Suspicious, sudden increase in traffic

[Rhythm]

Hi

I'm seeing a sudden increase in the last few months for a parked keyword.com.au domain name

I'm talking visitor traffic in triple digits which is unusual for my portfolio for undeveloped parked keyword.com.au domain names

Just suspicious the traffic isn't legit and may be a the result of negative link/seo tactics..

Should I be worried?

 

[eBranding.com.au]

What time period are you talking about, do you mean triple digits per day, week or month?

 

[Rhythm]

What time period are you talking about, do you mean triple digits per day, week or month?

monthly
only since mid 2016 i think
before that just normal usual double digits

 

[findtim]

not sure if this could apply to a parked domain but i had this happen once and it turned out to be someone hot linking to an image.
tim

 

[eBranding.com.au]

monthly
only since mid 2016 i think
before that just normal usual double digits

I don't think it's that suspicious then.

Hundreds of visitors per month is pretty common, at least it has been in my experience. Hundreds of visitors per day, less so (for .au anyway).

Sometimes crawlers/bots will bump the stats. There are a few 'rogue ones' out there that muck with peoples stats on an ongoing basis following the 'initial crawl'.

Here's some examples of other events that could explain increased visitor traffic (noting that some of these would see a much greater uplift than what you've described):

• things like the incorrect domain being linked in a media article (e.g. your .com.au domain instead of a business' .net.au domain as the link to their website) - I've had this happen;
• a TV show using a less common extension, and your domain getting lots of type-in traffic as a result (I've had this happen);
• a business using a domain with 'the' appended to the front, so your domain representing the term without 'the' gets lots of traffic bleed (I've had this happen); and
  
• the popularity of the term increases massively for some reason, such as being the title of an upcoming movie.

And sometimes there's just 'no rhyme or reason'! I have a few domains like that.

 

[eBranding.com.au]

not sure if this could apply to a parked domain but i had this happen once and it turned out to be someone hot linking to an image.
tim

Yep, that's another good example of something that can spike traffic stats.

 

[chris]

Depending on the parking platform, but most don't give you enough data to tell. I usually point the domain temporarily to a hosted page and check the access logs, you should then get a good idea on what URLs are being hit.

 

[eBranding.com.au]

Depending on the parking platform, but most don't give you enough data to tell. I usually point the domain temporarily to a hosted page and check the access logs, you should then get a good idea on what URLs are being hit.

One of the many benefits of running my own platform - I've got loads of stats at my disposal!

 

[Rhythm]

not sure if this could apply to a parked domain but i had this happen once and it turned out to be someone hot linking to an image.
tim

Yes, Parked domain. No images.

 

[Rhythm]

Depending on the parking platform, but most don't give you enough data to tell. I usually point the domain temporarily to a hosted page and check the access logs, you should then get a good idea on what URLs are being hit.

pretty much what I plan to do