Hey! Where Did My Traffic Go?
We've been getting quite a few phone calls and support requests this week from people asking "Hey, where did my traffic go?" Every year or so we get another flood of them. A group of customers notice that their traffic history graphs suddenly show no history. Zip. Zero. Nada. Luckily it only happens to a relatively small number of sites.
What causes this phenomenon? "Flipping" the canons... here's where I dive into the deep end... When multiple sites hold the same content, we alias them to each other, effectively adding their traffic and site info together into a single record. Visit either one of the identical sites and you will see that Alexa shows identical data for them. They are aliased. Of those sites that are aliased together, the one that has the most traffic becomes the "canon." It is the primary site.
Let's give a real-world example. Take the case of trafalgar.com. They also have trafalgartours.com, which is an exact mirror of trafalgar.com. When you visit either one, Alexa will show identical site information because they are aliased together. And, because trafalgar.com gets the most traffic of the two, it is the canon.
Simple so far, right? Here's where it gets a bit dicey. Last year, trafalgartours.com used to get more traffic than trafalgar.com and it was the canon. This year, when we set about to create an updated canon file, we noticed that trafalgar.com should be the canon. So we "flipped" the canon. Previously, when you asked for data for one of the two sites Alexa was showing data for trafalgartours.com. Now, when you ask for data for one of them we are showing data for trafalgar.com. But unfortunately, according to our records, trafalgar.com has no traffic history... it is all under a different record, trafalgartours.com. So the traffic rank and traffic history graph hit the floor.
The net effect for the folks getting "flipped" is that their traffic disappears. Their rank hits the floor and the traffic history graph shows nothing. It is like day 1 on Alexa. On the upside, Alexa is showing data for the site that gets the most traffic now. This could be beneficial if a site has undergone a name change. Rather than show Alexa data for a brand that no longer exists, Alexa will show data for the site's new brand.
Next time we do a flip we will try to find a better way. There is no excuse for dumping a site's traffic history and destroying their rank just because they made a name change. Next time it will be better. In the mean while, for those of you who were flipped, we can only prescribe patience. Your daily and weekly data should have recovered already and your 3 month rank will recover over the next few months.
What causes this phenomenon? "Flipping" the canons... here's where I dive into the deep end... When multiple sites hold the same content, we alias them to each other, effectively adding their traffic and site info together into a single record. Visit either one of the identical sites and you will see that Alexa shows identical data for them. They are aliased. Of those sites that are aliased together, the one that has the most traffic becomes the "canon." It is the primary site.
Let's give a real-world example. Take the case of trafalgar.com. They also have trafalgartours.com, which is an exact mirror of trafalgar.com. When you visit either one, Alexa will show identical site information because they are aliased together. And, because trafalgar.com gets the most traffic of the two, it is the canon.
Simple so far, right? Here's where it gets a bit dicey. Last year, trafalgartours.com used to get more traffic than trafalgar.com and it was the canon. This year, when we set about to create an updated canon file, we noticed that trafalgar.com should be the canon. So we "flipped" the canon. Previously, when you asked for data for one of the two sites Alexa was showing data for trafalgartours.com. Now, when you ask for data for one of them we are showing data for trafalgar.com. But unfortunately, according to our records, trafalgar.com has no traffic history... it is all under a different record, trafalgartours.com. So the traffic rank and traffic history graph hit the floor.
The net effect for the folks getting "flipped" is that their traffic disappears. Their rank hits the floor and the traffic history graph shows nothing. It is like day 1 on Alexa. On the upside, Alexa is showing data for the site that gets the most traffic now. This could be beneficial if a site has undergone a name change. Rather than show Alexa data for a brand that no longer exists, Alexa will show data for the site's new brand.
Next time we do a flip we will try to find a better way. There is no excuse for dumping a site's traffic history and destroying their rank just because they made a name change. Next time it will be better. In the mean while, for those of you who were flipped, we can only prescribe patience. Your daily and weekly data should have recovered already and your 3 month rank will recover over the next few months.
1 Comments:
Geoffrey,
Not sure what that means, but our site 'WALEG.com' has nothing to do with the same content issue, our content is updated daily by our editors and we have no mirror websites... however our traffic graph has been stopped since 3 days now and showing no change!!
We were expecting our site to hit the movers and shakers list soon but this way, with no updates on its traffic on your network for the last 3 days ... it seems our dream is not going to be realized soon !?!
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