Due Diligence Question

**Thomas** · October 14th, 2011, 10:07 AM

Hey guys,

I'm working on a deal right now and have got slightly stuck.

The seller only has Awstats installed on the site and hires a company to do all the traffic generation. Issue is, he doesn't really know what they do (this site isn't his full time income so he doesn't pay much attention to it) and can only provide invoices of paying them (and their contact details).

The Awstats screenshots are legit, but what I can't understand is the traffic. It's showing Google search traffic for a number of keywords that are nowhere to be seen (not even in top 500) for the site in Google/third party tools. How can this be spoofed (ie show search traffic, when there is in fact, none)? What genuine explanations might there be?

The income has been verified (bank statements etc) and the site itself seems to have a lot of good feedback (it's a product), so there's plenty of good reviews. I just can't figure the traffic out, and obviously, if I can't, then it's unlikely the buyer can either!

Cheers
Thomas

**grynge** · October 14th, 2011, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by meathead1234

Hey guys,

The Awstats screenshots are legit, but what I can't understand is the traffic. It's showing Google search traffic for a number of keywords that are nowhere to be seen (not even in top 500) for the site in Google/third party tools. How can this be spoofed (ie show search traffic, when there is in fact, none)? What genuine explanations might there be?

Thomas check out my posts in the group private ramblings hopefully that helps.

**Thomas** · October 14th, 2011, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by grynge

Thomas check out my posts in the group private ramblings hopefully that helps.

I've read that, thanks. I'm still slightly confused as everything else checks out fine. The site is also 3 years old - so it's not like it's a pump and dump job.

**grynge** · October 14th, 2011, 11:59 AM

What country is the traffic from? Are you searching from that country using a proxy from that country?

**Thomas** · October 15th, 2011, 5:40 AM

Originally Posted by grynge

What country is the traffic from? Are you searching from that country using a proxy from that country?

US and UK mainly and I've used proxies. I'm thinking perhaps Awstats doesn't differentiate paid from organic traffic? So could potentially have been bidding on those income keywords on Adwords?

**DomainMagnate** · October 15th, 2011, 11:20 AM

maybe the serps just recently disappeared, or they are geo targeted?

**QualityNonsense** · October 16th, 2011, 10:55 AM

Only time I've had this the traffic was all via Google Places rather than regular organic search, have you checked things like Image Search, Product Search etc? Suspect AWstats doesn't handle any of these differently from Organic.

**Thomas** · October 17th, 2011, 2:18 PM

Got to the bottom of this. Turns out it hasn't been ranking for a while, so most of the traffic is now direct. Redirected via buffer sites. Thanks for all the help!