Erratic web traffic

Loss in web traffic

[grandma genie]

Hello everyone,
My website has lost half of its traffic since moving to a new host in early 2010. The first issue I found was the new host had created two new names for my site (a roll out name with the IP address and a name that included theirs (www.theirsite.com/~mysite) I had them fix the latter name by moving to a dedicated IP. The IP name is still an issue. But what is odd is the traffic to my site is generally half of what it used to be and then about once every other week, the traffic increases to former amount for a few days, then goes back down the the minimal amount. I have no idea why this is happening. I am assuming it is a server issue. I have asked my web host to check the server, but he says there is nothing wrong on his end. My site has not changed other than the usual content updates. It is a combination of an educational site about animals and an e-commerce site, selling stuffed animals. Is it normal for traffic to go up and down like that? I am aware of the Google algorithm changes in May, which could account for some of the traffic loss. My SERPS are way down, too. I thought the problem might have been a duplicate content issue, but that has been fixed with a 301 redirect for all the names now pointing to just one. I don't see any issues in Google Analytics. I have about six main competitors and their placement is the same, but my site has almost disappeared. It just doesn't make any sense. I'm just trying to determine if the erratic traffic is normal. Thank you.
-- Grandma_genie

[phranque]

The IP name is still an issue.

I thought the problem might have been a duplicate content issue, but that has been fixed with a 301 redirect for all the names now pointing to just one.

the IP name is still an issue or it's been fixed?

about once every other week, the traffic increases to former amount for a few days, then goes back down the the minimal amount

you might want to look at this WebmasterWorld thread:

Google Traffic Throttling - revisited | Google SEO News and Discussion forum:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4204038.htm [webmasterworld.com]

also there have been a lot of issues with certain types of sites as a result of the Mayday update.
you can find some relevant threads in this search:

site:webmasterworld.com mayday - Google Search:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site%3Awebmasterworld.com%20mayday [google.com]

[grandma genie]

Hi phranque,
In order to fix the IP name issue, I need to do a redirect in htaccess. But I can't figure out how to do it. The IP URL is like this: 24.248.nn.nn/mywebsite.com. This is what I have in htaccess at the moment, with much help from Jim.

# Externally redirect old mod_userdir-format requests to canonical hostname
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]+\ /~them99/[^\ ]*\ HTTPS/
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?theirs3\.theirsite\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT}s ^(443(s)|[0-9]+s)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http%2://www.mywebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
#
# Externally redirect certain non-canonical hostnames to canonical hostname, preserving http/https protocol
# FQDN-format www.mywebsite.com or with appended port number
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.mywebsite\.com(\.|\.?:[0-9]+)$ [NC,OR]
# www- or non-www mywebsite2.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?mywebsite2\.com [NC,OR]
# www- or non-www theirs3\.theirsite\.com hostname
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?theirs3\.theirsite\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT}s ^(443(s)|[0-9]+s)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http%2://www.mywebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Would I add the IP address like this?:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)24\.248\.nn\.nn\.mywebsite\.com [NC]

My site used to be number one in the SERPS before 2006, then everything changed. I think it was because I was so non-technical, I did not set up the pages with the proper tags. I notice now when I alter the pages to comply with the correct tags and placing keywords in the correct places, my pages are now just beginning to return. They are still not in first place, but at least on page 1 or 2. And this is only when I have altered the page to comply with what I assume is a bots idea of proper. I was writing pages for human eyes, and humans used to appreciate it, but since the era of Google and their algorithms, I must now write for the spider.

As for the spikes in traffic, I suppose it could be Google doing it. I don't know how unless there is some way to redirect certain IP ranges. I am getting tons of traffic from all the bots: Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask. Just not as much traffic from people. I notice when I begin to get sales, the traffic has spiked.

[tangor]

All the above should be addressed, but on a more general level I see the web/users running in ebbs and flows... nothing specifically cyclic, but observable. Some months of the year I get more traffic, other months not so much and there is a fudge overlap in start/end dates, but after 15 years of data collection, it is observable. This might be one of those ebb times in your niche...

[phranque]

I had them fix the latter name by moving to a dedicated IP

The IP URL is like this: 24.248.nn.nn/mywebsite.com

so you have a dedicated IP but it serves your home page from a subdirectory named "mywebsite.com"?
as in http://24.248.nn.nn/mywebsite.com/ resolves to your home page?
and what happens when you request http://24.248.nn.nn/ without any path specified?

[grandma genie]

It is all very confusing. I've never had so much trouble with website names. Originally I had one name. Then I moved to a new location and had to change my business name. So, I had my web host create a parked site, so I would not lose all my links. So I had two names. Then I moved to this new host and ended up with 6 names. The first two with and without the www and the roll-out IP named site and another site with the host's name in front and my name behind. Why they gave my site the other names I will never know. I asked them to please make my site just have its own name, and that is when I was told I needed a dedicated IP. (more money, of course)

The 24.248.nn.nn resolves to my host's website, but first I get a prompt saying their certificate is not valid. My current dedicated IP number alone resolves to my home page, minus the pictures. (I think this has something to do with the way my htaccess file is set up.) The dedicated IP that I have now does not serve my home page from a subdirectory. If you use the current IP/mywebsite.com, you get a 404 not found page. The roll-out 24.248.nn.nn/mywebsite.com was the name given me by the host to preview the site before it went live. That does resolve to my home page. I have found both that roll-out IP named site and the previous theirsitename/mywebsite.com in my server logs, so visitors are finding these somewhere online or they bookmarked my site when I had those names earlier this year.

Now I just want to fix the 24.248.nn.nn/mywebsite.com to redirect to my website in htaccess. That should hopefully solve all the names issues.

[phranque]

i would try something like this:

# Externally redirect IP hostnames followed by (optional path mywebsite.com, and zero or more consecutive slashes) to canonical hostname, preserving http/https protocol 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^24\.248\.nn\.nn
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT}s ^(443(s)|[0-9]+s)$
RewriteRule ^(mywebsite\.com)?/*(.*)$ http%2://www.mywebsite.com/$2 [R=301,L]