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I am talking about traffic of nearly 7 k from google everyday and hence its a sizable decrease.
Looking for early answers on how we could check the things
if our theory is that it is just the august doldrums kicking in (i think some might be explained by that but the decline is too great to be anything but a significant change in serps or the like), then the vast majority of folks should suffer greatly. if, on the other hand, there is some kind of shift in serps or the like, then the large, less-keyword-focused sites should all suffer broad declines, whereas sites focused on a small number of keywords will likely be either way up or way down depending on how they fared in the serps changes.
i, for one, have faced the steep decline in recent days that most people are talking about. and i have a very large site that deals with a wide range of technical topics. there are too many pages to optimize each page by hand so i depend instead on a broad range of relatively obscure search phrases to bring me traffic.
i, for one, have faced the steep decline in recent days that most people are talking about. and i have a very large site that deals with a wide range of technical topics. there are too many pages to optimize each page by hand so i depend instead on a broad range of relatively obscure search phrases to bring me traffic.
What surprises me to no end, is that most of my traffic comes from "bookmarked or typed". After that, I see Google, but nowhere near the numbers I expected.
If G rules the roost, it sure does not show here. -LH
Let's have a thread about that. traffic from google has increased.
I have no problem with that, go ahead and post it. Whats the point of your posts by the way. If you don't agree with the thread cindysunc why not just avoid it.
It seems a good deal of large sites have lost traffic, therefore this is the perfect place to discuss the if's and why's. This thread has gone to 4 pages so the topic seems of interest to many users.
After 3 years which is a longtime I have lost 50% of traffic. Why can't I post this information? This seems quite unusual, and people have had a similar trend. Therefore why can't we discuss the reasons why this may have happened.
It's not my problem if the people with 50% traffic increases don't post here. I would love to hear why they think their traffic has increaed 50%.
We could have a thread like this every month or every time Google has a shift.
Surely this is one of the main reasons to post at WW. To discuss the changes in the search engine serps. Or am I missing something
[edited by: mikeD at 3:20 pm (utc) on Aug. 7, 2004]
this is the perfect place to discuss the if's and why's
Agreed. So does anyone have any insight as to the why?
Is it just an algo tweak?
Is it just an algo tweak?
Just an algo tweak can mean the difference between someone paying the bills or not.
Your correct though, any insights as to the why should be where this thread should lead.
I can't currently see a trend in my area. Except larger sites being hit.
[edited by: mikeD at 3:27 pm (utc) on Aug. 7, 2004]
Cindysunc, no need to take this thread personally. Something has changed, and we're just trying to figure out what's going on.
It's not the summer doldrums - summer doldrums couldn't account for 30-40% of Google traffic across what had been 250K search terms evaporating overnight.
ALGO TWEAK may mean that someone is paying his bills and loan installment or not paying it.
It's not the summer doldrums - summer doldrums couldn't account for 30-40% of Google traffic across what had been 250K search terms evaporating overnight.
Exactly, but there is no reason why some pages have dropped and ones that have not. It just seems random.
ALGO TWEAK may mean that someone is paying his bills and loan installment or not paying it.
Obviously there are two sides of the coin. But a high percentage of pages which have taken my top spots are irrelevant. They wouldnt generate revenue in my opinion.
So to say I have lost 50% revenue and someone has gained 50% is too simplistic. It's depends if the new results are relevant doesn't it.
But generally when people get traffic increases they rarely post threads on WW about it. I guess they are too modest or are busy celebrating in the South of France. Or don't want to share their secrets.
IMHO, having an "organic" site that adheres to the Google Webmaster Guidelines is a good way to avoid volatility and nasty surprises in the search rankings.
IMHO, having an "organic" site that adheres to the Google Webmaster Guidelines is a good way to avoid volatility and nasty surprises in the search rankings.
Depends on the competitve nature of the keywords I find. My sites are clean and have been relatively steady for 3yrs. This is the biggest drop for 3 years. I have noticed some sites are unmoved by the changes. But I can't see an obvious reason for it.
I noticed that a lot of my uk sites were unchanged but the US ones were worst hit.
I don't get how one of my sites can have PR 7, with apparently only 2 low quality backinks - either the PR is wrong, or the backlinks.
The high quality backlinks are still in place (I've checked them.)
It's almost as if the top backlinks are deliberately being hidden from webmasters.
This is not exactly off-topic - I'm just adding to the point that there is something funny going on with Google.
(and I've never had so many sales from MSN and Yah.)
Normally I get Monday as a high day and weekends as low days, now I am below last weekend and I hate to see what my traffic is for today.
I just looked at my stats - its a pretty grim!
MikeD,
I just hope things improve or I might have to get a "real" job flippin burgers.
"real" job flippin burgers.
If we are lucky :)
It is almost as if someone linked to me that Google doesn't like and dropped me down as a result. I have no control over who links to my site, and the couple of sites I linked to didn't link back as they weren't link exchanges.\
Really, what is to prevent a link farm from adding your site without your knowledge and getting you dropped when you did nothing to deserve it. And now with Google not showing backlinks anymore that are usful we have no way of checking what they [Google} considers good or bad so it is almost to the point where you can't link to other sites for fear of some penalty and you can't exchange links because they may see that as link farming.
My 7 year old site has boringly stable traffic numbers. Over the past week or two traffic from G has been a little above normal. Yesterday was far below normal, but within the routine fluctuation range.
Yesterday I put in a few hours trying to understand the recent general rise in traffic. A run through my basic keyword list showed no unusual shifts. My primary keywords normally move around the first page serps with at least one at the top and working hard. Yesterday, it seemed that all the keywords were near the top at the same time and traffic was down a bit.
Not much learned from looking at my keywords.
I then started messing about with keyword phrases that I do not specifically target and rarely check their serp positions. Mixes of words from the site name, url, page title and combinations from page content. I was surprised to see that there were several that sat on page one position one. I know that they were not there before, but how long ago was that?
Probably it is unrelated, but I wonder if these new(?) showings in the serps reflect a larger change in some way. Anyone else noticing new phrases popping to the top for their established sites?
Mc
Not helpful, and untrue.
IMHO, there is NO way to avoid volatility in the search rankings given that G and others will ALWAYS be looking to improve their search algorithms by making changes. Why should any site be immune to changes in the formulas that determine rankings? Sites that place well today will not necessarily place well tomorrow.
Is anyone else noticing a decrease in google traffic and an increase in Y and MSN referrals?
My MSN referrals are now more than twice what they have been historically, Y traffic is up about 50% while google traffic is down about 50%
My positioning has not changed much on any of the SE's and overall traffic is down about 15-20% BUT where the traffic is coming is changing.
Before:
G - 70%
Y - 15%
MSN - 10%
others - 5%
Now:
G - 35%
Y - 25%
MSN - 30%
others - 10%
I am speculating that the reason for this is because the other sites in the G serps around me are of such poor quality and/or off topic that people are going elsewhere to search.
anyone else seeing the same or opposite of this?
I don't think this would explain what's happening with us, primarily because of the suddeness of the drop. It's hard for me to imagine that thousands of users would decide on the same day to abandon Google. Also, our position in the SERPS has dropped. Not dramatically for any one term, but across the board for thousands of non-competitive phrases. Apparently, subtle detoriation across thousands of terms translates to big loss of traffic.
Time to unplug for a while. EFV sorry for the abruptness of the last post - we're a little on edge over here :)
Not helpful, and untrue.
Then you don't know what to look for in what he is writing.
It is some of the best advice out there for how to build a stable site.
You just need to build that organic site so that it *deserves* the top rankings, and raise its authority-like score, and you can achieve incredible stability.
If you go through this thread and those like it that appear at least twice a month, you might notice that some up us are quite stable with an upward traffic trend. It is almost always the same people. And most give similar advice.
IMHO, there is NO way to avoid volatility in the search rankings given that G and others will ALWAYS be looking to improve their search algorithms by making changes.
Well, try in this concept for size. If a site is really well rounded, it will do reasonably well no matter how Google adjusts the settings on the algo. The sites have not been optimized for the current algo settings, they have been optimized for all the possible algo settings.
I may not win the PR, anchor text, or title battles, but I place consistantly high in them. And I have lots of content, with lots of random keyphrase combinations to help stabilize the traffic, so I am not depending on any one SERP for more than 0.5% of my traffic.
Why should any site be immune to changes in the formulas that determine rankings? Sites that place well today will not necessarily place well tomorrow.
That is true, and *no* site is totally immune, but a lot of our sites seem to have a lot better immune system than most.
The way I have explained it several times is to put yourself in the place of the programmer at Google. Suppose that (s)he is testing a new algo change and just happens to pick one of your keywords.
How are they going to feel about seeing your site at its position in the list?
- What a wonderful site! This needs to be #1!
- This site should be first page, and is certainly one that can be #1 some months.
- This site is okay, but will not be missed if it is not on the first page. Others are just as good.
- Shouldn't be first page, but if the rest of the results are good, we can leave it.
- We gotta get this off the first page!
If you are in the first two categories, and you do well rounded SEO without going overboard, you can be fairly certain of getting that steady traffic because you are the sort of site that Google prefers to rank well.
I am speculating that the reason for this is because the other sites in the G serps around me are of such poor quality and/or off topic that people are going elsewhere to search.
I'm glad to see that someone is looking at the quality of the entire SERP instead of just their position on that page. Some SERPs just aren't worth digging through.
Some of them might also be refining their search on Google and choosing a term where you do not rank as well, instead of changing search engines.
This was for me the biggest mistake Google made where it made searching a two step process where the serps no longer contain the site you are looking for but only contain sites that link to the site you really want.
If this is how people want to search they do not need Google they can just go to the directory directly and save the step.
I agree that stability is nice. We've enjoyed having a stable, healthy SE referrals with minimal site optimization since '99.
< If a site is really well rounded, it will do reasonably well no matter how Google adjusts the settings on the algo.
We've lived by this mantra for a long time. It's just not holding true this week.
< And I have lots of content, with lots of random keyphrase combinations to help stabilize the traffic, so I am not depending on any one SERP for more than 0.5% of my traffic.
preaching to the choir. My top search phrase generated .39% of my referrals last month.
I guess I'm more interested in hearing from the folks whose Gooogle traffic has dropped (the topic of the thread), than from those who are pleased that their Google traffic is stable or growing.
I guess I'm more interested in hearing from the folks whose Gooogle traffic has dropped (the topic of the thread), than from those who are pleased that their Google traffic is stable or growing.
Well, if that is the case, you probably aren't going to figure much out. You need to look at all the variables, including the sites that did not drop. Because if you don't you could concieveably come to the conclusion that having any black text on a site is what lead to the demotion. or the even funnier conclusion that a few people seem to be making in this thread, that Google has magically dropped 30% overnight across the board.
