A sudden drop in website traffic can feel very alarming. If you’ve had weeks of consistent traffic then see a noticeable dip for no apparent reason, you’re right to question why. Traffic drops can happen for a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s going to be from a thing that’s within your control, and other times it might be out of your hands. The important thing is to use your skills to diagnose the issue and make amends where you can. Get your site back on track with this simple guide.
What To Rule Out First
There’s a few things you should first rule out to ensure you’re not wasting time on a simple problem. In a panic, many people forget to make these important checks, even though they could save you a lot of headache.
Tracking Issues
Sometimes it’s not a traffic drop – it might be that Analytics has an error or issue. Double-check that your Google Analytics tag is still installed on your site. If it’s missing, you may have found your answer. If the code is there, check that it’s correct and that it’s not missing any pieces of the code. You should also check that the ID contained within the code matches your Analytics account. There’s also a debug tool you can use in Analytics to check that data is flowing.
Domain Migration
If your website has been recently redesigned or migrated domains, you may have created a bit of a traffic issue. There could be redirects missing, new pages which aren’t yet indexed or your website’s entire URL structure may have changed. It takes time for Google to build trust with new domains and new pages, so if your URLs have all changed, it’s likely that they’ve dropped down the rankings and are starting from scratch.
Google Algorithm Update
Okay, this one is less likely to cause a significant drop in traffic, but it’s still worth considering. Google regularly roll out updates to their algorithm, which can result in some fluctuations. If your website contains useful, informative content and meets all the standard requirements of SEO, it’s unlikely than an algorithm change will cause your traffic to tank. If there’s been a reasonable fluctuation and it aligns with an algorithm update, monitor your traffic and rankings and see if they recover.
Deeper Investigation Into Traffic Drops
If you’ve looked into the above and determined none of those things factor into the drop, it’s time to do some deeper research. However, with that in mind, we also think it’s worth doing this investigative work if you suspect the algorithm update has affected your traffic. It may be a sign that you need to make a few improvements.
Crawl For Technical Errors
It’s often underestimated how much of an impact technical errors on your website can have. We’d recommend doing a crawl using software like Screaming Frog to highlight any issues you may have. If you uncover issues with https, security, canonicals, 404s or anything else urgent, get them fixed as a matter of urgency.
Check Search Console
The reports in Search Console can be really helpful when you’re investigating a drop in traffic. Check the Performance report and see what queries your website is appearing for. You can view the data in different time periods, as well as in a comparative report showing the difference between two periods of time. If you can see a clear drop in impressions and/or clicks for important queries, that’s a great place to focus on improving your site’s relevant content and links.
While you’re there, you should also check if your site has any security issues or manual actions. Manual actions are rare, but if your site has one it will be actively prevented from ranking by Google until you fix the reason behind it.
SERPs & Competitor Research
Check if your website has dropped in ranking. If you’ve gone from page 1 to page 2, that’s an obvious reason for your site to have less traffic. When this is the case, you should check which competitors are now outranking you. Examine their websites and see what they have that your site doesn’t. Make changes to improve your content in-line with your competitors, and improve upon what they’re doing if you can. Recovering your page 1 position could resolve your traffic issue.
Need Help Keeping Your Website Traffic Healthy?
Speak to the team at Search4Local if you want to ensure your website is healthy and functioning. It’s not always easy to keep on top of the multitude of tasks required to keep your site working at its best, especially alongside running your own business. That’s why so many small businesses in the UK trust Search4Local to create and care for their websites. Get in touch with our team today if you’d like to learn more about how we can help.
Written by Alice Farley
