| This 40 message thread spans 2 pages: 40 ( [1] 2 ) > > |
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Google referrals down due to war
anyone notice this? |
snowfox121
#:201494
| 4:52 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
I am noticing a huge decrease in Google referrals since the start of the war coverage. (Also other referrals seem to be similarly affected.) Are any other of you with non-news sites seeing this?
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rfgdxm1
#:201495
| 5:03 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Nothing statistically relevant here. However, the nature and demographics of mu users may explain it. My sites are on a specialized info topic, and targeted mostly at teenagers and young adults. The nature of this info is such I wouldn't expect demand to go down based on world politics. Precisely what is the nature of your sites? With the exception of news sites, I'd expect in general Internet traffic would be down while people are watching the news on TV.
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AthlonInside
#:201496
| 5:16 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
same here, war isn't good for anything ...
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rfgdxm1
#:201497
| 5:23 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
I gather then you aren't an arms merchant or an undertaker? Speaking in terms of just the Internet, I've gotta figure that the news portal's traffic is way up. Internet use may not be down; it just may be it has shifted to news sources.
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Powdork
#:201498
| 6:13 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Overall, internet traffic is way up. This may be due to the large number of photos and video feeds associated with the war coverage. My traffic hasn't changed all that much but most of my visitors are excited brides to be. I'm not sure what effect the war has (if any) on that.
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EliteWeb
#:201499
| 6:34 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
In any plan of business you should factor in loss and downtime, this is loss and downtime for me, sales have dropped 7% but it is alright because after sales drop and the world fixes itself theres a significant increase, or so i plan for ;)
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Beachboy
#:201500
| 6:37 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Yep, visitors down, sales down. Everybody's watching the war and/or not in the mood to surf because of the war.
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rfgdxm1
#:201501
| 7:09 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
>My traffic hasn't changed all that much but most of my visitors are excited brides to be. I'm not sure what effect the war has (if any) on that. Right. This depends a lot on the demographics of your site users. Mine are also the sort that whether or not there is a war will effect much why they'd want to read what is on my site.
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Rhadamanthus
#:201502
| 7:13 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
I've actually had a huge surge in traffic, but then I run a political web site that has some commentary on the war. I got more traffic the first two days of last week than in the entire week before. It's costing me a fortune on AdWords right now, though...
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Tony_Perry
#:201503
| 8:54 am on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
my clients are predominatly running business sites and there has been no significant downturn in the last week
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Brett_Tabke
#:201504
| 12:30 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
The week is always down during the start of the NCAA tournament.
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Tor
#:201505
| 12:40 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Our travel related sites are 20% down after the war started. When it comes to other businesses I cannot detect any decrease in referrals at all so far.
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conor
#:201506
| 1:35 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Travel and Real estate sites down by 35% AND STILL SLIDING...
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tosspot17
#:201507
| 1:43 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
I'm in the UK, and seeing a reduction in traffic on finance sites. Anyone in the _UK_ seeing a similar trend?
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Luckenbach
#:201508
| 1:44 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Traffic down about 25%, seems to be leveling off.
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MetropolisRobot
#:201509
| 2:51 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Agree with CONOR. Travel related sites are suffering. One of my sites is showing a 33% bandwidth reduction over the last 5 days. In addition number of new clients is down and referrals are way down. Fortunately: (1) this allows me to overcome the problems I had at the last Google update when some people seemed to make major jumps ahead of me for no apparent reasons. (2) with the traffic drop off I have had some time to have larger maintenance windows and make the site stronger for April and beyond. Some major changes like substituting HTML pages built with XML and XSL for older JSP pages. Should improve speed etc. I have just cut back on marketing for now too. Way I figure is that I am nicely positioned for the next month, why throw any more money at the current time when it's obvious that my product is not selling.
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Brett_Tabke
#:201510
| 2:52 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
>isn't good for anything ... The news business is going good.
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Hollywood
#:201511
| 4:33 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
I See major slowdown on a site I manage regarding Information Technology Consulting and employment. Stateside (USA)
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EquityMind
#:201512
| 5:08 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
I'm seeing a slowdown across multiple industries...from small to big ticket items (especially big ticket items!)...now I wish I was optimizing a news site :(
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rfgdxm1
#:201513
| 5:17 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
>Travel related sites are suffering. One of my sites is showing a 33% bandwidth reduction over the last 5 days. This I would expect. Travel is one of those things that if something far more immediate and pressing can distract there Internet time, like war news, people will defer to later. Eventually they'll come back.
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mahlon
#:201514
| 5:22 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Holding steady here, 73% from Google, 22% Yahoo
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MetropolisRobot
#:201515
| 5:33 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
In reply to rfgdxm1 there are a few reasons: (1) as stated deferred searching etc. The fact there are more important things people want to see on the web. (2) also, economics play a big part. If the economy bounces back after the war then i expect to see leisure and vacation sites and referrals bounce back too. A "peace" dividend as it were. (3) also, uncertainty. If all we hear is about this and that airline having problems etc, then that means people don't want to fly...if they don't fly they don't book accommodations etc. All in all its a tough time. But IMHO make the most of not having traffic to prepare for the next time you.
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Stefan
#:201516
| 10:34 pm on Mar. 24, 2003 (utc 0) |
Visits to my site, (.org), went down about 50% the first couple of days, was down to almost nothing the night before last, (usually get a lot of hits overnight EST from Oz and Asia), then today came back to near normal levels; this included US visitors who had totally vanished for 2 or 3 days. Very interesting.
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Powdork
#:201517
| 1:47 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
| this included US visitors who had totally vanished for 2 or 3 days |
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War + basketball + weekend
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SubmissoR
#:201518
| 1:54 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
Traffic and email sign-ups are down about 30% across a bunch of sites I watch..
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Luckenbach
#:201519
| 2:07 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
Was talking to a friend today and he said he had turned off the tv, he was tired of watching the war. Some of my family watched basketball this weekend. I agree with Powdork, war, basketball, weekend. Saturday and Sunday were the worst, 25% drop from last weekend. My traffic is back up today so far, maybe near normal.
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4serendipity
#:201520
| 2:11 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
I've actually seen the percentage of google referrals go up compared to other engines. Perhaps some of the other, more portal like search sites are loosing some of their search traffic to war links on their sites' home pages. Just thinking aloud.
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europeforvisitors
#:201521
| 3:41 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
My traffic is down about 15%. I guess that isn't too bad for a European travel site, especially with many U.S. colleges having been on spring break last week. The drop in referrals from search engines (including Google) has been even greater, but I get enough repeat visitors to compensate for at least some of the referral losses. Still, the fact that I'm still at 85% of my normal traffic levels with a war going on is fairly encouraging. My biggest concern right now is that cuts in international flights may limit the number of North Americans, Australians, and Asians who can visit Europe this year.
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snowfox121
#:201522
| 5:32 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
My site is down about 25% - 30%, figures a few of you have cited. I suspected it was the war, but because a major event at my site had concluded recently I wondered if the drop was related. I'm guessing it's the war. My site is about spare-time recreational activity, a bit light for the current state of tension.
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freejung
#:201523
| 5:43 am on Mar. 25, 2003 (utc 0) |
It's kind of hard to tell for sure yet, since there are always fluctuations and we are starting to move into the low season for the travel business in my region, whereas on the other hand I had a huge boost in the SERPs at the last update, but it definitely seems like traffic is lower than I was expecting it to be. For search terms for which I was getting 10-15 visitors per day right after the update, I am now only getting 3-5 per day. As for sales, I've had zilch since the war started, absolutely nada, and very few emails either, and I usually get several reservations a day. Looks pretty bad to me. C'mon, people, the war won't affect your vacation to Central America, go ahead and book some rooms, will you? Jeeze! I have another site, not travel-related and also irrelevant to war issues, and traffic and conversions are both down for it as well, though not so much as for the travel site. The world holds its breath. I wouldn't, if I were them, they might get a little blue in the face before this is over.
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| This 40 message thread spans 2 pages: 40 ( [1] 2 ) > > |
