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I'm really sorry to hear about your drop.

Did the drop coincide with any other changes?  (Site Redesign, etc...)

Do you have a Google Webmaster Tools account?  If so have you checked for any recent messages and/or new errors on your site?  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Did you notice a similar drop in your google and bing rankings or just google?

Some likely reasons your site might drop:

Change in the Search Engine Ranking Algorithm: http://mozcast.com/ is a great tool to see if your drop coincides with other search engine changes.

Malware or Hacking, Penalty Server Problem:, Webmaster tools is the best place to start looking.

Loss of PageRank/Link Popularity, or Canonicalization/Duplicate Content Problems: Use your SEO Campaign to see if you have any duplcate content issues, or changes in backlink profile.

If you have relavent, compelling content for a high volume google query then by all means optimize for it.  But remember that 20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones they haven't seen in at least 90 days (http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497828?hl=en) so don't be afraid to anticipate a future audience, even if the traffic isn't already in Google Keyword Tool.

Obviously, there are industries (news and trend based) that are perpetually in the cycle of creating, anticipating, or quickly reacting to new keyword spikes.

Either approach is valid, but I suggest you let your content and your passion for your audience be your guide.  If you produce great content, and you are confident their is an audience that wants to consume it, then don't let the lack of keyword traffic stop you.  The world just doesn't know they need your keyword yet!

Good luck,

-Jason

Yep, if you're willing to set up a separate landing page for each Ad/Campaign, then by all means do that.  Then you can assume all direct traffic on the URL is the campaign traffic.

That would also let you customize each landing page for the publication, which will improve your relevancy and reduce your bounce rate.  I.E.  If www.mysite.com/life has an image with the cover of the actual edition of Life magazine I saw your ad in, then I know I'm in the right place.

As you mentioned, if the content of many landing page is basically the same, then make sure you use rel="canonical" tags to consolidate your link juice.

My suggestion to use vanity urls linking to a landing page with campagin codes, would be if you wanted a single landing page to serve multiple campaigns (or other sources of traffic).

Googles recommended approach is to have the same URL for mobile and desktop optimized pages:

https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details

This is obviously the safest way to insure your SEO value is aggregated between mobile and desktop visitors.

I also favor universal URL's because so many users now use multiple devices.  How often will a user hear about your service, when they are out and about and look at your site on their mobile device, and then bookmark it or e-mail it to themselves, to review at more depth on their laptop at home.  Do you really want them to see the mobile optimized version of your site on their laptop?

Note, if you feel that users visiting your site on a mobile device are trying to perform very different user tasks than desktop users, and so the functionality of the pages is widely different, then I would recommend using a separate URL scheme.

If a user types "tripping.com" into google, Google is going to consider it a "URL Search" and almost certainly return your site first.

You probably need more SEO help on the "Tripping", so in addition to giving you extra characters, that would tip the scale to not including the .com for SEO considerations.

If you are investing in creating "Tripping.com" as your brand, and putting "Tripping" in the title tag without the .com would cause confusion, then I'd opt for the user experience over SEO consideration.

The trick is finding someone that covers your sector.

If it's an e-com site, the Internet Retailer Top 500 is popular and a newer list from website magazine:

https://www.internetretailer.com/top500/

http://www.websitemagazine.com/web100/2013/

There are a variety of comercial services:

Compete.com

alexa.com

comscore.com

Many vendors work with a large number of sites and get access to their analytics, and it's not uncommon for them to publish aggregate benchmarks from their client bases:

http://www.rimmkaufman.com/thought-leadership/quarterly-reports/

http://monetate.com/research/#axzz2MP5G0Wug

Create a short vanity URL to put in the magazine (i.e. Life Magazine).

www.mysite.com/Life

Then set up a redirect for that URL that redirect to a landing page with a campaign code:

http://www.mysite.com/landing?utm_source=Life&utm_medium=Magazine&utm_campaign=Great

Now you have a campaign in GA you can track.

Alternatively, (as others have suggested) you can use a URL shortener:

bit.ly/adsf72 -> http://www.mysite.com/landing?utm_source=Life&utm_medium=Magazine&utm_campaign=Great

The shortener gives you a short url and an extra layer of tracking, but the short url will be less meaningful or memorable (unless you do a completely custom one).

If you want to go with a QRCode, do it in addition to (not instead of) printing, the short URL.

Use the shortest URL possible in the QRCode because short URL's = lower density QR Codes that are easier to scan.