Does your website drop in web traffic?
Have you noticed downward growth in organic traffic for your website?
If the answer to the above questions is YES!
You have landed at the right spot. This article emphasizes the 10 crucial points to consider while website traffic starts to decrease.
The larger number of visitors on the website benefits businesses in many ways. The organic visitors on a site helps in improving the rankings and boosting sales. However, sometimes, website traffic shows steeply downward growth because of many reasons. Here we have presented a 10 points checklist to combat web traffic loss.
Let’s explore the factors that affect website traffic (sudden drop).
#1. Algorithm updates
The algorithm’s updates impact web traffic most because it may change the criteria to rank a site. Many times, site owners face a sudden drop in organic traffic due to algorithm updates. However, Google never hides the updates.
Hence, a simple way to gauge whether an algorithm update may have affected your site is to keep an eye on confirmed changes in the search engine algorithm and let not the web traffic affect it.
#2. Robots.txt rules
This is quite uncommon to encounter incorrect robots.txt rules that may cause a drastic drop in organic web traffic. Sometimes, developers accidentally leave robots.txt files unchanged while migrating from a development or staging website (it decreases the traffic). Hence, it is vital to make sure robots.txt rules are correct, and it is not blocking the organic traffic for your site.
#3. Tracking errors
Sometimes, the error in tracking codes might indicate there is no traffic on your site. It can be easily fixed; however, you might not be able to access the data for the duration.
Thus, make sure that the tracking code is error-free, and it has not been removed. You can also contact the site developers and verify that the tracking code is where it needs to be and is operating correctly.
#4. Redirects/Crawl errors
Sometimes, businesses need to redirect an entire website or certain pages due to many reasons. Whenever you add a new redirect to your site, it is recommended to double check if it works. An URL with an error will not be a crawl, and you may lose valuable organic traffic.
#5. XML sitemap changes
This might be a reason for decreased website traffic. You should crawl the sitemap URLs and assure that they all return a 200 OK reply and that any landing pages or articles are included. If your website contains 200 URLs and there are only 50 in the sitemap, you need to regenerate and resubmit the sitemap through Search Console.
#6. Ranking losses
This is among the common reasons for experiencing a decline in website organic traffic. You should regularly monitor the site rankings and put effort into painting the ranking. If a website suddenly loses higher ranking positions, surely, the web traffic will be decreased. Using Google Analytics to monitor and assess site ranking would be useful.
#7. Manual penalties
If the website’s content differs from Google’s guidelines, the search engine can issue a penalty. The manual penalty causes a sudden decline in website traffic.
Some of the penalty examples include; unnatural links from your website, hidden text, keyword stuffing, cloaking, user generated content span, and many more. Check the search console to find out whether your site has been affected by the manual penalties.
#8. De-indexing
If you have discovered a sudden drop in website traffic, check for de-indexing. Sometimes, your website’s essential URLs are not available in the search results because of a bug or any other reason.
If you have found a de-indexing issue, immediately check the index coverage report in Search Console. Also, you can use the URL inspection tool to find the issues.
#9. Cannibalization
If you have lately created several new content about a specific topic without considering the keyword targeting, you may have inadvertently fallen victim to a keyword cannibalization issue.
This removes the authority of the page, so the organic website traffic decreases. You can also use some tools to generate a cannibalization report or your website.
#10. SERP layout changes
A change in search engines (like Google) displays organic results that can influence your traffic levels. Thus it is advisable to make sure you have implemented the adaptable strategies.
Google usually executes many changes to the way search results are displayed. For instance, displaying Featured Snippets, Knowledge Graphs, and more prominent search ads, and many more.
Overall, there are a number of factors that cause a sudden drop in organic web traffic. Whenever you are assessing the main reason that leads to falling in website traffic, considering the above-mentioned points is essential. Search engines like Google can make frequent changes that affect your site rankings and, ultimately, the traffic. If you want to acquire and maintain ranking positions, getting expert help would be beneficial.
PeddleWeb offers all sorts of digital marketing services to promote your business online. No matter whether you want to build an online presence, increase organic traffic, or generate awareness, we can help. Our digital marketing experts will collaborate with you to promote your business online. Request a free website audit with us to know more about how PeddleWeb can make a difference for your business!
