Traffic Trends by Industry

[margarita]

Our stats have suddenly dropped by about 200-400 visitors per day, over the past 2 months. Because our standing in the search engines has not changed or dropped, it is very difficult for me to pinpoint the problem.

Is there any historical information out there on monthly trends, by industry? It is a real estate website. I've considered that it could be the election season, or that the storms in the southeast may have had an impact.

I'm no SEO pro, but we have maintained our good ranking over a long period, and I'm getting a lot of pressure from management to get these stats back up. Any help at all would be appreciated!

[andrewgoodman]

Real estate? Isn't that a pretty seasonal biz?

It stands to reason that the real estate market drops off in the height of summer, and in the winter months. It is clearly strongest in the spring. This might be the entire explanation for the fluctuation.

That, and some of the sponsored listings may be getting more targeted as advertisers improve their ad copy; they might siphon away a few clicks.

Unfortunately many clients will want to wish away such seasonal fluctuations, but unless there are solid seasonal data from the website itself dating back 3-4 years, you really have no idea. Given the obvious fluctuations in this particular market, though, you'd think this client would know better than to be surprised at a dropoff after a huge spring in the middle of a real estate boom.

Maybe I feel it more because I live in Canada. You don't want to be selling a house in July when everyone's gone fishin', and you DEFINITELY don't want to be moving house in January if you can help it. :)

Granted if you're talking about Florida I have no idea about the typical number of web searches on these terms in a given month. The point is, though, neither do you and neither does your client. Given the rapidly changing nature of online marketing (so much of this is new) and search patterns)... unless you saved all your data from the past couple of years, it can be very speculative. Clients can have selective memories on these things, also. Without hard data.... who's to say? Unfortunately these data are not particularly easy to come by, although the SE's and some stats companies would have access to them.

Do you have server log data for this time last year? PPC campaign data?

[steve sardell]

Our stats have suddenly dropped by about 200-400 visitors per day, over the past 2 months. Because our standing in the search engines has not changed or dropped, it is very difficult for me to pinpoint the problem.
I have been monitoring real estate websites in the southern states for for a bit more than five years, and their traffic mirrors the areas' general real estate market. In these areas it is extremely cyclic. As Andrew stated, you will see seasonal spikes, and spikes or dips due to other contributing factors like the weather, elections, economy, etc. Morover, generally you will have more traffic during a buyers market and conversely with a sellers. You may want to check your locals MLS for some stats. If your average *days on market* has increased then expect a decline as you may be entering a glut market.

If you are indeed getting the type numbers you are indicating by virtue of the decline then you have a successful real estate traffic generating site.

I will add, however, it is not the number of visitors you get, but rather the number of bona fide leads and inquiries you receive which ultimately lead to sales.

[kenpomachine]

It also depends on where the real state you're selling is located. The cycles for beach front properties ain't the same as the cycles for ski resorts and the ones for cities.
So I say, follow Steve's advice and research what has been happening in the general real state market of the areas your company is selling.

[tomslick]

Surveyed traffic data can also be helpful if you have access to ComScore MMX or other tools. I like to identify a major player in an industry and look at their seasonality over the course of the past year as a way to get a handle what my trends might look like. Keep in mind that this is harder to do for a very specific category like Florida Real Estate.

[margarita]

Thank you for all of your helpful replies. This is actually a down cycle period for us, so I do think it's related to overall real estate sales at this time of the year in my region.

Unfortunately my manager doesn't buy that and is distraught over the loss of 200 or so site visitors per day, and is pushing me to "find out what's wrong"! Although our positioning has not dropped, she is convinced that it is "something wrong with the search engines."

I guess now is as good a time as any to get this message across to her. I do the best I can to educate staff and management about these issues, but I think some people will just never get it.

[steve sardell]

Unfortunately my manager doesn't buy that and is distraught over the loss of 200 or so site visitors per day, and is pushing me to "find out what's wrong"! Although our positioning has not dropped, she is convinced that it is "something wrong with the search engines."
One additional thing you may want to consider. Personally, I would review your key phrases you are getting positions on, and then try to increase your exposure by adding more. If you do not have the time or inclination to build more pages, you may want to think about adwords and overture. But, as I mentioned earlier, it is not about how much traffic the site receives, but the conversions. Good luck

[margarita]

I do have the time/inclination to build more pages - what are you suggesting? And I do have AdWords going for me now, and it's working quite well. I'm considering Overture too.

[andrewgoodman]

Unfortunately my manager doesn't buy that and is distraught over the loss of 200 or so site visitors per day, and is pushing me to "find out what's wrong"! Although our positioning has not dropped, she is convinced that it is "something wrong with the search engines."


Been there, done that.
;)

Isn't it interesting that so many people are unwilling to accept it when the world isn't beating a path to their door -- of its own accord! (Kind of like the old Wall Street story about confusing a bull market with brains...)

Now imagine my world where this is a cycle that repeats itself again and again as we work through a new client PPC account in any number of industries. The mere fact that things fluctuate can be taken lots of different ways by different people.... so every so often (all too often) we get the old "what's wrong!!!!" call. Usually of course the answer is "if we knew, we'd tell you!"

In most cases, these are insignificant (day to day) fluctuations that iron themselves out over the course of a week or a month. But in other cases real trends & changes are at work.

But seasonality is a MAJOR part of this. The most extreme cases are searches on something like "hallowe'en costumes," but it applies to every business.

We also need to realize that whole industries ebb and flow -- some nearly come and go. One business loses all interest when commodity prices fall; another when interest rates rise; another when the stock market tanks. Change is a constant.

And many do not seem to want to make the logical leap that search engines are not feeding traffic out like some kind of machine -- it's all initiated every day by humans deciding to search for something. That wonderful process of consumer decision must be recreated one consumer at a time, one search at a time. Meanwhile, if an area is lucrative, new bidders enter the click auction and drive prices up; new websites clamor for attention on the first page of Google SERP's. Little wonder click volumes fluctuate!

[cellcluster]

Just to reinforce what others have been saying, I've been tracking stats for six real estate sites in the northeast for the past year, and all of the sites have experienced significant drops or slight declines since August. The best months of 2004 thus far have been April and May, so I'd agree that traffic is very seasonal for the real estate industry, and won't get going again until after the holiday season.