What Causes Spikes In Visitor Statistics

I call it “spikey” traffic.

You see an instant increase (spike) in your visitor stats, only to see your visitor counts fall, in a day or two.

Today’s Lesson

What are the causes of spikes in your traffic or visitor stats?

1) You left a comment on another blog, and visitors are coming to your site, via a referral from that site

2) You wrote a post that has reached the top of the Google’s, Yahoo’s, Ask’s, etc, search engine pages

3) You submitted an article to Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, or one of the other social bookmarking sites, and it is getting “hits”

4) An author of a popular website or blog, created a link to your site, and his/her readers are following the link

5) You submitted an article to a blog carnival, or to an “articles” site, such as Ezine Articles, and it is now being “found”.

6) You wrote a “guest post”, on another blog, and are receiving referral traffic.

Spikey traffic can be somewhat fickle. For a day or so, you enjoy an increase in your visitor stats, but it doesn’t last.

In one sense, it can be disheartening, as you think your traffic counts are beginning to rise, when in actuality, it’s only spikey traffic.

How to learn more from the spikes in your visitor statistics, will be covered in my next post.

Today’s Assignment

Do you check your visitor statistics on a daily basis?

Do you see spikes in your traffic?

Have you figured out what caused the spikes in your stats?