Spike in Direct Traffic?

[FunandBaubles]

I just experienced the oddest spike in direct traffic, and I have no idea why. I had 30+ direct views in about that many minutes. Most of the items viewed have not been promoted outside of Etsy. It makes me nervous, like I'm being cased for a scam or something. Has anyone experienced anything like this recently?

[GreatLakesAllure]

I have been flat lining for over 4 hours now, so my answer would be no. : ( I wouldn't worry about it being a scam though. Someone is prolly just checking out a lot of your items. Hope it turns into a sale!

[Former_Member]

Did you post something new? Maybe someone with a lot of followers favorited it, and you just got lucky! :)

[Former_Member]

Maybe of a friend of one of your fans decided to check out your shop, enjoy :)

[Tricotare]

I had direct traffic last night and this morning which was strange. Not as many as you but still made me wonder.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

Why would extra views make you nervous?
This is what you want. Now lets hope they bring you sales.

[Former_Member]

you might not have posted your stuff outside of etsy but other people might have....and if they have posted a lot of things someone might just be checking out all of them. there you go with your direct traffic. if had things like this happen too and i´ve never been scammed

[FunandBaubles]

Alright, I will be glad and not worry. Thanks everyone!

Bea, it was concerning because is was a very large and very atypical behavior, and on items that I haven't promoted. I got 1/3 of my traffic in 30 mins on a wide variety of mostly older, less popular listings. Usually when I vet a spike, it is on one item or a set of related items and I can explain it.

[FunandBaubles]

Christine, I haven't posted anything new, but one of my items is on a 3rd party registry. (started getting hits from them a few days ago-very exciting) Maybe they imported some other items as suggestions? Although I would think they would be captured as views from the registry. Shrug.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

I guess I've gotten used to it.
I often get spikes larger than that (my views per day vary between 50-500) and yes, often older/sold items.
Most of the time this is a result of that item being discussed on some forum or featured on a blog, or on someone's popular Pinterest page.

[FunandBaubles]

Thanks Bea, those options help. Since these weren't concentrated on any single item, maybe someone is discussing my shop.

[Former_Member]

Spike for Direct Traffic for me also, looking around and it sounds like it is happening a lot on Etsy at the moment.

[Plektra]

Yeah, it is happening to a lot of shops the last couple of weeks. There are threads in Bugs about it. Unfortunately, they aren't genuine views.

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I occasionally get weird spike in views, and sometimes it says its from some website I don't recognize. I usually look at it as, "Ok, maybe someone liked it enough to share and one of these viewers will buy."

The one day, I got a huge spike in views, didn't know where they came from, and later found out a former co-worker shared my etsy site on a mommy blog.

[fishcouple]

Now that I realized that I have some unusual spikes too lately but didn't really lead to more sales. Many were my sold or sold custom orders. I wouldn't worry too much or get too excited neither.

[Plektra]

Exactly, views on sold items and custom orders we have created. It appears those links (and our listings found on Google) are leading to mobile cases sites and porn sites. Lovely!
Read in Bugs all about that...

[Former_Member]

"Christine, I haven't posted anything new, but one of my items is on a 3rd party registry. (started getting hits from them a few days ago-very exciting) Maybe they imported some other items as suggestions?"

ekatrina - May I ask, what's a 3rd party registry? And which one?

[FunandBaubles]

Fox Mirror, a third party registry is a website that allows brides to register in one place from multiple stores. That means that little shops like us have the potential to take market share from big retailers like Bed Bath and Beyond and Target, while brides can choose what they want at the best price they find. That item was on thankfulregistry.com. They don't allow ads there, so there is no way I know of to encourage them to pick your items. But the item (a set of plates) did sell from the registry. (The person who bought them wanted them on a short deadline but oh well.)

Another item of mine has gotten some hits from a different registry site, but there hasn't been much traffic so it isn't easy for me to look up which one.

Targeted advertising on registry sites seems like it could be a great idea, especially for me, since I sell lots of special vintage household goods, as well as do bridesmaid jewelry. I haven't looked in to what it would take to do that though.

[Former_Member]

Spikes in direct traffic have been happening to me for a while now, always during the night for me. When I check my Google Analytics a lot of my traffic are foreign countries. Of course none of this has led to sales. I've been very curious about this!

[Former_Member]

Oh I see! That's fascinating. Hmm. So many ways for etsians to advertise elsewhere!

[Former_Member]

those are bots

they will always be with us,.

[heartsabustin]

I investigated my Google Analytics for those odd spikes and found I'm getting tons of bot traffic from sites that promise to send free traffic to your site. Now, I've never signed up for any of these sites, so I have no idea why I'm getting it. I bet if you check it out, you'll see the same thing. I've gotten as many as 70 hits in an hour's span from those things.

Etsy tells me there's nothing I "need to do" about it, and there's nothing they can do about it, it's out of their hands, they do no guarantee Google Analytics, yada yada yada.

I find it very annoying, because it does not give me a true count of people who are entering my shop.

[Plektra]

Yes, you can't get a true idea of what views you are getting. And I think Google doesn't like that kind of traffic, it considers it of low value so you are penalised. After all the work you are putting in your shop, your photos, SEO etc....It's never ending...

[MyLittleBlueShop]

I am experiencing the same thing. I usually do not get many views, but I have a customer base that checks my little shop out more or less frequently. Now I am getting many more views (unusual for my shop), and all of the views, except maybe two or three per day, are coming from direct traffic??? I have noticed that the direct traffic views are for items that I already sold long ago. Very strange.

I am dismayed because I noticed that my regular flow of viewers has disappeared completely, the searches are not there any more, it's just that "direct traffic" that I mentioned before that is looking at already sold items. This is definitely interfering with my regular traffic. From the posts above, it seems there is nothing I can do. I have three shops. Two of them are on vacation right now (for revamping, SEO, new photos, etc.), so this is the only shop that was doing some business - small - but steady. Now it has come to a complete halt.

I wonder if it is even worth it to go to all the trouble and work to revamp my other two shops and open them just to go through the same thing that is happening here. I am really upset about this situation.