Hits are down

Any explanation for such a dramatic drop?

[Natman]

I have several sites all of which have done very well over the early - mid parts of this year, however over the past 3 months hits have dropped dramatically and I need to figure out why.
The sites content is changed every day and all feedback is positive but we still have this massive drop in hits.

Is it seasonal? Is anybody else experiencing the same thing?
The sites are all uk based and generally hit by uk users.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated
thanks

Nathan Fuller

[takagi]

Hello Natman, Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

Hard to say with only the information you gave.

Where were your visitors coming from (Search engines, links from other sites, ads)?

How was your site doing in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) for important keywords before and after the drop?

Since your site is generally hit by uk users, does it show up on www.google.co.uk when searching for 'pages from the UK'?

[sem4u]

>Is it seasonal?

Depends what you are selling?

Suncream sales down, umbrella sales up!

[Natman]

ok the sites are for newspapers and provide daily headlines and stories.
So i would of presumed hits would remain fairly level throughout.

I have been in the internet industry for a few years working with sites in many different topics and have noticed that hits drop at this time of year but not so dramtically.

We are easily found and have excellent rankings in all search engines but a majority of our users come to us direct as we print the url in the newspapers.

I expected a drop for areas like the travel section at this time of year but not so much for news and sport.

[takagi]

What about competitors?

Google started in May this year news.google.co.uk (see: Google News UK [webmasterworld.com]). Maybe the word spread and now you've got a major competitor in them.