11 replies to this topic

[gaznev2000]

Hi All, I have a little problem. Just over a two weeks ago my site dropped from getting an average of 6500 visits a day to getting an average of 2500. The main drop seems to have been with search engines, mainly bing and yahoo. 

 

The only thing that happen with the site just before the traffic dropped off was a takeover ad was placed on the site, could that be the problem?

 

I'm open to any suggestions. 

 

[chrishirst]

That really depends on what the "takeover ad" did.

[gaznev2000]

The site is macsmagazine com

 

A external Media company that we work with set the takeover ad up. 

Edited by Jill, 18 February 2013 - 06:38 PM.

[imexperttools]

Maybe the ads was infected with malicious code and the search engines blocked your site results on the search result pages which resulted in a massive drop in traffic?

 

That is the only possible explanation in this case. You might want to try and remove the ads from your site and see if the traffic restored. Check in Google webmaster tool to see if you have any malicious code notification.

[gaznev2000]

Thanks hr i will do that. Its just it was just odd. do you know any tools i can use to scan the whole site?

[chrishirst]

http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/

[gaznev2000]

I checked the site and its all secure and showing no malware. Any other ideas? I'm stumped 

[piskie]

Was there any change in the Spider retrieval activity from YahooBing during the period leading up to the drop

[gaznev2000]

Hi HR, I'm not really sure, how would i go about checking this? 

 

Regards

[gaznev2000]

Sorry I meant Piskie not HR 

[piskie]

To administer and develop a site efficiently, you need access to Server Logs via software that will give detailed breakdown of who and what visited the site.

 

Most server Hosting packages come with this facility accessible from the Control Panel.

If your Hosting doesn't come with this facility, I would strongly advise you to check out upgrading to a Package that does.

 

Investigating drastic changes like this is almost impossible to carry out with any confidence without seeing who and what visited, where they came from, Search Terms etc.

 

I could go on and on about the information that can be extracted this way and how to use it or respond to it. As soon as you get access to this info, you will realise that you have been night driving without lights.

[gaznev2000]

Ok I've started to look in a bit more depth and found most of the websites hits now are coming from [a traffic exchange program] which I think is a traffic exchange program. Could that be why the ranking has dropped. I have no idea how the site was signed up or how i can fix the problem. 

Does anyone have experience in this area?

 

Regards

Gary

Edited by Jill, 04 March 2013 - 06:54 PM.
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