Whether you're a website owner, a content marketer or part of an SEO team, you probably experienced this at a few times in your career. Your site traffic declines and you have no idea what's happening. Most of the time, Google releases a new algorithm or an update. However, that's not always the case. There are other culprits behind the sudden drop in traffic that even a digital agency Manila can't explain.
Before you start to panic and take out the big guns to prevent a significant drop in ranking, conversion or sales, you must first check the items on this list. These factors and tools help you figure out what caused the sudden drop in your organic traffic.
1. Google Search Console
If you think something fishy is happening with your website, then you better head to the Google Search Console to find out if our site is still functioning properly. When you explore the Search Console, you'll find messages from Google, the list of pages that link to your site, website errors, and crawl rate. It is also a tool used for conducting keyword research.
To maximize your use of the Console, ask the right questions. The questions are your guide to navigating the Search Console. Here are examples of questions that can help you during your assessment:
- When did traffic start to drop?
- Do the changes made on the site coincide with the drop?
- Did you lose rankings for some of your top keywords?
- Are there any indexing issues?
2. Tracking code
The source of your drop in traffic might come from unreliable data. If that's the case, it might be best to check your tracking code. Changes you make to your website code and analytics plugins can result in problems with your tracking code.
Ensure that your tracking code is properly installed. You can go to the tracking code section at the Admin section of Google Analytics. Click on "Tracking Info" then "Tracking Code." Look for the status at the top. This should indicate that the code is working and Google Analytics can access the data.
3. Google Algorithm Changes and Updates
Google frequently changes its algorithms throughout the day. Sometimes, it can even release a major update that can change the SEO game. The changes can negatively affect your traffic and search ranking no matter how much you optimize your site.
Hence, it necessary to be on the lookout for developments in the SEO world. You can follow Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable to get the latest news. Following a bunch of resources that analyze the causes and impacts of algorithms help you prepare and think of SEO strategies ahead of time. It also helps to identify what Google is penalizing, why is it making changes as well as what to do to avoid being penalized.
4. Redesign
A business revamps its website to attract more visitors. However, it neglects to think of SEO resulting in de-optimization. Moreover, it can slow down your site. A slow site can bite you back as page speed is a ranking factor on mobile. Hence, a slow website can result in low rankings and traffic.
Other than a slow site, redesign and migration can also bring in other problems. These problems include service interruptions, failed redirect implementations, changes in information architecture as well as incurring broken links and images. You can also lose internal links, content, and metadata. It's possible to avoid these through careful planning and QA. But if you're experiencing loss of traffic at the moment, you can communicate with your developers to resolve the issues ASAP.
5. Loss of links
Your traffic might be dropping because you lost several links in the process. Your decline in traffic can be the result of the direct loss of referral traffic or it can also be an indirect effect. Losing inbound links is a sign that your site isn't authoritative anymore.
You can check if you are losing links by using tools like Majestic and Ahrefs. These tools can spot potential link decline on a specific page or group of pages. It also helps you determine if you must contact sites to regain your backlinks or pursue other link building efforts to get more link juice.
You must be open to all possibilities when examining the reasons behind the drop in your organic traffic. Remember to check all of these so you don't get lost whenever the numbers go down. That way, you know the strategy to use and have a contingency plan prepared when your rank and traffic falls.