| Web traffic is variable depending on many things. The | | | | If your traffic has dropped, follow these procedures: |
| type of industry you are in, the type of product you | | | | Open up your analytics and look at the keywords you |
| might be selling or the service that you may be | | | | were ranking highly for last month, pop these into |
| offering. Although every business has their peak | | | | Google or a keyword tracker and see if you are still |
| months when traffic rises and their slower months | | | | ranking. |
| when traffic tends to fall, it would seem that August | | | | If you are still ranking for all of these keywords then |
| signifies the biggest drop for many websites as people | | | | really is nothing to worry about and you can rest |
| go off on their holidays or are too busy covering for | | | | assured that the drop is due to seasonal issues rather |
| their colleagues who are relaxing abroad. | | | | than being dropped from the engines or losing SERPs. |
| Traditionally, web traffic tends to drop off in the | | | | You should also look through all of the hits you have |
| summer months, but many websites and web site | | | | had from other sites and make sure that they are |
| owners are reporting higher than normal drop offs for | | | | around the same level that you would of seen a |
| the month of August this year, which indicates that | | | | couple of months ago, which again will maybe indicate |
| either more people are taking time off in this month or | | | | if there has been a dropped link or some of your |
| businesses are still struggling for survival. | | | | previous referrers are no longer sending as much |
| Of course, not all websites and companies see a drop | | | | traffic. |
| in traffic for the summer months, especially if they are | | | | August sees many people go away on holiday and all |
| in the niche of: | | | | you need to do is go down to your local town or |
| - Holidays | | | | usually busy place to see this. This is the same for the |
| - Accommodation | | | | Internet. For example, say the Managing Director of a |
| - Outdoor Activities | | | | company goes on holiday, the rest of his staff will not |
| - Leisure Activities | | | | only need to cover his work load but they will also |
| But the majority of other types of business are seeing | | | | usually not really have the authority to make the |
| substantial drop off's in traffic, especially search engine | | | | decisions they could normally pass by him. |
| traffic. | | | | This will mean that if they were planning a marking |
| It is important not to panic if your traffic suddenly drops | | | | campaign, new website or anything else along these |
| in this month because if you are using analytics | | | | lines, there would not be much point in sorting anything |
| software it is quite easy to ask a couple of questions | | | | out until the MD's return from holiday, as nothing will get |
| to make sure this is down to seasonable reasons and | | | | approved anyway. |
| not penalty reasons. If your traffic has fallen, there are | | | | It is important not to panic if your traffic falls during the |
| a few things you need to do to check that this is | | | | month of August, but do follow the advice we have |
| down to the time of the year and nothing more sinister | | | | given and do some basic checks to make sure it is |
| like hacking or SERP drops. | | | | just down to seasonal reasons and nothing else. |