Oh Google, you traffic tease!

[sftriman]

I got excited - I thought I was finally past the Panda slap. But no. Google, why do you tease me like that?

[i.imm.io...]

Has anyone else seen a 1 week trend similar to this? Not only was I riding high and feeling pumped about all the de-duping, 301'ing, content writing, etc. I'd been doing finally paying off, but on top of that, my new traffic number (granted, it's just one day) now dropped like a sack of stones. Grrrr! Can anyone explain what the graph above indicates based on any recent Google changes?

[Whitey]

It's hard to make any sense out of this example and needs better analytics to decipher. Do you use Google Analytics or something similar?

There has been no Panda update reported, and traffic can fluctuate enormously in the period after New Year coupled with anything else Google might be doing.

[sftriman]

If I went back 90 days, the numbers would look pretty table flat, with of course some bumps for Xmas Day and NYE. It's pretty clear in the data I presented that I got a big pat on the back for a few days, then a massive slam. To your point, the question is, will my site stay slammed. I sure hope not... but I've only seen my traffic slip sliding away... Yes, I use Google Analytics, but these are my own metrics.

[Whitey]

Are you seeing anything in GA to eliminate post Xmas / NY consumer demand as a factor ?

[sftriman]

Nope, no indications of that. It appears to be a bona fide Google slam.

[zerillos]

Spikes like that can have a number of reasons.: an image on page 1 for a massive term, bot activity that was not filtered properly, stats software error, link from a high traffic page that was later removed, etc. It's not necesarely panda. On the other hand, it could also be "panda"...

[tedster]

A big but short-lived boost in traffic (real organic traffic) is also something that I see happen from time to time. Yes, it can feel like a tease. I don't know for sure, but it sometimes looks like Google is giving the site a test to see if their users respond well to it.

[johnhh]

Google is giving the site a test to see if their users respond well to it

not always, we had a spike in traffic a few months ago, it was related to a popular news item that referenced a particular [widget]. It just happened that we were one of only a few sites that had a page on this [widget].
Suggest the OP also looks at the time of the day for his traffic increase/decrease.

[zerillos]

If the boost in traffic comes with an obvious rise in the SERPs, then it is g playing with you. If not, the extra traffic comes from somewhere else. Personally, i try to identify these other sources everytime it happens. "Milk" them some more, if posible, but it rarely is ...

[sftriman]

I track my rankings for 500 keywords. In the time period leading up to the generous week, my cumulative score was tracking good: +1.5 to +8.0 every day for groups of 70 keywords. The last 3 days: my KW rank scores have been -26.5 and -28.0. I've seen KW in the top 10 fall right out of the top 100. Crapola. Note in my original set of data the /listing pages. Those in particular enjoyed a nice increase, followed by a slam to worse-than-before levels. My listing pages are long-tail keywords in my niche, e.g., /listing/ceramic-handle-pyrex-pot/ or /listing/extra-stiff-carbon-shaft-driver/. These are precisely the pages that got the ol' slap when Panda hit last year, and the pages I've been fighting with some success to save. Back to my original posting, I was just wondering if anyone else had the same thing happen to them in that time period. @tedster That's sure what it feels like, as if Google is testing out my site in some way.