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Switched from Thesis Theme - Site Traffic Increased 100%

by BarryWheeler
22 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Not sure if there's any correlation to this or not, on Sunday night, one of my sites was migrated from Thesis to a Genesis child theme.

This site was already ranked on #3 in Google and has been for over 3 years with some very strong backlinks.

Since switching to Genesis, my traffic has spiked 100% in the 48 hours since the switch.

The only other thing that happened was getting notified yesterday I had received 2 strong PR7 backlinks from two of the leading sites in this particular niche.

But I don't see these 2 links driving that much traffic and in looking at Analytics, there has been almost no visitors from these sites.

No other optimization was done and the site still sits at #3 in Google (checked just 10 minutes ago).

Is that much of a traffic increase to be expected from a simple change of themes?
#100% #increased #site #switched #theme #thesis #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Are you ranking for some unknown long tail keywords with your new link juice perhaps?
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  • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
    No, I thought of that, but the new links simply point to my site name, no keywords in those links. Plus, traffic isn't coming from those sources, it's coming entirely from organic search.

    I've also just noticed as well, bounce rate is down to about 20%. There seems to be a correlation with conversion to traffic as well (which would make sense).

    I'll run this theme for a few more days, and switch back to Thesis just to gauge impact of the two themes.

    Puzzled to say the least.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    I'm not quite sure how switching themes would improve traffic. Conversions / bounce rate? Definitely. I'm guessing you're seeing a random spike. (Which hopefully continues. )
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    • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
      Originally Posted by JSProjects View Post

      I'm not quite sure how switching themes would improve traffic. Conversions / bounce rate? Definitely. I'm guessing you're seeing a random spike. (Which hopefully continues. )
      This site has been consistent with it's traffic numbers for 2-3 years. It may fluctuate 10% one way or another, but has never shown a spike like this.

      I don't see how switching themes could cause this either. That's why I put this out there. Both Thesis and Genesis are well optimized to begin with, so it's a puzzle.

      And YES! I certainly hope it continues!!!

      The spike in revenue from this site is nice!
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Ash
    Strange!!! Has your traffic increased for your primary keyword(s)?

    Perhaps your site has climbed the SERPs in another country!
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    • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
      Originally Posted by Eleva8 View Post

      Strange!!! Has your traffic increased for your primary keyword(s)?

      Perhaps your site has climbed the SERPs in another country!
      I'm going through Analytics and it seems to be consistent across the 3 main keywords/phrases I've targeted with this domain.

      Traffic is spread mostly US/Canada/UK, which is consistent to the last few years as well.

      Like I've said, this domain has been rock solid for years in its position, only Wikipedia and a US government site rank above me. Even Wikipedia & this Government site link to me! LOL!

      Will give it a few more days to see if it is just a spike. If not, I'll switch back to Thesis for a few days to see if it drops back.
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      • Profile picture of the author IM Ash
        Originally Posted by BarryWheeler View Post

        I'm going through Analytics and it seems to be consistent across the 3 main keywords/phrases I've targeted with this domain.

        Traffic is spread mostly US/Canada/UK, which is consistent to the last few years as well.

        Like I've said, this domain has been rock solid for years in its position, only Wikipedia and a US government site rank above me. Even Wikipedia & this Government site link to me! LOL!

        Will give it a few more days to see if it is just a spike. If not, I'll switch back to Thesis for a few days to see if it drops back.
        I'm lost... another unsolved SEO mystery

        It can only be a spike then; maybe there is a buzz been created around your keywords somewhere online or offline. Or maybe some celebrity gave your site a +1 lol!

        Who knows?

        I really don't think it is the theme coz your traffic is organic and your rankings are stable.
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        • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
          Originally Posted by FreeMeal View Post

          Maybe you old theme was slow loading, increasing the bounce rate?
          I thought about this, but Thesis loads relatively fast as it was a very lean theme I ran on top of this framework. It may be there was something bogging the site down. Not sure.


          Originally Posted by Eleva8 View Post

          I'm lost... another unsolved SEO mystery

          It can only be a spike then; maybe there is a buzz been created around your keywords somewhere online or offline. Or maybe some celebrity gave your site a +1 lol!

          Who knows?

          I really don't think it is the theme coz your traffic is organic and your rankings are stable.
          LOL! No, not a site a celebrity would give a +1 to or a social share (or at least I don't think).

          As for a mystery, that's why I threw this out there, wanted to see if anyone experienced anything like this. It's totally new to me.
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          • Profile picture of the author MattAdamo
            I've been preaching thesis forever.

            While, it may not be the change in theme that has a direct result, it probably has some influence.

            Especially with the panda updates, it has become apparent that blog design does play some role in seo.

            -Matt
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            • Profile picture of the author dfs_dean
              If I had a site that had such a drastic change in traffic the first question I'd ask, did the increase all (or mostly) come from search engine traffic? If so, the next thing I'd check is what shows up for the site in the SERP.

              Changing themes possibly changed what's being shown by Google, et al. I suspect there was a change, and it is doing a better job of attracting the clicks from searchers.

              Peace
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  • Profile picture of the author FreeMeal
    Maybe you old theme was slow loading, increasing the bounce rate?
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  • Profile picture of the author curtainsandblind
    i don't know how to switching themes would improve traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
      Originally Posted by MattAdamo View Post

      I've been preaching thesis forever.

      While, it may not be the change in theme that has a direct result, it probably has some influence.

      Especially with the panda updates, it has become apparent that blog design does play some role in seo.

      -Matt
      Matt, I was using Thesis on most sites, with customization on them all. It is an awesome theme, easy to customize, easy to configure, Thesis hooks were amazing.

      Your thought about "blog design" playing some role, I'm wondering if that's more of a signal since Panda? Not sure because as I've stated, traffic remained consistent, so did rankings in SERPS after the updates.

      Originally Posted by dfs_dean View Post

      If I had a site that had such a drastic change in traffic the first question I'd ask, did the increase all (or mostly) come from search engine traffic? If so, the next thing I'd check is what shows up for the site in the SERP.

      Changing themes possibly changed what's being shown by Google, et al. I suspect there was a change, and it is doing a better job of attracting the clicks from searchers.

      Peace
      Dean, almost all the additional traffic showing up is coming from SERP according to analytics.

      I'm now thinking I had something configured wrong in Thesis or something coded in one of the hooks wrong.

      I've just restored the site to one of my test servers to see what I can find. I was going to switch Thesis back on and see if traffic dropped but will play with it offline for a bit to see if I can determine cause.
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  • Profile picture of the author xxxJamesxxx
    Interesting thread.

    I use Thesis for about 90% of my sites so it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

    If it is something to do with Thesis theme... I'm changing!

    James
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    I'd say it's:

    Higher SERP's
    More exposure (check where traffic is coming from)

    But doesn't seem to do with changing themes. If your rankings are the same, the indexed pages are the same, it's obviously a surge of traffic cause of something else - not changing themes.
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    • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
      Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post

      I'd say it's:

      Higher SERP's
      More exposure (check where traffic is coming from)

      But doesn't seem to do with changing themes. If your rankings are the same, the indexed pages are the same, it's obviously a surge of traffic cause of something else - not changing themes.
      From what Analytics is telling me, it's all organic.

      The only things change are:

      1) Theme
      2) Two x PR7 links from extremely relevant sites (not referring very much traffic / not seeing impact on rankings)

      Either Analytics is not giving me the whole picture, or I'm missing something.

      As I've stated above, I'm wondering if I had something coded wrong in one of the Thesis hooks I had modified that may have been causing something. Once I've investigated this possibility with the site I just restored to an offline server ... I will update.

      Thanks for the input everyone!
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  • Profile picture of the author jerytohn
    Well ... any updates?
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    • Profile picture of the author Sweely99
      Originally Posted by jerytohn View Post

      Well ... any updates?
      I'm interested in an update as well.

      If it turns out he's losing lots of traffic by using the Thesis theme -- I might have to switch to Genesis for my blog as well
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  • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
    Is this spike in traffic just in your server logs (awstats etc..) or in your Google analytics as well?

    Originally Posted by BarryWheeler View Post

    Not sure if there's any correlation to this or not, on Sunday night, one of my sites was migrated from Thesis to a Genesis child theme.

    This site was already ranked on #3 in Google and has been for over 3 years with some very strong backlinks.

    Since switching to Genesis, my traffic has spiked 100% in the 48 hours since the switch.

    The only other thing that happened was getting notified yesterday I had received 2 strong PR7 backlinks from two of the leading sites in this particular niche.

    But I don't see these 2 links driving that much traffic and in looking at Analytics, there has been almost no visitors from these sites.

    No other optimization was done and the site still sits at #3 in Google (checked just 10 minutes ago).

    Is that much of a traffic increase to be expected from a simple change of themes?
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    • Profile picture of the author thinkaroundcorners
      Did anyone create an advanced segment identifying robots? Knock out that data from the traffic increase?
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    Could it just be a case of Thesis not being configured correctly and now Analytics is loading on pages it wasn't previously.

    I would check Google Webmaster Tools for a better idea of what ranking growth has occured.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mantasmo
    Either theme not configured correctly or higher SERPs/Authority links driving traffic. Just switching a theme won't influence your traffic numbers like that.
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