Web Traffic Recovery at Last
After the series of Google updates that culminated on 28 November 2023, blog traffic gradually returns to normal. Here are hopeful signs.
The Context
Day after day of my waking life is devoted to web traffic analysis nowadays. This is a new way of life amidst the once busy life of a mentor.
From 5:30am when I wake up, I would go by my Intel NUC desktop computer, power it up, and hear it humming until I get to see the familiar interface — a big screen I bought specifically to get the best resolution I can have when working with graphics or videos.
The Samsung U28U550UQE 28" Ultra High Definition monitor I use helps me endure the “must do” analytics to help recover the ever plummeting web traffic I get everyday. Having a monitor with many settings helps my eyes to not tire easily.
The excitement I experience to see high resolution videos somehow compensate for the many hours I spend optimizing my websites — it’s a good investment.
This is not an advertisement anyways, I am just contextualizing the situation when I do my daily analytics to troubleshoot website woes. This November 2023 Google update really got on my nerves as I saw my blog’s traffic and revenues go down each day.
In fact, not only last November but since August this year.
Apparently, without a good outcome in sight.
Woes of a Website Owner
Will I sustain funding the requirements of independent blogs like mine? Maintaining one with thousands of traffic each day requires having a dedicated web host that costs more than basic hosting, and payment for so many requirements websites need to have these days:
- cookie plugin to comply with GPDR requirement, CCPA, and many other privacy requirements,
- content delivery network or popularly known as CDN
- WordPress theme to look better than free
- monthly internet connection bills
- anti-spam plugin
- security plugin
- cache plugin
and many more I can’t recall now. But I keep on spending for what’s needed to make the reader’s get what they look for. For me to share the tidbits of information I know.
Bottomline: it’s costly to maintain a website — unless, you get some form of revenue stream to sustain it.
I once did when my website is only several years old. But as web traffic grew and rules of the game change, it’s different. Now, it has survived the challenges of the digital world for 11 years.
Hence, it’s just fair that websites earn, not for the sake of earning itself, but for the sake of delivering what it sought to deliver — provide helpful content that will make life easier for the picky audience.
They never know how painstakingly websites were made, what’s behind the scenes.
Signs of Hope
Before I forget, let’s see some progress made at this time, giving us an air of hope —
My blog is RECOVERING!
According to old Yoda, the great Jedi from an unknown ancient and mysterious species:
“Recovering from Google’s November ’23 update, your website is now. Happy, you are so. Hmmmm.”
Well, let’s get to it.
Here’s the story graph.
While it may seem premature at this point to claim my blog’s web traffic is showing an upward trend as web traffic ebbs and flows like our creativity, by experience I can say that it will. Besides, this is for the past two day’s traffic.
Real time analytics of Ezoic shows that indeed, the blog, once again, is hitting 60 to 150 views an hour during peak times. As it once did, even higher.
Since that fateful day of September, my blog is going all the way down — like Santa’s sled gliding downward from the sky.
Traffic has picked up starting December 1.
In due time, it will be a Happy Christmas Day. And again, web traffic is expected to go down because of the many activities related to celebrating Christmas Day.
But seeing the traffic rise until that time, will indeed be a cause for great celebration.
