Sudden burst of unique visits - any idea why?

[MAllie]

I have a domain parked on Sedo that was pointed to Afternic for a while. It always had a small number of uniques a day, but for some reason today they rose into the hundreds. Why would such a thing happen? From all those uniques, there has been just one click, so I don't think it's someone messing. Any ideas?

 

[rngrdanny22]

Its hard to tell without knowing the name... have you checked to see where they are coming from? Are they type-ins or link-ins?

 

[Gerry]

Some names can be seasonal, related to specific events, or due to something becoming a "headliner" in the news.

 

[Jeroen]

Do visitor location stats for your domain make sense?

Something similar happened to one of my domains earlier this year. Hundreds of type-ins in a matter of days and several clicks as well. The word was a Dutch industrial service but the traffic came from Asia. I contacted Sedo because it looked suspicious.

 

[MAllie]

Do visitor location stats for your domain make sense?

Something similar happened to one of my domains earlier this year. Hundreds of type-ins in a matter of days and several clicks as well. The word was a Dutch industrial service but the traffic came from Asia. I contacted Sedo because it looked suspicious.

Thanks for those responses - they're much appreciated.

I just checked to see if the flow was continuing and there are 36 uniques so far this morning. Most of them (99%) are coming from an odd-looking address in Latvia (maybe I shouldn't have clicked on it, but I did and was told it was unobtainable). There are also some from Facebook and Twitter, so maybe it does have something to do with a news item.

Should I contact Sedo to make sure nothing is going on? I can't imagine what could be, but then I'm still very inexperienced in the ways of the web.

I am sending you the name by pm to see if you think it casts any further light on the story.

 

[rngrdanny22]

It could be possible that someone on that site they are linking from just hyperlinked the incorrect domain.

I actually have a pretty funny story that is similar...

I had a forum domain once that was close to an established forum's domain, and I forgot to change the theme that SEDO was using for the landing page. Someone on the other site had accidentally visited my domain and it showed (of course) the adult landing page. The person thought it was so funny that he then proceeded to post a link to my domain on the established forum making fun of it. Thus resulting in hundreds of visits/day for the next month.

 

[Theo]

I would not worry, clicks from Latvia are usually worth 1/100th of a cent.

 

[MAllie]

It could be possible that someone on that site they are linking from just hyperlinked the incorrect domain.

I actually have a pretty funny story that is similar...

I had a forum domain once that was close to an established forum's domain, and I forgot to change the theme that SEDO was using for the landing page. Someone on the other site had accidentally visited my domain and it showed (of course) the adult landing page. The person thought it was so funny that he then proceeded to post a link to my domain on the established forum making fun of it. Thus resulting in hundreds of visits/day for the next month.

I checked the page it resolves to and there doesn't seem to be anything untoward - it's just laid out like a directory.

Thanks to you also, Theo. Only one click so far, so I wasn't too worried on that score.

 

[Gerry]

The name has a part of it that may account for a great deal of traffic since Latvia a very wired and connected nation, also home to many internet scams and hackers.

 

[Raider]

could be a bot

 

[MAllie]

The name has a part of it that may account for a great deal of traffic since Latvia a very wired and connected nation, also home to many internet scams and hackers.

Thanks, Gerry. It seems to have slowed down a bit now. Possibly just something whatever it was picked up on yesterday. And thankfully, no rogue clicks.

Thanks to you too, Raider. I hadn't realised there were bad bots as well as good ones. I always think of them in connection with Google checking out your site.

 

[grcorp]

It could be possible that someone on that site they are linking from just hyperlinked the incorrect domain.

I actually have a pretty funny story that is similar...

I had a forum domain once that was close to an established forum's domain, and I forgot to change the theme that SEDO was using for the landing page. Someone on the other site had accidentally visited my domain and it showed (of course) the adult landing page. The person thought it was so funny that he then proceeded to post a link to my domain on the established forum making fun of it. Thus resulting in hundreds of visits/day for the next month.

I was going to suggest that to be the cause of the problem.

And that story is EXCELLENT! Good going