Google "insurance policy"?

[Flightmapping]

Looks like Google had an algo change on Thursday, which has resulted in a traffic loss of upto 60% on my site. Over Easter weekend, it is difficult to assess full impacts, but initially this is looking worse than December's update, which hit us for about 6 weeks.

For now, I am just going to sit this one out, as I am trying a number of ways to develop a "Google insurance policy" to be able to reduce our dependence on their organic search listings.

I am working on:

Some highly focussed PPC
Maximising revenue to enable more PPC by raising RPV towards 15p (long term target)
Diversifying revenue from flights to hotels & car hire, which generally have higher EPC
Roll out of more database driven pages which are easier to update
News section with 2-3 new stories per day
Building up a mailing list, forum etc
PR strategy to become more widely quoted on aviation matters

Have I missed anything?

[Mogga]

Other search engines. Check you're listed on them.

Directorys, there are loads of them. Are you in all the travel related ones?

Do you have a mailing list? (its not incentivised ... and people aren't going to spot it at the bottom of the menu)

Have you recently put adsense on your pages?


As well as looking how to make your own site bigger and better have your competitors done anything to make google think its better than your site?


Edit:

Also I'd do a check and see who is 302'ing you and whether you have anything to worry about using www.copyscape.com

[nkernick]

CAUTION

Easter weekend has been terrible for me, however when looking at the actual results looks like traffic is down on a more general level.. Could be people not using internet of Easter.

One PPC campaign which normally gets 200 clicks per day got just 10 yesterday with only 200 page loads...

[madeinbritain]

yeah same story for me

[Aquanuke]

Easter holiday and the suns shining. Thats a first. Know where I'd be

[Green2K]

RSS feeds.

[angelabx]

James. Don't panic yet.

We're in travel too and Easter is always pretty dead especially if the weather's nice.

Our traffic is 50% down on last weekend but I don't think we've moved in the serps.

I'm hoping it's just the bank holiday effect!

Hope it's the same for you.

Ang.

[stevey]

Yeh, it could be the Easter fluctuations so hang on and see.

It is always good to look at other ways to diversify your traffic and brandability though.

It's precarious to rely too much on Google alone.

stevey

[eurohobo]

My travel site had a fairly abominable weekend as well. Apparently there was an algo change but my key search terms haven't moved, so I'll just have to wait until after the Easter break to assess the situation.

Certainly though the last few google updates have sent my sites stats fluctuating so wildly that it has also made me reassess how I get my traffic.

James

[purple]

Glad I seen this thread, back from a easter break to see my traffic plummit over weekeend, some of my key terms are down a bit, so could be a google algo change.
I am hoping most is explained by easter break sun shining etc.

Would be interested in feedback on how peoples traffic holds up today.

[Flightmapping]

How many people who have lost traffic fit this pattern:

Previously had no major problems with updates - usually came out better with each Google dance, even if many other sites suffered.
Hit badly on December 16th
Traffic back up to better than before late January
Hit worse on March 24th
Have large numbers of external site wide links?

[purple]

The one site I had which seemed to escape any ill effects from other google algo changes has been badly hit this time. I am still trying to survey the damage and work out what to do if anything.
Answer seems to be get good listing on MSN and Yahoo in short term and await google to settle down.