Why is it always the same with traffic?

[msgraph]

When you have the same rankings for a set period of time, why do the number of hits always float around the same range?

Like let's say I'm listed number x for something and each day I receive 800-900 hits a day from a various search engines 7 days a week.

Why not 2500 one day and 400 the next day and 1000 the day after that?

I've looked to find this answer for years and have yet to find one? Any stats out there on this subject?

[oilman]

That's a very interesting question. My answer would be that with the sheer number of users out there you are going to see a fairly even distribution of visitors, statistically speaking. There is no reason why any one day should be more or less popular except for maybe weekends depending on the search topic.

I think the only reason you would see a bump in traffic would be in response to some other outside stimulus that triggers it such as a newsletter listing etc.

[msgraph]

I wonder if the same thing happens at shopping malls, restaurants, and other stores.

With the exception of being close to pay day, holidays, and weekends, do they see the same traffic of people on a daily basis?

When you think about it, it really blows your mind how some things always float in a set range. There must be some sort of research out there that proves this into a "law" or "theory".....

ONLY X amount of people think the same thing around the same time and therefore act the same.

[GWJ]

My logs show that Thursday and Friday are the highest traffic days. E.S.T. zone is where my site is located and 5:00 P.M.-10:00 P.M. show the highest hit hours. This is taking into account all traffic, not just SE.

MSGraph: >>I wonder if the same thing happens at shopping malls, restaurants, and other stores.

I used to be a multi-unit restaraunt manager. We would see heavy patterns when studying the years figures broken down to the day. I even knew what hours to go from skeleton crews, to moderate staffing, to "Oh no here comes the dinner rush" crew. For a while I managed a few in the Santa Cruz/Monterey bay area and with tourist season I could make the schedule with my eyes closed.

Brian

[bigjohnt]

>When you think about it, it really blows your mind how some things always float in a set range. There must be some sort of research out there that proves this into a "law" or "theory".....

This information when applied to a specific market could make a person very wealthy. Case in point, the baby boomer bubble - and the "peak earning years" effect on real estate sales. Buy at the trough, sell at the peak. My guess is that anyone with this kind of info would keep it kinda quiet. I'd love to see that kind of research.

[tedres]

My guess is that anyone with this kind of info would keep it kinda quiet. I'd love to see that kind of research.

Check out books by Harry S. Dent Jr. - Great Boom Ahead, Roaring 2000s, etc,

[Jaguar_Joe]

msgraph brings up a good point. And I'd like to raise a related one. On a well-established site, why is the traffic not only relatively stable but flat and not growing. Everything I read says that the number of web users is growing and present users are spending increasing time online, yet I see a number of established, successful sites whose traffic patterns are essentially flat over time. Shouldn't a rising tide lift all boats? (Especially good ones that don't have big gaping holes in them.)

[austtr]

Similar scenario to report... a well established site, ranking probably as well as it ever will on all the majors..... yet visitor numbers remain relatively static each month. I must admit I was expecting more volatility in the numbers.

The peaks and troughs usually vary less than 10% from the average with just the usual seasonal fall off for the Xmas - New Year period.

All the database swapping and changed business alignments with the SE's and directories seems to have had no overall effect.

And yes.... I also wonder why the supposed expotential growth in the number of web users does not generate an upward trend in visitor numbers. You would think that natural growth would have to occur.

Another point about consistency of numbers... I can look at my stats after the the first 7-10 days of the month, project those figures for the whole month and be almost spot on.

[eljefe3]

>>And yes.... I also wonder why the supposed expotential growth in the number of web users does not generate an upward trend in visitor numbers. You would think that natural growth would have to occur.

As the numbers of web users increases, so does the number of web sites. If these are occuring at approximately the same rate, then it will take some good marketing efforts to see a dramatic increase in the number of visitors, sales etc.

Has anyone else seen that weekends are around 30% slower than weekdays for traffic volume?

[BrettLaCroix]

>> As the numbers of web users increases, so does the number of web sites. If these are occuring at approximately the same rate, then it will take some good marketing efforts to see a dramatic increase in the number of visitors, sales etc.

OK... but I think the changes in SE strategies/indexing/etc... are actually making the internet "smaller".

There may be more and more sites... but good luck finding them... if they are not SEO'ed, or paid placement, or reciprically linked like crazy... they might as well not exist (at least to the search engines).

On a different note, has there been any study of the differing "web surfing" patterns of web/computer veterans and those who "just got thier first computer at Wal-Mart last week"?

:) Brett

[tedster]

> Has anyone else seen that weekends are around 30% slower than weekdays for traffic volume?

It depends very much on the topic. I have some sites that do their best on Saturday. I have a site that is almost exclusively Monday to Friday, and weekends fall by 90%.

[han solo]

Good point, tedster.

Take business sites, for example. They will do very, very well, M-F, but fall off Sat and Sun. Because on the weekends, even the corporate raiders like to at least imagine they aren't tied to work...after all, they've been at their desk for 15 hour days, 5 days straight, right? :)

Similarly, imagine on saturday what a surfer might look for: dating tips, romantic advice, places to go for the evening, or trip ideas to get away from it all, etc. The activity pattern is different, and this is reflected in the surfing habits.

BTW, BrettLaCroix, there is a paper I saw, [www9.org...] titled, Web Search Behavior of Internet Experts and Newbies...interesting stuff.

Cheers,
Han Solo