Traffic Slumping? Here’s Why
December 7th, 2007 by CourtDecember is a huge month for sites that sell products. It’s also a huge month for sites that review products. Ad revenues go up in December for these sites - Adsense clicks are through the roof on most keywords related to anything that is commonly purchased for Christmas.
I’ve had a few people email me lately asking if there is a reason why their traffic would be slightly down during the last week or two. They obviously were hoping that their traffic would go up during this season. The explanation is very simple. If you have a site that people would use to get ready for Christmas (shopping, product reviews, consumer stuff) your traffic is probably up. If you have any other type of site, your traffic is going to be down at least somewhat, unless you have been able to do something very extraordinary.
To further illustrate, I grabbed a chart from Alexa that shows the reach for Court’s Internet Marketing School, eMomsathome.com, and 45n5.com for the last six months:
To provide further evidence, here is a graph of the same time period showing Shoemoney, John Chow, and Problogger:
There’s no doubt that all six of these sites have dipped during the last two weeks. For those of you that emailed me worried about your slumping traffic - this isn’t anything to worry about. It’s going to happen every December to these types of sites. Product sites are going to get some of their traffic. We’re all still doing just fine and after the season we’ll come back stronger than ever.
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December 7th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Hi Court
I hope you’re well and the web is being kind to you.
You have an uncanny gift for delivering answers just before I go to Google to ask the question!
Thank you.
December 7th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Hey Gideon! I am quite well, thank you.
When stuff happens, I try to figure out why. Usually there’s a reason. I figure that we’re all in the same boat and many factors will affect us all in the same way.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
My traffic has dropped a little too.
December 7th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I have been thinking… what if you can give out free stuff for the holidays in your blog? I’m not just talking to Courtney but to everyone else too. If you can give away something for the holiday season as a contest, your traffic might actually go up.
I’m already in the process of brainstorming what I will do for my own blog. Last month, I gave away an easy $7 to the top commenter for 1 week. Another contest should make everyone happy.
December 7th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Yupe, I agree. If your website is product oriented, the revenue will go higher. It’s also good to combine with another Affiliate program, because you won’t get this really high commission in other month!
December 7th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Hmmm I never thought of that! I’ve noticed my traffic/Google ads/affiliate sales have gone up a lot the past few weeks, and it took me a while to realize it was because of the holidays! I do some product reviews, etc. It didn’t dawn on me until a few days ago to start doing more product review/shopping posts. Next year I’ll definitely plan ahead better!
December 8th, 2007 at 2:15 am
I’m not as worried about traffic slumping as losing my blogging mojo.
No mojo = no content = no traffic
No matter which time of the year it is. I really need to rediscover my blogging mojo, FAST!!
December 8th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Thanks for the heads up on what to expect this month. I haven’t really thought about it, but I’ll start planning ahead to adjust to the season.
December 8th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
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December 8th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
thanks for the info. i’m kinda new to this area of the web (seo/ranking) and i’m looking to know more.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
And, if you are looking at Alexa you have to keep in mind that it is just measuring traffic coming through the toolbars — which not everyone is using.
December 9th, 2007 at 7:35 am
I think software stores could get their traffic too.
December 9th, 2007 at 9:49 am
interesting!
me i use free mp3 download that boost my traffic
free download (with a warning!)
December 9th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Awesome work Court, definitely would be important for any PayPerPost-ers out there who want to get a bit of a traffic boost by putting some product reviews up! Nice work!
December 10th, 2007 at 5:46 am
So should these sites must include something related to the sort that those sites have which attract traffic during a particular season.???
December 10th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I had never though of this issue. Very insightful. I guess we all need to start blogging about Wiis and Elmo dolls.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:20 am
yeap, mine had dropped for last two weeks too, i am glad its a trend and not just me…
December 11th, 2007 at 5:15 am
thanks for this info courtney.
it really have me understand something about internet traffic for season marketing. christmas and new year is on the way so internet marketer need to understand how to market during big holiday season. the better we know how traffic is affected during this period the better we can do our own marketing strategies.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Nice to hear! I’ve noticed on a few sites a similar dip in traffic that aren’t Christmas related.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:07 am
as of now my traffic returns 3 folds because of free mp3 i added every weekend