Wild fluctuations in search traffic: 5K - 30K - 5K

[CalGuy19]

Hey guys, I know there's been a lot of talk about Google and "traffic throttling" and was wondering if that's what I'm running into. This is driving me insane.

Background: Last May, I changed all my category titles from "Category Name" to "Category Name [Keyword, Keyword, Keyword]" My traffic shot WAY up for a month for those category names (we're talking from 5k referrals/day to 30k) and then suddenly plunged, with those category name pages receiving almost no hits.

Since then, about every two months, traffic suddenly shoots up for a few days due to searches on those category names and then suddenly plunges again. Check out my chart:

[/IMG] [img828.imageshack.us]

The latest plunge in October was even more drastic, as now I'm not even ranking for very unique titled stories on my blog. Sites that are stealing my content are listed #1 and I'm somewhere on page 2 or 3.

Does anyone know what the heck is going on. I need this fixed for my sanity!

[tedster]

Hello CalGuy19 - welcome to the forums.

You're seeing the kind of mystery that some people here have been reporting off and on for the past two years. I'd say no one knows exactly what is going on - but it clearly involves some kind of testing on Google's end - learning whether your site is a good match for certain kinds of queries.

You may find this discussion starts some ideas for you: Google Traffic Throttling - revisited [webmasterworld.com]

[cloudtap]

Google is just testing algorithms constantly so things will continue to shift and this happens for ALL sites across the world. I'd say the best thing to do is follow good SEO and keep on working at it -- if you see spam pages, report them. Make friends with Google's spam team and that may help you get rid of the bad sites but you must give MUCH proof.