LOW Traffic Day...Should I Freak Out?

[OpenMindsEnt]

Hey All:

My site has been experiencing a steady increase in traffic since we launched.

At the time, we've been averaging around 900 unique visitors per day. However, on Saturday, April 11, we took a huge fall and our Webalizer stats say that we only got 353 visitors!

This is our lowest amount of visitors in MONTHS, and never have we had a day with such a huge declination of traffic.

Am I missing something? Was yesterday "National Power Saving Day" or something? Is there a reason for such a decline in traffic on this particular day?

Thanks for all input.

Tim

[steveweber]

It's Easter Weekend....many people are traveling, etc.

[SoEasyMoney]

Spring Break for many school/states. Lots of people out of town and away from their computers. You'll have a drop in traffic during times like this. I've also noticed drops during the summer months, too.

Counter that website with a niche that is profitable in the summer/spring months, too. You know the old saying--don't put all your eggs in one basket!

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by steveweber

It's Easter Weekend....many people are traveling, etc.

Ohh phew...This is our first Easter in business so I guess I just wasn't prepared!

The main for concern is because I recently added a link exchange section to our site. I've read of speculations that Google may penalize for this, but at the same time a lot of my competition thrives on link exchanges ALONE to achieve top spots for the most difficult keywords.

So I was just concerned that Google took us down a few notches after crawling the new section, hence the low traffic.

Thanks for the input, Steve!

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by SoEasyMoney

Spring Break for many school/states. Lots of people out of town and away from their computers. You'll have a drop in traffic during times like this. I've also noticed drops during the summer months, too.

Counter that website with a niche that is profitable in the summer/spring months, too. You know the old saying--don't put all your eggs in one basket!

Great idea! It is funny you say that because recently I have been thinking of ideas for a new site. I will definitely put your advice to work to help me decide on a new product.

Tim

[Mukul Verma]

I use google analytic and I dont think it is accurate, however relevant to other days results. I notice days where traffic drops or goes higher, so I look at the different sources driving traffic and notice they all seem to dip a little on the same days (vise versa). I am assuming this is with the sample they took.

Another note once I noticed a drop of 50 visitors, that was becuase one of the sites that refered traffic made a change, checkout the sources that drive traffic.

I hope it picks up.

[Seth Stewart]

I agree with Mukul about the questionable accuracy of the numbers, but I'm sure the holiday plays into it. Happy Easter!

[jasonl70]

a lot of my competition thrives on link exchanges ALONE to achieve top spots for the most difficult keywords.

Are you sure about this? just because they have them, doesn't mean google is actually giving them any weight.. I don't see anyone taking the effort to do link exchanges w/o doing some other basic and simple things like directory listings. Sometimes just some solid onpage seo can have great results when your competitors are weak. I went from page 20 to the bottom of page 1 for a new term with one of my sites, simply by adding it to the end of my existing title and description.