Open Discussion: Does Your Traffic Feel the Summer Slump?
When I was at the University (some three years ago) I used to love the period that went from June to August. It was summer time (on the northern hemisphere at least), we had a study break and so on. Now that I work as a web publisher on the Internet, however, that period sucks.
Curiously enough, it sucks for the same reasons. It is summer time, and people are taking a break from their studies or from their work. The only difference is that my perspective changed. Today I want people to stay in their homes or on their offices and visit my websites!
Now it is not as bad as I described it, but every June-August I do feel a downwards pressure on my traffic. I remember that in 2007 my traffic went down by 20% in June and July. On August it returned to the previous level, and in September it started growing again.
This year I managed to handle the slump better. June and July were flat months (almost the same traffic as May), and in August I expect the numbers to get back on the growing path.
Regardless, it is pretty annoying to see these sluggish traffic trends when during the other months of the year it is always growing.
I guess it also depends on your niche and demographic audience. A website that focus on U.S. teenagers would feel a much greater summer slump right?
But what about you and your websites. Does your traffic goes down between June and August? What tactics do you use to combat it, or you simply take a break as well?
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48 Responses to “Open Discussion: Does Your Traffic Feel the Summer Slump?”
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It’s hard to tell for me, as I started my blog in April and it started to get more and more popular by July. If this is the “dead” period though, I can’t wait to see what I’ll get in August/September and more!
Hi!
My traffic went down i August. Usually, I get 1500 visits oer day in July and 3000 oer day in September.
The explanation: my visitors are teachers and they all have summer holidays.
I do nothing to overcome the situation. I go on posting at least 4 times a day, eveyday.
I am portuguese and write in portuguese a blog for teachers.
Because of my niche, my peak traffic times are June to September. I usually post from September to June and have taken the past 2 summers off. I probably could have a more traffic if I posted during the peak traffic times, but hey, it’s summer and I’m going to enjoy it.
Well, Daniel, If you all of your visitors were like me, then there shouldn’t be a drop in traffic, because they would, like me, always be online lol. I’m on vacation but the laptop is always with me even in the bar, beach, bathrom, bedroom, under the tree… keep on
I just started a blogging (about 8 months), so I can’t really tell. But, one thing for sure is that my blog and my forum always go dead on weekends.
My blog and forum is both related to webmaster stuff. I don’t think the traffic will go down for my niche during summer. Well lets see.
Started in July, number of visitors slowly rising. Guess by autumn I’ll have bunch of articles for them to google and some incoming links from other sites for them to follow.
Bear in mind that although it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, so there’s no summer holidays down under!
Maybe you should try wring more posts targeting southern hemisphere readers during the northern summer months
Strangely i have not noticed this. My traffic is usually best at December.
@Mathieiu, yeah I would expect a higher growth rate in the months to come.
@Ramiro, you mean August of 2007? 50% drop is a big one, I guess as you stated it is because of your audience.
@Ben, yeah wine blogs should have a good time all around the year
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@Rajab, yeah I think the effect on DBT is not that big due to the nature of our audience. Bloggers should be online through out the year after all.
@Martin, yeah I mentioned that in the post. It would be difficult to target the southern hemisphere though. I would need to right in Spanish, Portuguese, or about the land down under
.
@esvl, yeah December is best for everyone. By summer slump I mean the northern countries summer, so July – August.
You know I hadn’t thought of that. My “industry” does seem to shift into “travel mode” this time of year. And I’d venture to say that most don’t travel with technology at their fingertips. And that gives me some ideas for posts in the fall. Thanks.
Thanks for bringing this up…I’ve noticed that things have been slow for several of my clients, and we haven’t been able to figure out why. It makes complete sense, though (but I am still on my computer even through the summer!)
Ha.. ha..! Thatz pretty interesting…!
I get arnd 200 Hits per day. It doesn’t make much sense for my blog. After all my visiters are mostly Indians and very few Americans.
I just started with this whole thing, so I have no frame of reference (I’m only on my third week), but I have noticed that the weekends are like a ghost town. I practically see a tumbleweed roll past my screen when I log on to Google Analytics.
Most of my blogs do slump during summer months, but one greatly increases. It’s a blog focused on the popular backyard game called Washers. Shameless plug: http://gameofwashers.com
Traffic nearly quadruples during the summer months for obvious reasons.
I think it depends somewhat on the subject of the blog. Content focused on the business world is less affected by the summer doldrums than content that is focused on the college and younger crowds. On the other hand content focused on the business world tends to drop off a cliff on weekends.
My traffic took a nosedive and I am so relieved to learn it’s not just my blog. I go around looking for new blogs in my area (midlife and baby boomer stuff) and comment on them. That’s how I begin to get some new traffic.
It’s up and down. There’s usually a certain degree of lethargy during the summer months, but then the site had a spike yesterday up about 30% without any apparent single source or referrer that I could see. But, then I did mention Harry Potter the other day, maybe it was that.
My Sites traffic / income drop about 30% since last day of July! I’m still wondering why this happened and now your post give me some idea of what happened actually
Thanks for sharing rich info and learn lots from your site! Cheers
Since my main blog is about RV travel, and most people do their traveling late from May through mid-September, we most certainly see a slump during the summer months.
I have found that by leaving comments on other blogs and on forums related to my topics, I can get the traffic up a bit, but it is still a noticable drop in numbers.
This is a really interesting topic, I just starting my blog in late April and have steadily been growning to about 1,300 clicks a day – however the weekends are dead.
My topics are celebrities, so I do have a younger audience. I’m really looking forward to the 4th quarter now that I have read everyones comments!
@Laura, another interesting thing I can see is when you have holidays on the U.S. Daily Writing Tips has some 5,000 email subscribers, and on holidays I get like 50 messages with “I am out of the office until…”
@Sarah, yeah it is a pretty wide spread phenomenon.
@Mayooresan, yeah if your American audience is small you won’t feel this.
@Writer Dad, yeah weekends are not my favorite days either. Crazy as it sounds
.
@Tanner, yeah the niche affects this a lot.
May be you should take some holidays as your visitors do ? I started my blof in june, so have not noticed anything yet… I must say that the days of the WE are usually low days as to visits.
Teacher blogs like mine definitely hit the doldrums in the summer, although a controversial post can still drive traffic.
Oh yeah. I have noticed a huge difference. I have actually noticed a huge difference and how many people actually comment on my posts. There has been a lot of traffic coming from feed readers but yet they are never commenting like they were before June.
I’m sure it has something to do with our efforts to promote our site, but we’re having our best two months of traffic ever this summer.
That is the beauty of having content to serve the globe
In the summer, you target places like asia or so where people rarely take vacations 
Well, for me these months have quite the opposite effect. My blog Istanbul Trails, which gives tips & tricks for tourists visiting Istanbul, obviously gets more traffic during and just before the holiday season.
Cheers,
Max
A couple of my websites have, but overall it’s been pretty good this summer. The sites that have been affected are geared towards school students, so it’s more than understandable those would fall off.
Hi! My traffic goes down in August. Usually I have 3000 visits per day but in August the visits go down: 1000 visitsa day.
Thank you for another great post.
My traffic dips a little in the summer but far more on weekends, going from about 2K/day down to barely half. Like others, I think it’s a reflection of my audience: mostly homeschooling moms like me. Summertime doesn’t impact our schedule as much as it does for families who normally send their children off to school. Weekends do make a big difference: when Dad is home we often do something as a family.
I just set up my site 1 month ago.
surprisingly, this summer has been actually good for me. I’ve been getting more comments on my posts than ever and traffic is good(if on the lesser side). but then, that may have been b/c of my increased participation in social networks.
But there’s no denying what you said, Daniel, at least for me. But now, August has begun and the summer is coming to a close, and hopefully we can all see some good traffic
And as for the break, I make full use of my school vacations
I’m actually starting to see an increase in the number of visitors my blog is getting everyday, but maybe that’s just because it’s still a new blog.
Yes, before 15 July, the traffic to my sites was 50 visits per day. Now, its down to only 20 at average.
Yup, I’m totally feeling the slump! I’ve been fighting it by participating more on forums and other blogs, and although the traffic flow is still slower than usual, it does help. Posting the links to my new articles on Twitter seems to help a bit, too.
Yes this could be a fustrating period, but I also prepare myself for it a head of time.
I just took a break during July. Obviously saw a bit of a slump but have been getting right back into the swing of things now that august has rolled around.
my traffic has grown over that period but my traffic generation website is pretty new
Perhaps its because of the Olympics season? Any way I did not feel the summer slump either. I came across a write up which really helped me whenever there is slumps. http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Get-Traffic-From-Non-English-Domains
Regards
I have definitely experienced a bitter of a summer slump, but it has varied from week to week.
My traffic took a nosedive and I am so relieved to learn it’s not just my blog. I go around looking for new blogs in my area (midlife and baby boomer stuff) and comment on them. That’s how I begin to get some new traffic.
Its funny after one year you wrote this article.. I google’d to get assurance from some authority figure that summer slump is normal part of the traffic growth. I am noticing this second year in my sites.
Bear in mind that although it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, so there’s no summer holidays down under!
Maybe you should try wring more posts targeting southern hemisphere readers during the northern summer months
LOL! I know your pain, Daniel!
As a self-employed person I know this feeling from a different angle too. Let me explain.
As self employed, I do not get “paid leave” or “sick leave” etc strictly no work – no pay.
Now when it comes to public holidays (I think you call them bank holidays?) all employed people love them! Yay a day off work!
However, all employers and self-employed people react with “Darn! another day’s revenue lost!”
It takes all sorts of people to make the world!
I see a decrease in both traffic and CPC in my AdSense account in the summer time. I guess the advertisers take a break as well.