Sphinn - Answers.com Issues Release Over Google Traffic Dropping 28%

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Answers.com Issues Release Over Google Traffic Dropping 28%

Went Hot: August 3, 2007 - 9:32 am
Posted By: dannysullivan 702 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://ir.answers.com)
Category: SEO

Amazing -- Answers.com issues a press release to advise investor that traffic from Google has dropped 28 percent last week due to an algorithm change. Various issues! (1) Apparently those direct definition links don't bring in much traffic since the release says that 70 percent of the site's total traffic comes from people reaching them directly or searching for "dictionary" (which explains the planned purchase of Dictionary.com even more). (2) Don't build your business to be so dependent on search traffic! (3) What Google algorithm change last week? I don't recall wide reports of this -- instead, was Answers.com itself hit?

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from Harith 702 days ago #

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"We are working diligently to analyze and address the recent algorithm change," said Bob Rosenschein, CEO."

Maybe he is referring to a possible data push during last week ;-)

from MattC 702 days ago #

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Imagine the day when Wiki releases the same.

from seoz87 702 days ago #

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hmmmm

remember squidoo :)

from dannysullivan 702 days ago #

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http://searchengineland.com/070803-083203.php is a longer write-up I've done now.

from JohnWeb 702 days ago #

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I'll do the happy dance when Wiki and about.com issues the same thing.

from netmeg 702 days ago #

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That press release definitely qualifies as the silliest thing I've read all week.

from krisfla 701 days ago #

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Makes me think how much do investors understand where they put their money ?

Relying on search engine traffic, even worse only on Google with this size of a business is pretty risky in my opinion . What if Google pulls a "John Chow" on Answers.com or Dictionary.com ?

Diversifying traffic sources is a must in building a successful (long term and stable!) online business .

from TimDineen 701 days ago #

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One way to look at it is that while Answers.com had received a ton of traffic from natural rankings, they couldn't apparently didn't convert that traffic into regular (repeat) users of their product.

It's interesting that they'd admit all of this publicly. I suppose they had to, being a public company..

from demib 699 days ago #

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I have seen the same trend on many very large websites taking a hit recently (not just the past week). I have my theories for why and working on solutions :)

But to issue a press release about it - how stupid is that?