Has anyone else see a dramatic drop in Direct Traffic?

[shondarogers]

The last month or two i have seen a dramatics drop (50% - 75%) in Direct Traffic for clients - primarily in the hotel industry. Not sure how to trouble shoot. Just curious if anyone else has noticed this. It seems to have started around the same time as pigeon and I'm seeing it in comparison of last 30 days 2014 to same period in 2013.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Nothing really insightful to add except Google Analytics has a lot of bugs. They report referral traffic as direct traffic sometimes. This has been documented before.

It's not an explanation at all for your situation. Just something for you to keep in mind as you're troubleshooting. Maybe it will help.

Just thought I would throw that in there for you.

 

[cdhaerle]

I've seen a drop in traffic. I believe it used to not matter whether you used plural or singular reference in your searches. But now "carpet cleaner omaha" and "carpet cleaners omaha" deliver different results in the local pack.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I've seen a drop in traffic. I believe it used to not matter whether you used plural or singular reference in your searches. But now "carpet cleaner omaha" and "carpet cleaners omaha" deliver different results in the local pack.

Hmmm, you are right.

Pre-pigeon the results would be different for plural, but I thought I'd seen a couple pros say one of the changes with Pigeon was that singular and plural didn't see to change things as much. But maybe they were talking KW without geo modifier or something.