Large Traffic Drop from google - back to school?

[uberslacker]

Hi all. Yesterday my google traffic dropped from a typical 1,777 visitors to 641 :(. I'm curious if anyone saw this phenomenon and was almost wondering if it is due to people being back in school - college/high school....or if it was search related. Regardless, I'm not a fan of it AT ALL.

[aristotle]

Did your rankings for your best keywords fall in the Google SERPs?

[uberslacker]

So far it doesn't seem like the keywords ranking changed at all. Everything is showing up in search as it has been, at least to my eye so far....no weird obvious drops or anything. I had similar traffic back before May...then it really started to get "Hot" after May. Then yesterday way back down.

[tedster]

Have you looked at traffic by keyword - to discover which keywords are not bringing in the same volume of visitors from search?

[uberslacker]

Good idea. It appears, after comparing a day in analytics, and also checking out webmaster tools, that a good amount of searches that were listed as top searches in webmaster tools, no longer show up, or don't have as good results. It seems like my traffic was cut in half due to a shake up in results....and perhaps the school theory plays a little into it, but probably isn't the key thing. There goes the business....for now....right

[Reno]

Yesterday my google traffic dropped ... There goes the business

The key word here is "yesterday" -- this time next week your traffic may be above average, so then you're back on track. Don't let your online biz depend on one day's traffic from one search engine -- that is the thinnest of ice.

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[uberslacker]

I know. It doesn't depend on one day at all. But having half the traffic over a long period of time makes a difference. I wonder if there is some google caffeine playing into these results. Caffeine is showing the same results today for these new oddities. Wished I had tested those keywords on caffeine before yesterday to see where they were for comparison.

[Reno]

Also take note of the threads here re "yo yo effect" -- if that's playing into your drop at all, then be patient as you may be ahead of the curve in a short while. As much as we all study Google, it in large part remains an enigma, which of course is exactly what they want.

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[whitenight]

Caffeine is showing the same results today for these new oddities. Wished I had tested those keywords on caffeine before yesterday to see where they were for comparison.

Yes, I'm reporting Caffeine going VERY LIVE here. [webmasterworld.com]

[edited by: tedster at 7:43 pm (utc) on Sep. 1, 2009]
[edit reason] fix url [/edit]