Slow March (as in month) for forum

[billuk]

Anyone with a forum have a slow month this March?

I have a UK form and from the end of Feb (24/25) things dropped off big time. The number of people viewing has remained steady, but the number of new users joining and the number of posts has almost halved.

It's very bizarre, I can't work out why. I've been trying to find out if something is wrong or whatever, but nothing seems to have changed.

I'd have thought if it was a Google change then the overall impressions would have dropped, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Any ideas? I even thought it may be down to people being down about the current financial situation (clutching at straws etc)!

[rogerd]

Can you see a difference in traffic sources in your logs? E.g., search referrals are down, direct referrals are down, etc. If you can identify the general problem, then you can look at specifics: keywords where rankings have fallen, a key direct link that went away, etc.

Something else I'd do is compare the stats to the same period last year - that will identify any seasonal variations as well as any aberrations.

I don't think forum posting in general is affected by economic conditions, but certainly issues related to your forum's topic can drive traffic up or down. A financial forum might certainly see jumps based on either positive or negative market activity.

[sem4u]

It could be any number of reasons. Falling search engine traffic, new members being insulted putting people thinking of joining off, etc.

Can you say what sector your forum is in?