Re: Interesting Traffic Trend

On 5-Jun-2005, SEO Dave <seodave (AT) search-engine-optimization-services (DOT) co.uk>
wrote:

Noticed an interesting trend that I'm surprised I've not noticed
before.

Seems that my traffic on almost all sites drops on a weekend. I tend
to track traffic trends by month, so not noticed that type of daily
change before.
Do others see this sort of trend?

Yes, also a pronounced seasonal trend. Traffic peaks late April,
then the western world and northern hemisphere starts the
holiday season, so during the hot months, peaking in August,
fewer are slaving over a hot terminal.

A climb in visitors from late August, then last two weeks of
December, a marked drop, as everything gears down for
Christmas. Second week January onwards, visitor
numbers rise sharply towards the April peak.

So visitor numbers follow a year on year growth trend,
as the site gets known, and bookmarked, superimposed
on which are the seasonal, weekly, and hourly, trends.
Like for UK based/hosted sites, you can see North
America start to wake up, and their traffic adds to the
UK generated traffic where it is mid-day. Their traffic
persists into the early hours UK time.

Explore further and you see other countries traffic
peaking at different times of day. Like you see an
Australia and the Pacific Rim traffic peak, and you
can follow the time-zones as daylight goes round
the world.

Obviously the efeects depend on the nature/theme
of the site and its origin. Like many countries don't
observe the western festivals and seasons, and if
you are a UK retailer a drop in visitor numbers in
the run up to Christmas might be a bit worrying.
It's facinating to see Korea wake up, then the Gulf
States, then Europe, the Americas, and so on.
You can even micro analyse, to see when countries
go to lunch, and finish work.





..

ato_zee (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

On 5-Jun-2005, SEO Dave
seodave (AT) search-engine-optimizat...es (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

Noticed an interesting trend that I'm surprised I've not noticed
before.

Seems that my traffic on almost all sites drops on a weekend. I tend
to track traffic trends by month, so not noticed that type of daily
change before.
Do others see this sort of trend?

Yes, also a pronounced seasonal trend. Traffic peaks late April,
then the western world and northern hemisphere starts the
holiday season, so during the hot months, peaking in August,
fewer are slaving over a hot terminal.

A climb in visitors from late August, then last two weeks of
December, a marked drop, as everything gears down for
Christmas. Second week January onwards, visitor
numbers rise sharply towards the April peak.

So visitor numbers follow a year on year growth trend,
as the site gets known, and bookmarked, superimposed
on which are the seasonal, weekly, and hourly, trends.
Like for UK based/hosted sites, you can see North
America start to wake up, and their traffic adds to the
UK generated traffic where it is mid-day. Their traffic
persists into the early hours UK time.

Explore further and you see other countries traffic
peaking at different times of day. Like you see an
Australia and the Pacific Rim traffic peak, and you
can follow the time-zones as daylight goes round
the world.

Obviously the efeects depend on the nature/theme
of the site and its origin. Like many countries don't
observe the western festivals and seasons, and if
you are a UK retailer a drop in visitor numbers in
the run up to Christmas might be a bit worrying.
It's facinating to see Korea wake up, then the Gulf
States, then Europe, the Americas, and so on.
You can even micro analyse, to see when countries
go to lunch, and finish work.

ato_zee: I find your analysis very interesting. I have not been familiar
with these trends and I usually blame myself for lower usage after the
early months of the year. Code downloads on remote sites likewise; I
thought it had something to do with the academic year.

SEO Dave: yes, that trend is exactly what I see. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are
the strongest. Friday weakens towards its end and things pick up only in
Monday morning. Holidays are of course quieter. If you deal with games or
programs (like Web-based non-commercial applications), things reverse.
People arrange their time to handle 'hobbies' during holidays or weekends.
It's a work versus play versus being out balance point.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

On Sun, 5 Jun 2005 14:29:19 GMT, ato_zee (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

<good stuff snipped>

Obviously the efeects depend on the nature/theme
of the site and its origin. Like many countries don't
observe the western festivals and seasons, and if
you are a UK retailer a drop in visitor numbers in
the run up to Christmas might be a bit worrying.
It's facinating to see Korea wake up, then the Gulf
States, then Europe, the Americas, and so on.

Really interesting read, I've seen seasonal trends, but not really
looked at it in great detail. My sights tends to be fixed on long term
traffic growth most of the time.

You can even micro analyse, to see when countries
go to lunch, and finish work.

What software do you use for analysis?

David

On 5-Jun-2005, SEO Dave <seodave (AT) search-engine-optimization-services (DOT) co.uk>
wrote:

What software do you use for analysis?

David

Primarily SurfStats, but also use Webtrends which gives
similar figures within a few percent. I have other log
analysis programs and occasionally use VB6 to roll
my own.

I'm interested in the long term strategy of getting to
#1, starting from virtually invisible in the free webspace
of a virtual ISP, through FQDN hosting, getting
found, then linked to by prestige sites like the BBC
and other leading internationally recognised sites.

SEO Dave wrote:

On Sun, 5 Jun 2005 14:29:19 GMT, ato_zee (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

good stuff snipped
Obviously the efeects depend on the nature/theme
of the site and its origin. Like many countries don't
observe the western festivals and seasons, and if
you are a UK retailer a drop in visitor numbers in
the run up to Christmas might be a bit worrying.
It's facinating to see Korea wake up, then the Gulf
States, then Europe, the Americas, and so on.

Really interesting read, I've seen seasonal trends, but not really
looked at it in great detail. My sights tends to be fixed on long term
traffic growth most of the time.

You can even micro analyse, to see when countries
go to lunch, and finish work.

What software do you use for analysis?

David

Surfstats version 6 onwards will provide that sort of information.
Webtrends can do this as well but is very costly. Either way both
software programs will allow you to *drill down* so that useful
information can be obtained as described above. Stats monitored across
a number of my sites clearly show a *peak* around lunchtime which I put
down to visitors using company systems while eating their Kentucky
Fried Chicken in the office. :-)