Does a new site have a daily visitors limit from Google?

[onetry]

I recently deployed a website, using unique content of a database.

I scripted it that a new article is published every day.

The new site was doing very well (400 unique visitors after 1 month of life) and the trend was obviously great.

One week ago, no apparent reason, the site was pushed 300+ back in SERPs.

How do you see this behavior?

Is there a limit for a new website? A time limit in which is admitted to grow up?

The site is COMPLETELY white hat and useful.

Best regards.

[tedster]

I don't think it works the way you suggest - it's not a visitor limit. But it is common for a new site to do well for a short period and then fall back. I have called these early good rankings the "honeymoon period". During a site's early days it gets a kind of gift to see how it performs.

But only the most amazing new sites hold onto that - if, for instance, the site gets a lot of media attention. It is more common is to fall back. Then it takes time to build your rankings and trust up, bit by bit, day by day.

[htdawg]

I had the same thing happen to my site, brand new site did well for about a month with organic searches the all of a sudden traffic dropped for a week or two then traffic picked up again to normal level now the site is 2 months old.

[onetry]

I felt like links don't count so much anymore .. but this was only a dream ;)

[onetry]

@htdawg:

Did you take any actions to get organic traffic back? Did you get strong links or what else?

Best regards.

[Tyme]

Our six month old site gets exactly 100 visitors a day from google. It seems google does put limits on some sites. We appear in the SERPs for a short time for our desired keywords and then when our 100 visitors have been recieved we are taken back out again... This has been going on since the site was launced. We are working on getting back links but it is difficult for newer sites. Not many webmasters seem to want to take a chance linking to someone new.

[malcolmcroucher]

I just deployed a new site and its not in the top 100 results ?

Maybe i did something wrong

[tedster]

malcolm, it depends a lot on what keyword you hope to rank for.

This idea of a daily quota has come up before, and not just for new sites, either. With the current cycling that we see in some of the SERPs, it's not out of the question that some like this is in play - I'll keep an open mind about it and an eye out for evidence. But it certainly strikes me as a odd way to run a search engine, if it is true.

[Robert Charlton]

Just to make sure we're clear about this... are all posters talking about organic traffic, or are some talking about AdWords traffic?

A limitation on AdWords traffic, eg, might be budget related.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:05 pm (utc) on July 23, 2008]

[vivalasvegas]

As others have said this happens with new sites - sudden and dramatic drop in rankings. If you know you haven't done anything shady then stop worrying and keep working on links and content as if nothing happened. Your site will eventually return and traffic will be stronger. You've got to see the big picture, set goals for months/years.

[netmeg]

The days of putting up a brand new site and being indexed and ranking within days (or even weeks or a month) are pretty much over, as far as I can tell.

I typically tell clients with a brand new site (or large site overhaul) to figure on at least six months before they start seeing reasonably good traffic from Google. That way, they know what to expect from the start, and if it comes in early - it's all good.

[Tyme]

I am talking about organic traffic from google. If I view the lastest visitors to our site from AW stats and then follow the refer back to the search engine, if not a lot of time has elasped I will see our sites listing. If more than usually an half hour has passed the listing will have disapeared. Sometimes it just a matter of minutes. This is stange, but it does happen to us all the time.

At the end of each day for the past month we recive exactly 100 visitors from google search traffic. The taffic seems divided almost evenly between some of our desired keywords. Most of our lesser keywords are still not performing at all.

I understand that due to problems of our own making(site structure, duped meta files and other things that incidently we have cleaned up after coming to webmaster world...) that our site isn't getting the traffic we hope for, but google IS limiting daily how many people get to visit our site.

I hope my post makes sense...I'd be happy to clarify further...

[jimbeetle]

the listing will have disapeared

Keep in mind that personalized search, localized search, this search and that search all have a bearing on what individual users see.

[Tyme]

I do keep the personalized search in mind. I don't think I'm quite getting through do to my lack of terminology. Here is a senario that goes on all the time with our site: ( I'm strickly going by the evidence in AW stats and googles analitics)
Say we have 10 competaive keywords, over the couse of one day we will get 10 visitors from google search for each of those keywords. Now the interesting part:
We add a brand new page targeting another keyword. Google seems to like the page and will allow us say 5 visitors for that new keyword. ...we now have 11 keywords. What google has been doing on a regular and on going basis is giving us traffic for all 11 keywords but never do the total number of visits excede what apprears to be our quota of 100 visits per day.

In essence google will add in the new keyword but as far as visitors go we still have 100 visits, but they are now spread over 11 keywords. Each time we add something new that google appears to like our 100 visitors are then spread out over 12, 13, 14, 15 keywords and so on...The point is, the total number of organic traffic from google always stays exactly the same.

doesn't anyone esle see this happening on thier sites?

[SteveWh]

I thought "referral rationing" was just my own secret pet theory. I've suspected it for months, but hadn't seen anyone else propose it. Overall traffic appears to rise gradually in accordance with what (I speculate) Google believes the site "is worth". Sometimes one page ranks high and gets more visitors, but other pages fall to compensate and keep the overall traffic steady. Two or more pages happen to become popular at the same time, producing an unusual traffic spike? Nope. Steady, gradually increasing traffic, apportioned among pages however needed to keep the total Google organic search traffic more or less on a steady path.

Some relatively simple statistical tests could determine whether daily traffic falls into a reasonably normal normal distribution, or shows an abnormal lack of day to day variation. But I admit I haven't done it, and hadn't even thought of it until now.

On the other point, yes, it is quite common for a new site, or new page, to rank well initially and then fall back. If a new site falls back a lot, it's called the "sandbox effect". After 1+ month of high rankings, I saw a 90% drop in traffic that lasted more than a year. Then a slow climb back to, and well beyond, original levels.