How often do you have unexplained sharp increases in traffic?

These spikes are often the result of activity that should have otherwise been prevented at the server level. For example, on /r/GoogleAnalytics we caught a post asking about a "crazy random spike in direct traffic" -- in this case a 6367% spike!

Wordpress site? Try a plugin like Wordfence

Installing the Wordfence plugin and setting it up properly-- even the free version-- can greatly reduce the number of occurrences of random spikes in traffic. And, perhaps more importantly, it keeps your website more secure and more responsive. We have a number of clients who use and like Sucuri as well.

Whatever you do, combine it with DNS management

Having https://cloudflare.com/managing our DNS means we have less of these issues out of the gate. The security settings there allow us to make sure browsers are not suspicious looking, and have not been flagged for suspicious activity.

Not sure where to start? Ask your IT or web hosting provider for help

They should be able to point you in the right direction. If not, we're here for you!