Do major search engines "throttle back traffic" to certain sites?

freeadlists · #1 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 06:54 AM

I have a question regarding traffic on search engines. I have a site that receives 25-30 unique visits within an hour. Then all of sudden, it drops to 5-10 uniques per hour for awhile then it goes back to 20+ uniques per hour. I was wondering if major search engines "throttle back traffic" to certain sites. If it was an inconsistent pattern on a particular search engine, I wouldn't think much of it, but I definitely see a daily pattern.

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 10:45 AM

Well I think it also depends on behavior patterns, not necessarily the search engines. For example, 2create tends to have a traffic spike between 11am and 2pm. I believe a lot of that is because people are taking lunch breaks at work and tend to surf more.

freeadlists · #3 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

Well I think it also depends on behavior patterns, not necessarily the search engines. For example, 2create tends to have a traffic spike between 11am and 2pm. I believe a lot of that is because people are taking lunch breaks at work and tend to surf more.

Thanks.

I'll have to take a better look at where the uniques are coming from and what timezone. I go by KST.

James · #4 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 08:07 AM

Interesting discussion but how can anyone explain that the highest peak on this site at this point was close to 2:00 a.m.?

Maybe it is due to the possibility that most web folks are nocturnal.

lisa · #5 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

Interesting discussion but how can anyone explain that the highest peak on this site at this point was close to 2:00 a.m.?

Maybe it is due to the possibility that most web folks are nocturnal.

Yes, that it is interesting. I thought I was the only night owl up posting here at 2am but perhaps others are browsing. There are quite a few members from other parts of the world so that may explain part of it (time zones) so it's not 2am where they are. Other than that, that is pretty interesting.

lisa · #6 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 04:26 PM

I just thought about your question again James and something just dawned on me... spambots. Forums are constantly getting hit by automated bots who register and then attempt to post. I get most of the bot spam on this forum during the overnight hours and before I upgraded to the latest version of vbulletin I was getting hit a lot more. March and April were particularly bad months for bot activity and notice the stat says 3/31 was the most heavily trafficked time. I bet that's the culprit. This forum isn't active enough for 135 people to be logged on at 2am in the morning.

freeadlists · #7 (**permalink**) 07-19-2008, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

I just thought about your question again James and something just dawned on me... spambots. Forums are constantly getting hit by automated bots who register and then attempt to post. I get most of the bot spam on this forum during the overnight hours and before I upgraded to the latest version of vbulletin I was getting hit a lot more. March and April were particularly bad months for bot activity and notice the stat says 3/31 was the most heavily trafficked time. I bet that's the culprit. This forum isn't active enough for 135 people to be logged on at 2am in the morning.

Interesting. That could be it on my site, too, because I noticed my spike happens very early in the morning.

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