coachm - 8:50 pm on Oct 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

I have noticed some patterns which are not explainable but have been so persistent that I can't ignore them, and they simply have to do with results. We sell, and we also make adsense money. Periodically we'll see that one of the two drops badly in terms of total revenue, while the other improves. It might stay like that for months, and than all of a sudden, it shifts the other way.

The upshot is we almost never make MORE money from our sites, and the only explanation for this recurring phenomenon is that the TRAFFIC is being changed at the source, in this case primarily google search.

Of course, one can only speculate. If it is as I believe, that google is altering the traffic flow and characteristics of visitors coming to our sites via serp alterations, the next question is whether this is intentional, or it's a byproduct of other things they do -- an unintentional side effect which happens with complex systems.

I dunno.