backdraft7 - 1:26 pm on Sep 22, 2010 (gmt 0)

The more I examine this "throttle" issue the less I buy into the idea. I'm no expert at examining traffic, but if I look at my AWSTATS graphs, I see the same or higher levels of traffic as the same time last year, and previous years.

My real problem is a substantial decline in sales...which is typically related to traffic volume.

What I do believe is that the quality of traffic seems to have declined dramatically. Either there are many more "bots" out there or many more savvy teens coming up the ranks that don't buy. The other problem appears that I am receiving much more foreign traffic , even though my geographic target is set to the United States.

I also believe that any traffic volume or quality issues in 2010 are due in large part to Google's own tinkering. This is clear every time Google makes a major algo change. It always takes a few weeks for it to "bubble sort".

I've said it before and I'll say it again - just hang in there and it will all return to "normal", but keep improving your site quality along the way and try to diversify your content in a logical, relevant manner.