28% traffic boost

[NickGrogan]

I use a script to post links to news articles from www.energybrokers.co.uk/news/ on twitter, google+, pinterst, etc.

It stopped working about a month ago after a security update, but I only noticed this week.

Traffic to those pages is up 28% this month compared to last.

So do I fix the script?

 

[Hospitality_king]

Don't bother as the visits you are getting are likely out of 'curiosity' and nothing more.

But why are you giving away free weblinks - you're not being paid for them, so don't give them out.

 

[Steve Alphabet]

Are you sure none of the extra traffic is bots? Try segmenting the traffic by time on page (less than 1 second is usually a bot), source/medium is another clue.

 

[NickGrogan]

But why are you giving away free weblinks - you're not being paid for them, so don't give them out.

They give me the news I give them the links, works for everyone. If I take out the links, the news is less useful to visitors.

Instead of using scripts, better you participate genuinely on social networking platforms. No one like to follow the updates that comes from the bots.

Any stats to back that up? Especially given the time/cost of actual involvement. Most big accounts are partly/fully bot based, as can be seen when they go wrong.

Are you sure none of the extra traffic is bots?

Time on site is fairly similar, up slightly. If it is bots, why has stopping the SM increased the bots? Could that be a good thing?

 

[Hospitality_king]

Any stats to back that up?

Not necessary as human nature and a mere basic knowledge of what visitors do, will tell you what you need to know.

 

[Steve Alphabet]

Time on site is fairly similar, up slightly. If it is bots, why has stopping the SM increased the bots? Could that be a good thing?

It's impossible to diagnose without being 100% sure of the data First thing is to filter out sessions of less than a second, because they're likely to be bots. If you haven't done that already, here's a filter I created which you can use: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/template?uid=9s9_qVZhSgCief3CiMgRuQ. Add that, and see if that makes a difference to your stats. Second thing is – are you filtering out hits from you/your team? If not, use Google's add-on so you don't distort your data: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

 

[NickGrogan]

Steve

All other stats are more or less unchanged, so no big increase in bots, or my own usage.

I'll probably fix the script today and see how it goes.

 

[Steve Alphabet]

Hmm that's my 1st theory blown away then... The 2nd place I'd look is under acquisition reports. Wherever the 28% has come from, I hope it translates into a 28% uplift in conversions

 

[NickGrogan]

There are several, there is even one built into jetpack now. The one I use is from NextScripts

http://www.nextscripts.com/social-networks-auto-poster-for-wordpress/