When starting a site on the web, much of your traffic will most likely come from search engines like Google, but that can also be your downfall, as search engines are always changing how they decide to place items in their index.

An interesting case is the recent 28% traffic drop for Answers.com due to some shuffle in Google’s index.

From 901am:

“The major search engines modify their algorithms all the time,” said Bob Rosenschein, CEO. “This change only demonstrates the sound business rationale behind our agreement to purchase Dictionary.com, because it underscores a primary motivation for the deal: to secure a steady source of direct traffic and mitigate our current dependence on search engine algorithms.”

Make sure you diversify your traffic sources or it will dry up due to a quick shift at Google, or one of the other search engines.

Originally posted on August 3, 2007 @ 12:11 am