Crazy Paradox: Sites still rank #1 but traffic down 90%??

[jontster]

Hi

I am trying to get my head around some weird goings on with my sites/sales in recent weeks.

The facts are as follows: I have a site that has been in position #1 for several months and was averaging 150 visitors a day according to Google Analytics.

The site is still ranked #1 for the main keyword (responsible for around 90% of visitors) and yet traffic has fallen from 150 to 10 a day! I checked something called DNS Cache Poisoning but my hosting company assures me that this is not a problem.

Any ideas? Its driving me crazy

ark

[mgreener]

Hi,

First, I would try checking the rankings from other locations via proxy.

The other thing could be that traffic is just lower due to the season, people search for different things at different times of the year. Google trends can show you more as can your own long term tracking which will help you establish visitor patterns.

[swords]

Another suggestion, from your information given, is to check to see if you're logged into Google (in anyway) when you are searching. When you are logged in, it personalizes your searches and will show your website higher than it really is (considering you visit your site often). So, possibly your website isn't ranked that high anymore.

[Osman_M]

Try clearing up your cache, cookies, history and etc and see the rankings. Perhaps you have may have dropped. Also, get another buddy or something to check rankings from a different location.

Have you been backlinking crazy lately? You may also be experiencing the google dance althought its unlikely cause your site was well settled into its position.

[jontster]

Thanks guys

I have already checked the ranking from different sources and it is definitely still at #1, even asked a friend in the US (im in London) to search and it was #1 over there.

Also the niche in particular is not seasonal and is pretty "desperate" so i dont think that is likely to be the issue either.

The even more weird thing is that exactly the same thing happened to another one of my sites at the same time about 3 weeks ago. They are totally unrelated, the only similarity is that they are hosted on the same account.

Its really baffling??

Mark

[yukon]

Sounds like your getting personalized SERP results on your browser.

Do the same search in Google Chrome Incognito browser (not logged into anything).