joined: May 19, 2004
# Posts: 5
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Posted: 2004-May-19 13:58
To me, Google's traffic is increasing in recent days.
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EyesCoffee
Joined: Jan 31, 2004
# Posts: 204
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Posted: 2004-May-19 15:41
It's increasing as more and more people come online, and will continue to increase until they go bust.
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Rezac
Joined: Jan 25, 2004
# Posts: 817
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Posted: 2004-May-19 16:45
you have graduations, school is over, people are going crazy right now for a couple days until the season settles down a bit.
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2004-May-19 21:10
Don't know about school graduations causing the slump in traffic for my site since it does not target this group of people. I do know that Google traffic has dropped very significantly, probably more than it should have. Same thing happened last year when Google decided to upset the cart by making more radical changes to the Algo.
Stats from GG were steadily climbing until this month (May). It's bottoming out greatly since then.
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Pongo
Joined: May 27, 2002
# Posts: 665
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Posted: 2004-May-19 21:55
>>> Don't know about school graduations causing the slump in traffic for my site since it does not target this group of people.
Really great point but do you target the parents at all? There broke and buisy helping them move and what-not....
I really think its graduation, great weather, and American idol
Call me crazy I'm used to it
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Rezac
Joined: Jan 25, 2004
# Posts: 817
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Posted: 2004-May-19 23:54
American Idol?
When it comes to sales, we always have excuses why they aren't good.
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Pongo
Joined: May 27, 2002
# Posts: 665
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Posted: 2004-May-20 03:39
ha ha ha - I just didnt feel it man.
anyway the deal is (search) is down - sales are the same ratio.
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Rezac
Joined: Jan 25, 2004
# Posts: 817
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Posted: 2004-May-20 04:22
Hey make no mistake, this economy is crap right now. Gas prices sucking up people's discretionary income. Non service industry is what drives economics and the US is at an all time low in production and we have a huge export deficit right now. All this trickles into just about every aspect of business, online or not.
Everyone suffers.
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stevenjm
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 824
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Posted: 2004-May-20 07:37
I just returned from holidays today and noticed traffic has dropped also. Have not had a chance yet to investigate why though.(hopefully not algo related).
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stevenjm
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 824
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Posted: 2004-May-20 07:55
No google related problem found - just a few slow days from the 14th
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2004-May-20 22:05
Here's what I've noticed.- Last week of April: lots of visitors relatively speaking.
- 1st week of May: 10% less visitors compared to last week of April.
- 2nd week of May: 25% less visitors compared to last week of April.
- 3rd week of May: 40% less visitors compared to last week of April.
Due to steady decline in visitor traffic, it's possible that this time of the year and events happening that people simply are not looking for the services offered on my site as much as last month.
However, given the pattern of Google, I had to explore that possibility. Hopefully visitors and income will flow back in after this slump.Really great point but do you target the parents at all? There broke and buisy helping them move and what-not....
Those are the kinds of people who may need the services provided on my site. Hope it's not google.
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Rezac
Joined: Jan 25, 2004
# Posts: 817
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Posted: 2004-May-20 23:07
Historically, April - June are my slowest and things are pretty good so I can't complain.
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stevenjm
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 824
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Posted: 2004-May-21 14:20
One change I have noticed since returning from holidays is that results are now closest to pre florida that I have seen. Glad everyone now goes with adwords - its left standard optimisation a lot easier as a lot of people have neglected it due to uncertainty and relied on their adwords instead.
The way the algo stands at the moment is great(for optimising).
No doubt it will change again though.
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