Planet13 - 10:26 pm on Dec 10, 2011 (gmt 0)

@ ecomconv

I think the easy response here is to look at the top keywords in traffic sources you had before and after panda. That should show you that you had more qualified relevant visitors before.

That is a good question and something I will have to look into.

One thing is although we are an ecommerce site with some informational articles, our traffic seems to peek in OCTOBER, and drop slightly during November and December, just when it SHOULD be climbing.

My thought is that google is characterizing us as more of an educational resource than an ecommerce site? Since October is generally the time when educational resources get a boost in traffic...

@ mattia

DO you know which keywords are used to come to you site? if not, then this is where you need to start!

I will have to double check, but most of the keywords are the same as before (if memory serves). It just seems like they aren't converting. But I will have to double check.

Of course, the fact that google is hiding the keywords for searchers who are logged into their google accounts is going to make it much more difficult to compare.

if keywords used to come to your site are same before and after the Google Panda, then your conversion issue is obviously on your site (although I doubt this is the case).

Well, that is certainly possible. The conversion rate is very low in general. (I think I mentioned it was around .35% of visitors).

One of the truly annoying things is that I get lots of "tire kickers." People who add an item or two to their baskets, and then leave.

Since the items themselves are not easily comparable to other items - most don't have UPCs or SKUs, and if they did, I wouldn't display them anyway - my guess is that they are not really comparison shopping.

my guess is that visitors are now coming to your site using different keywords.

Entirely possible. Will have to look more into that.