jimbeetle - 8:40 pm on Dec 6, 2002 (gmt 0)

Sure, it's that the MSN/Direct Hit partnership ended at the end of September (I believe). And this is where coincidence comes into play -- with an across the board drop from SEs I didn't pick up this specific change.

And more coincidence. Seasonal fluctuation in hospitality industry? I thought that as a possibility also.

Afraid this thread isn't Google-specific any more but I'll go on for now. Since I changed the pages back I'm getting almost half the traffic from MSN that I used to, the other half had been from Direct Hit. That's after basically zero referrals for about a month.

It's hard wading through all of the possibilities that affect SERPs. You do this, he does that, somebody else tweaks an algorithm. But I do think that one of the likely kernels in both of our cases is the change in keyword density.

Would it be any fun if we ever figure it out?

Jim