Large spike in traffic on several sites - hundreds of page views each visitor

[Lorel]

I have 2 clients concerned about a large spike in traffic on their sites in the last few days (hundreds of page views from each visitor) and concerned about a Google penalty as it may look like they paid for traffic. It doesn't appear to be bots. I checked my own site and it also has a large amount of visitors. I just got back from vacation so haven't had time to check other clients but I'm wondering if others are experiencing the same thing?

[EditorialGuy]

Sometimes it happens. Sometimes its even legitimate. User engagement isn't necessarily a bad thing. :-)

[Lorel]

It looks like it's a bug in Sitemeter as no corresponding spike in Google Analytics on the same day. I confirmed this on 3 sites so far.

[mikhailblaze]

No such experiences on my end - just checked the analytics...though I'm stressed thanks to bots from spammy sites.

Better check the referral traffic tab :)

[jimbeetle]

concerned about a Google penalty as it may look like they paid for traffic

I might be just totally muddled here, but why would Google penalize a site for paying for traffic?

[mikhailblaze]

AFAIK, Google penalizes sites for paid links, but never heard about them penalizing sites for paying for traffic.