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Thanks for the response. So for a baseline, it has stayed about the same with some minor fluctuations due to a big social hit. We typically get between 8k-12k sessions per month. Before the switch Direct was accounting for about 2k hits per month. In August 2017, it was up to 7k out of 9.5k. Conversely, organic traffic was around 4.5k per month. So far in 2017, we are now averaging around 1.2k per month.

But to answer your question, the overall traffic is pretty much the same, the ay it is being reported in GA is drastically different and the disparity is growing each month.

Part of me feels like my developer made a change to the tracking code that I was not aware of and something is just not tracking correctly. Because it was such an abrupt change Oct. 21, 2016.

Again, I'm looking for someone who wants a consulting gig to look at all the pieces and help me figure this out. I feel like there is a simple answer. Although maybe I'm being naive.

Last October (Oct. 21, 2016 to be exact), traffic allocation flipped in GA. 60% of my traffic was organic and 30% was direct. Then it flipped and now 60% of traffic was direct and 30% was organic. I never was able to figure it out. Slowly over the last year direct traffic has grown and organic has declined, to the point now where most of my traffic is Direct. When I look at GWT I see a major discrepancy in clicks compared to what I see in GA.

I am looking for an agency or expert to help me look at the entire setup to make sure everything is set up properly. To ask me questions about how we tag links. We need help!

Where can I go to look for this agency/expert to get me out of this whole?

haven't checked yet but did find this article about serp sitelink changes on the exact day i saw traffic drop.

http://searchengineland.com/recent-changes-organic-sitelinks-cause-major-drops-impressions-gsc-264424

It's contributions like Trenton's above that make me love the Moz community. I will check all that you suggested and report back.

thought i'd add the GA graph that shows the switch

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so would a JS redirect make the session count as direct traffic?

Thanks Sean!

Here is the final URL:
http://www.oneworldplayproject.com/buy-bulk-soccer-balls/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=bulk&utm_content=bulk10&utm_term=300

Here is the URL in the ad that people could type in. This is a redirect to the www. version:
oneworldplayproject.com

Also, these are only image ads so there is no display URL being shown.

I am also curious why Organic would drop though. But let's play this out first.

So on Oct. 21, our direct traffic increased 3x and our organic traffic decreased 3x. And it has been that way ever since. Almost like they flip flopped. Additionally, that was the same day I started retargeting to our site. I have tagged all the links from the ads and they're being counted as google paid clicks in GA. And our accounts are linked. I am just dumbfounded as to how this could happen.

So I think I might have uncovered the source of traffic.

• A huge company in Argentina used our own video footage to make a video about our product and posted it to their facebook page with over 1.5 million followers. It got shared 7500 times, 500 comments and 1800 likes. It is a company that stretches through all of south and central america which would account for the spanish speaking traffic boost.

• While reading the comments from the people that purchased on our site since the spike, a lot of them said Facebook video.

So the next question I guess would be. How do you find a viral video about yourself if they don't tag you?

So here's my situation:

My company's website usually receives around 80 organic visits/month and 50 direct visits/month from Mexico. However, in July we saw a small uptick to around 170 for each and then in the last 7 days we are in the middle of a massive spike which has put us up to 1400 visits for organic and 820 visits for direct in August. The traffic spike continues as we are almost up to 500 visits just today!

Things to know:

• The visitors are purchasing from our store, staying on our site, browsing around, basically acting like real traffic.
• I was unable to identify any new links, press, and we did not do any specific Mexico optimization (spanish keywords).
• We sell a ball and it is called The One World Futbol, but it's always been called a futbol before so nothing new here. our website is www.oneworldplayproject.com.
• Everyone coming organically is searching our name, not keywords.
• We updated our shopping cart a few days before the massive traffic spike and significantly lowered the cost to ship to Mexico.
• Our Latin America director went to Mexico to work there for a month a few days before the spike and sent out a bunch of emails, texts, phone calls, what's app notifications to his large network. From what I am told by others here he has a vast network throughout Mexico, Central America and South America.
• We have also seen large traffic increases in other Latin American countries during this same time period just nothing like Mexico.
• We just hired an awesome social media coordinator who is extremely focused and is implementing a kick-ass social strategy
• We launched a branding campaign called #MakeLifePlayFull with press releases and ad spend behind it.

PHEW! That was a lot of info for you to digest.

So on the surface this seems like great news. BUT I want to understand WHY this is happening. Could it really just be the combination of all these things listed above or is it just a combination of our connected guy being in Mexico with better shipping costs? Why is it mainly happening in Mexico? Why is it so sustained? I suspect that if it is from our guy it would drop off quickly. Any thoughts on what to look at? I'm stumped.

Anyone do this kind of work or know anyone who does? Looking to act quickly. Our product is selling well and the team wants to put more money behind it and I'm not sure if that's necessary or if we just need to optimize our organic listing. Trying to understand scale and how Amazon differs from Adwords