Sometimes, we see how on our website there is a drop in organic traffic. In the first place we must detect why it is happening and for this we must use the help of different tools to be sure. We must try to answer questions such as:
- My page is no longer in the Google positions it previously held.
- I have lost positions in the main keywords.
- My organic traffic has dropped rapidly.
We must consider the importance of maintaining a good organic positioning since it is the most attractive for search engines and can attract a large number of users to our website.
But before shouting to the sky, evaluate the percentage of traffic drop. A 10% drop can be seasonal or for a change of trend in searches. For example, if our website offers summer content or products, it may be normal to see drops on winter dates. In other cases, search trends may vary, so we recommend taking a look at Google Trends to see if this is the case.
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How to detect the drop in traffic?
Sometimes we see how suddenly our traffic starts to drop and we lose the usual visits. The first thing to note is where did the drop in traffic occur. To do this, we can use tools such as Google Analytics and create segments to determine the dates and traffic sources where the traffic has dropped.
We enter the GA interface and filter by sources and dates.
In this case, the drop in global and organic traffic is evident.
Another way to analyze the fall in traffic is to visualize the visibility index that, for example, we can see in tools such as Sistrix.
As we can see, it is evident that on this website traffic has dropped and it is also related to the visibility index, that is, the loss of traffic is related to the drop in positions in the SERP and the number of keywords and urls that appear in the search results.
Possible reasons for a drop in organic traffic
As you can guess, Google does not offer us a manual to find out why this type of traffic drop occurs, so we have no other alternative than to investigate and try to find out the reason of this loss of traffic.
In general terms, this problem can be caused by changes made to the website itself or by external changes to the website, such as a bad strategy of link building, an attack of SEO negative or changes in the google algorithm.
Before you start foaming at the mouth, consider at least these options.
- Archive robots.txt misconfigured. Check that we are not blocking the web.
- Changes in the URL structure, the permanlinks WordPress.
- falls in the server. Check the logs to know if your website has been down and for how long.
- Check the settings of Analytics. Sometimes we can have a bad installation that can drive us crazy.
- Blocked site. This usually happens in many WordPress. Check reading settings/options.
- noindex. Yes, it also happens that from time to time someone puts their hand where they shouldn't and configures a certain url as noindex.
- Search Console. A powerful ally that allows us to see the number of times we appear in search results, as well as the number of clicks on our website. If we see a strong decline in this tool, it is time to get to work to try to find out what is happening on our website.
- Check the data accuracy. Compare Analytics data with other apps like Ahrefs or Semrush. Sometimes the tools fail and we must rule out possibilities.
- manual penalties. These are the really scary ones. We can see them in the Google console where they usually send us a message that we can read from the side panel of the application.
Changes in web architecture
When we remodel the websites we can make some mistakes or not consider our positioning current before making the design change. This mainly affects the Web map and the url structure.
When we make changes to the content structure, main menu, page nesting or, in short, to the structure of the web map, we are modifying the organization of the content. This can cause certain keywords are no longer trackable or change location, for example, in another url.
Similarly, in Millennials Consulting We have come across projects that have updated their website by modifying the structure of urls (permanlinks in WP) and even its content. Thus Google loses track of the old url and therefore, the location of the keywords where we positioned.
We must always consider the current state of the web in terms of positioning before making a change of this type.
404 errors and missing redirects
Another of the important points for the loss of organic positioning is the change of url and the non-redirection. There can be several reasons that make us change a url, delete a page or change the url structure. In any case, we must always apply redirects 301 so as not to lose the traffic that we already had in that url and not cause errors 404 or broken links.
High bounce rate and low user time on page
El Bounce Rate it is an indicator that the content of the page has not been liked by the user. This is measured mainly by the user's time on the page, for not performing actions on it (clicks, submitting forms...) or for leaving the web at that URL without visiting a new one.
We must complete the reading of the contents with links to other related and encourage page click, with buttons to open new content or CTA's (Call To Action).
To increase the time on page we must avoid poor content, anyone under 300 words and that offers unclear and detailed information. By offering extensive and quality articles, we are going to favor the user's attention and, consequently, we are also going to increase the time on the page. In this way we will reduce the % of bounce and the output.
Google algorithm changes
Every once in a while, Google change your criteria for evaluating which pages should appear in the first search results. Many of these changes we find out over time or by conducting experiments.
Some of these changes are related to content quality, the number of useful pages for the user within our website or the user time on page. According to the latest changes in the algorithm, content is still king and we must offer quality texts that give answers to users.
Other factors of the algorithm that can affect the loss of traffic and positioning is usually the loading rate of web page. A website that loads slowly is not attractive to the user and Google is capable of detecting these deficiencies.
Linkbuilding: bad strategy and/or SEO negative
Quickly getting a large number of links was never a great idea. Google, or rather, its algorithm, is able to detect this increase in external links and we may incur a penalty that affects our positioning. Similarly, if the links pointing to our website are of poor quality, they are link farms from low-quality domains with a large number of links or even, our website receives good links but different themes to ours, we are not only wasting our time and resources but we can achieve the opposite effect and loss of traffic. Therefore, study and choose the best strategy to get quality links.
competition is fierce
We must never neglect the work of our competitors in the SERP of Google and if they work, we should too. Every day, we come across websites that were created years ago and had always enjoyed a good position without much effort. In many cases this is because there was no competition in that type of business and related web searches but the times change and companies work SEO like any other discipline of your business. Therefore, regularly study and evaluate what your competitors are doing.
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Recommendations to reverse a drop in organic traffic
Although each website is a different project that may require different measures, here are some recommendations that can help you reverse that drop in organic traffic.
- Check your content and try to offer quality pages. Sometimes you will have to merge several posts into a new one and optimize others.
- Offers a websites load your pages speed boat tour, around 3 or 4 seconds. And don't forget the weight of the images which is usually one of the main problems in this aspect.
- Do not abuse the linkbuilding and try to get the links naturally.
- In the case of e-commerce, use complete and descriptive sheets with information on everything related to the product.
- Rich Snippets!!! they are still a great option. In addition to opting to appear in the SERP with rich snippets, it's another way to tell Google what your content is about.
If you still have doubts, do not hesitate to call us and we will be happy to help you with that penalty.