Large portfolio traffic drop from August to September. Anyone else?

[Seabass]

I have a good sample of premium generics...... meaning thousands of domains. But, I'm noticing a drop in overall portfolio traffic in September that I have never seen this time of year. I calculated a 17% decrease in traffic from Aug. to Sept. The PPC is HIGHER and CTR is about the same, but traffic has really dropped across the board. Having a big sample of domains should even out any drastic drops on individual domains.... so I don't think there is anything about my portfolio that would account for the drop. Also, I checked with a couple of other larger domainers that I know locally and they are seeing the drop also. So, I am posting here to see if others are having the same experience to reconfirm what is going on.

Traffic normally should be increasing this time of year as it has for over 10+ years I have been paying attention to stats..... and the traffic drop started before the big financial markets fiasco become front page news. Maybe it's just everything combined going on tamping the uniques during what normally would be an upswing period.

Anyone else seeing the traffic drop like this?

 

[Keynes]

Have the ratios of traffic sources changed? SE algorithm updates may have resulted in less search traffic. Also, consider the implementation of FF3 and IE8, which may have had negative effects upon direct navigation...

 

[goodkarmaco]

Google recently stopped sending traffic to parked domains, thats the main reason parking has tanked.

 

[Seabass]

Have the ratios of traffic sources changed? SE algorithm updates may have resulted in less search traffic. Also, consider the implementation of FF3 and IE8, which may have had negative effects upon direct navigation...

kyenes, thanks for the reply.

Traffic source is currently about 79% direct navigation..... it usually ranges from about 76% to 82%.

Yahoo and Google still are producing about the same amount of referrals as always at about 11% and 4% respectively.

As far as FF3 and IE8, I can't say..... but for the drop to happen in month is kinda' fast it would seem, but maybe that is just another factor to add to the big economic and world events equation that is bringing traffic down.

I'm suspecting that many others have to be seeing this too. It's the first variance of such magnitude for a Sept. I have ever seen. I started keeping stats in 1997, so I have some history to go on. I'm just a bit surprised, as it is an anomaly to normal seasonal traffic patterns.

Google recently stopped sending traffic to parked domains, thats the main reason parking has tanked.

goodkarmaco, my traffic percentages from G and Y have not changed much in over two years.

I also have many domains that rank first, second, or third position on the Google SERPS with no content or effort to get there.

I actually have been noticing a down trend on traffic on almost all domains for several years, contrary to what some others say about direct navigation increasing, but it has been very gradual, this is more like a sudden drop off starting at the beginning of the month.

 

[Domagon]

Google recently implemented suggested searches (list of keywords that dropdown automatically as one types) around that same time frame.

Ron