anyone noticed unexpected rise in traffic over dec17

hi,

i have noticed a significant rise in traffic on one of my sites over the month of decemeber 2017.
i did not build any new backlinks. anyone experiencing similar ?

Congrats! This is good. However, backlinks don't equal traffic, there can be other factors involved ... first, is this traffic even coming from organic search? Maybe it's social, some link in forum, could be even some bot doing direct visits over and over again ... if it's still coming from organic search from unique visitors then see what search and what keywords ... maybe there is low competition or you have a really good on-page / content ...

yes its pure organic traffic. rankings seem to have gone up.

That shows you are doing good. Keep going soon you can make good money from it