I've known for awhile that my average daily Sitemeter traffic fluctuates mainly with search engine referrals. The variation can be as much as a few hundred hits a day. There are other factors, of course - the end of the legislative session and approaching elections always drive numbers up - but this is one that comes and goes unpredictably.

Last week, I noticed that a Google blog search for my URL suddenly started only returning stale links - compare to a Technorati search and you'll see what I mean. Coincidentally or not, my Sitemeter stats took a dive at the same time.

I'm not alarmed by this, and I don't depend on ad revenues so it's not like this hurts me, but I am curious. What causes this to happen, and what if anything can I do about it? I presume that at some point it'll fix itself, but it's always nice to be able to be proactive. Any suggestions would be appreciated.