backdraft7 - 5:26 am on Dec 2, 2012 (gmt 0)

Well, November is over and we've logged another first, another low. The first time in a dozen years, our November number are LOWER than October by a solid 15%. We always had BEAT October as the seasonal upswing begins. Just as a check across the board, is anyone seeing the seasonal upswing?

There are a LOT of reasons for the decline, not all are due to Google, but their not off the hook. The global economy is struggling, thanks to the the Mayans and the Discovery channel, a good portion of the population thinks the world will end in 20 days from now, the fiscal cliff looms, but does this all explain why our long tail is almost completely gone? No.

November also pulled in with the lowest number of search key phrases of any month yet with 6459 phrases. Even our slowest month of June had 7545. November 2011 was twice 2012 at 11,651. Nov 2010 was 10,773 and Nov 2009 was 11,539. So while the world seems to be circling the drain, we definitely know where our traffic went, it went to be better monetized by the corporation.

I could understand it if a superior competitor came out of nowhere and took over our niche, but that has not happened. It's the non stop "quality" updates. Has anyone seen continued improvement this year?

Now, whatever hit a few days ago is showing all the signs of a major update. My unmaintained sites are showing huge spikes of traffic, while my bread & butter sites are dying off. I expect this to be another yoyo event where the junk sites drop off and we rise up again....a little less than before though.
Ya ever notice, it always seems less than more.