8 common causes of abnormal traffic flow in Web site and suggestions for solutions

Usually in this case, we will first carry out quantitative analysis, through the subdivision to find the specific changes in the part of the flow. Then the qualitative analysis, to find out this part of the flow of abnormal changes in the specific reasons. The first step is relatively simple, through Google The subdivision function of analytics can be found out by layers. And the second step of the work is a bit difficult. Because the data itself can only show what happened, but can not tell us why, so the real reason for the need to find ourselves.

Frankly speaking, not every analysis can identify the real cause (qualitative) of the abnormal flow. And in many cases, even when we find the cause, we find that the reason is so simple, so obvious. And we keep ignoring it. This article summarizes the 7 most common web site traffic abnormal changes in the cause. Take a look at these 7 reasons before making complex subdivisions and assumptions, It may reduce you a lot of unnecessary work. If these 7 reasons are excluded, then start your big project.

　Reason 1: The start and end of the holiday

The first cause of the abnormal flow of traffic is simple, it's a different holiday in a year. Usually in the beginning of each holiday and the end of the two time period, the site's traffic will have a significant decline and rise trend. This change is easy to verify, observing the date and duration of the change in the flow, Historical data can also be compared with the same period last year. The change of the holiday traffic is more regular, and it will affect all the traffic sources of the website at the same time. But it usually doesn't have a big impact on the quality of the traffic.

Recommendation: Create a large table, record the time of all holidays in the next year, and then record the change of traffic in different holidays. This may not be very useful for the first time, but when you have a full record of traffic for a year, it becomes valuable.

　Reason 2: The off-season and season of the industry

Websites of different industries are affected by the holidays and the time of the start is also different. For example, during the Spring Festival, most of the site traffic changes from the national reunification holiday this day, but for travel and sales of tickets, train tickets of the site, This time may be much earlier. Because the spring festival for this kind of website is the sales season. So in a year of sales in the peak season will also have an impact on the site traffic changes. Industry in the short season of traffic changes are also more regular, usually on the site of all the source of traffic impact.

Suggestion: Communicate with the familiar business people in the website or industry, understand the time period of sales season and off-season of this industry, and integrate these time periods with the holiday tables created before.

　Reason 3: Start and end of the campaign

If the previous two are all natural causes of the site traffic impact, then there is the impact of human operations on the site traffic. One of the main reasons here is the website's marketing activities. Each site needs to be promoted, attract traffic, when a round of marketing activities began, There will be a noticeable increase in traffic. And when the campaign is over, there will be a significant return on traffic. Marketing activities usually have an impact on the flow of specific channels and may reduce the flow quality of the channel.

Recommendation: First of all, to ensure that your web analytics tools can record all the flow of source channels, and you can distinguish between paid and unpaid traffic. Then to the marketing staff to a detailed promotion plan and schedule. When traffic changes occur within the planned promotion time, the flow changes are checked according to the channels in the table. In addition, This promotional schedule also needs to be integrated into the previous table.

　Reason 4: Impact of hot events

The fourth reason is the impact of hot events on the site traffic. There are two kinds of hot events, one is active and the other is passive. Active hotspot events are usually part of the marketing campaign, Such hot spots have clear goals and guidance. Passive hot spots are spontaneous or created by others. Such events usually affect SEO traffic, direct traffic and referral traffic for three channels. Usually, According to the flow source and search keywords and traffic changes in time can be found whether a hot event caused traffic changes.

Recommendations: For active hot events, should be included in the marketing schedule, and passive hot events can only be found in the table after the record. Of course, you can also subscribe to some keywords related to the website and industry through Google Newsletter, and find out the change of public opinion as soon as possible.

Reason 6: Site and page adjustment before and after

Website revision, add or subtract channels, URL rules adjustment, page optimization, content adjustment and so on the site structure, content and page changes may affect the flow. This part of the impact is mainly reflected in the SEO channel, each site adjustment and modification may affect the search engine on the site rankings, Which in turn affects the traffic that the website obtains.

Recommendations: With the content of the site and product departments to determine the site adjustment plan and start time, with the SEO department to determine the scope of impact and expected to be able to recover time. And then record this kind of change in our table.

　Reason 7: Status of the Web server

The 7th factor that affects the Web site traffic is the working state of the Web server, which is not simply a server outage, but also the working state of other network equipment in the computer room, such as: switches, routers, power rooms, And so on, and other human forces irresistible factors. These factors can cause the Web server to work in a precarious state. In turn, it has an impact on the flow of the site. Typically, the traffic changes generated by the server affect all channel traffic and occur at the same point in time.

Suggestion: If found that all channel traffic in the same time point on the decline of the uniform, we suggest you ask the site's technicians whether the site has been adjusted, if there is no need to check the server log at this point in time.

Reason 8: Website analysis tool Adjustment

The last reason to affect the site traffic is the Web analytics tool itself, where, for example, Google Analytics, any code tuning, filter settings will affect the flow data recorded by the Profiling Tools. Also, when the analysis tool's working state is out of the question, it affects the data in the report. For Google Analytics You can check the running status of the tools here every day.

　Suggestions:

1 The adjustment of every website analysis tool is recorded.

2 Do not focus too much on real-time data.