Analysing Website Traffic Drops and Fixes

Website traffic is the lifeblood of any online business. When traffic drops, it can significantly impact revenue, brand visibility, and overall online success. Identifying the cause of a drop in traffic and implementing effective solutions is crucial for recovery and future growth.

Whether you look after your business website or are an SEO professional, understanding the reason behind the drop and then implementing”fixes” is crucial if you want to claim back this lost traffic.

Here, we will talk you through the process of analysing website traffic drops, exploring common causes, and outlining practical fixes.

Investigate and Confirm the Traffic Drop

When diagnosing a website traffic drop, you will be required to use various tools and techniques. Before you begin, it’s crucial to ensure that your analytics setup is functioning correctly and that the drop is not due to an error in data collection.

You need to confirm the drop is genuine and not a temporary fluctuation or an issue with your analytics tracking. Once you’ve confirmed that your analytics are working properly, you can proceed with the following steps to pinpoint the root cause. Compare your traffic data with previous periods and different analytics tools to confirm the decline. Compare data in Google Analytics, Google Search Console and 3rd party tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs.

Pinpoint the Time of the Drop

Identify the exact date or period when the traffic drop began. This will help you correlate the drop with potential causes like algorithm updates or changes to your website.

Tools such as Sistix allow you to view your organic visibility and place pins on dates on known algorithm updates. if you see your visibility drop after a particular Google update, this can help narrow down your search to a search engine update.

Be sure to cross-reference to this data in other tools, though and make sure you have a log of any development works that have taken place and a date these were to pushed to the live version of your website.

Identify Where the Drop Occurred

Determine whether the drop affects your entire website or only specific pages or categories. Use Google Analytics to analyse traffic trends for different pages and sections of your site. If the drop is site-wide, check the Page Indexing report in Google Search Console for potential indexing errors.

You can filter your search by specific pages such as /collections or if you use a particular string such as /products to see if the drop has affected a specific type of page on your website.

Analyse Traffic Sources

Determine which traffic sources are most affected. Is it organic search, social media, referrals, or direct traffic? This will help you narrow down the possible causes and focus your analysis. For example, if you see a drop in referral traffic, investigate potential issues with backlinks or referral sources.

You can find this data in Google Analytics, and this can often lead the path to a particular source of traffic. If, for example, your website was getting 1000 clicks a day from a particular source and the link is disconnected or broken, you would see a drop in traffic.

Analyse Your Search Position

Check your average position in search results. A significant drop in position, significantly below the fold (where users have to scroll down to see your listing), can contribute to a traffic decline.

It only takes your website to drop from the 1st 3 places to notice a significant drop in traffic across multiple keywords.

Check for Technical Issues

Use Google Search Console to identify any crawl errors, indexing issues, or security warnings that might be affecting your website’s visibility in search results. Also, check for structured data issues and mobile usability problems, as these can also affect your rankings and traffic.

Free tools such as Google Lighthouse and GTmetrix can often help identify issues such as slow-loading pages on mobile devices and should be taken advantage of.

Real World Examples

Before we delve into the common causes of traffic drops and their fixes, let’s look at some real-world examples of how websites have successfully addressed traffic declines:

• Forbes Advisor: The Forbes Advisor website experienced a significant traffic drop in September 2024. Analysis revealed that while many top keywords maintained their rankings, the website lost rankings for keywords related to medical and health information. This suggests that Google’s algorithm update might have prioritised websites with more expertise in those specific areas, leading to a decline in traffic for Forbes Advisor.
• News Publishers and Social Media: A study by Chartbeat revealed that social media traffic to U.S. news websites has fallen by a third since January 2023. This decline is attributed to various factors, including changes in platform algorithms, increased competition, and a general disinterest in news on social media platforms
• Ecommerce Website and Platform Migration: Website’s can experience a significant traffic drop after migrating to a new platform. A poorly executed migration can result in broken links, missing product pages, and incorrect canonical tags. By fixing these issues and implementing proper 301 redirects, companies are able to recover their traffic and improve their search rankings

These examples highlight the diverse range of factors that can contribute to website traffic drops and the importance of a thorough analysis to identify the root cause and implement effective solutions.

Tools for Investigating Traffic Drops

Several powerful tools can assist you in analysing website traffic drops and identifying their causes. There are numerous tools on the market, but of the best tools to use are totally free. Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two of the most useful tools, alongside paid SEO tools such as Semush.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that provides valuable insights into your website’s performance in Google search results. It helps you identify and fix technical issues, monitor your website’s indexing status, and analyse search queries that bring users to your site.

Performance Report

• Analyse clicks, impressions, average position, and click-through rate (CTR) for different queries and pages.
• Segment data by search type (web, image, video) to identify if the drop is specific to one type.
• Analyse your average position and consider if a drop below the fold might be contributing to the decline.

URL Inspection Tool

• Inspect individual pages to check their indexing status, identify crawl errors, and see how Google views your pages.
• Use this tool to investigate specific pages that have experienced a significant drop in traffic.

Page Indexing Report

• Check the index coverage of your website to identify any pages that are not indexed or have indexing errors.
• Analyse this report for any sudden drops in indexed pages, which could indicate a site-wide issue affecting your traffic.

Crawl Stats Report

• Monitor how Googlebot crawls your website and identify any crawl errors or unusual crawling patterns.
• Look for spikes in crawl errors or a significant decrease in crawled pages, which could indicate technical issues affecting your website’s visibility.

Google Analytics

 

Google Analytics provides in-depth data about your website traffic, user behavior, and conversions. It helps you understand how users interact with your site, which channels drive traffic, and how different segments of your audience behave.

Audience Overview

• Analyse overall traffic trends, user demographics, and behaviour metrics like bounce rate and session duration.
• Identify any significant changes in overall traffic patterns, user demographics, or engagement metrics that correlate with the traffic drop.

Acquisition Reports

• Identify which channels drive traffic to your website and analyse trends for each channel.
• Determine which traffic sources are most affected by the drop and focus your analysis accordingly.

Behavior Reports

• Analyse user behaviour on your website, including page views, landing pages, and exit pages.
• Identify any changes in user behaviour, such as increased bounce rates or decreased page views that might be contributing to the traffic drop.

Conversion Reports

• Track conversions and attribute them to different traffic sources and campaigns.
• Check how the traffic drop is affecting your conversion rates and identify any specific areas where conversions have declined.

It’s important to note that both Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide different perspectives on your website traffic. As with every tool you use, do not jump to conclusions too quickly; make sure to investigate thoroughly when you think you have found the potential cause of your traffic drop.

 

Semrush

Semrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that offers a wide range of features for analysing website traffic, keyword research, competitor analysis, and more. Here’s how you can use Semrush to analyse traffic drops:

Traffic Analytics

Analyse website traffic data, including estimated visits, unique visitors, traffic sources, and user engagement metrics. You can also use this feature to estimate purchase conversion rates and bounce rates, providing valuable insights into user behaviour and website performance. Keep in mind that Semrush’s traffic data is based on estimations and may not always be completely accurate. Compare this data with data from other sources for a more complete picture.

Organic Research

Track keyword rankings, identify keyword gaps, and analyse competitor performance in organic search. This feature can help you identify if you’ve lost rankings for important keywords or if your competitors have made significant gains in organic visibility.

Backlink Audit

Study your backlink profile, identify toxic backlinks, and monitor backlink gains and losses. Toxic backlinks can harm your website’s reputation and lead to penalties from Google, resulting in a decline in traffic.

Traffic Journey

This feature helps identify the sources sending the most traffic to a website and the top external domains that visitors go to after visiting the site. This information can be valuable for understanding user behaviour and identifying potential referral sources or competitors.

Semrush also offers various filters within its Traffic Analytics feature, allowing you to analyse historical data, filter by device type, and segment data by country or region. These filters can help you perform a more granular analysis of website traffic data and identify specific areas of concern.

Common Causes of Traffic Drops

Website traffic drops can occur due to various factors, ranging from technical issues to changes in user behaviour. Here are some of the most common causes:

Algorithm Updates

Search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms to improve the quality of search results. These updates can significantly impact website rankings and organic traffic. It’s important to remember that not all traffic drops are necessarily bad. Some may be due to normal fluctuations or changes in user behavior. However, if you experience a sudden drop in traffic that coincides with an algorithm update, it’s essential to research the update and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

Technical Issues

Technical issues on your website can prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your pages, leading to lower rankings and traffic drops. Some common technical issues include:

• Broken Links: Broken links can disrupt user experience and signal poor website maintenance to search engines.
• Slow Page Speed: Slow-loading pages can frustrate users and lead to higher bounce rates, negatively impacting rankings.
• Mobile-Friendliness Issues: With the increasing use of mobile devices, it’s crucial to have a mobile-friendly website. Websites that are not optimised for mobile devices may experience lower rankings in mobile search results, which can lead to lower traffic from users searching on mobile devices.
• Crawling and Indexing Errors: Issues with your robots.txt file, sitemap, or website structure can prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your pages correctly.
• Lack of HTTPS: For ecommerce websites, using HTTPS is essential for security and user trust. Google prioritises secure websites, and not using HTTPS can negatively impact rankings and traffic.

Changes in User Behavior

Changes in user behaviour, search trends, and seasonality can also affect website traffic. For example, if your website relies heavily on seasonal traffic, you might experience a drop during the off-season. Similarly, changes in search trends or user preferences can impact the keywords that drive traffic to your site. One significant trend is the increasing preference for “side-door access” to news via search and social media rather than direct visits to publishers’ homepages. This shift in news consumption can significantly impact website traffic for news publishers.

Content-Related Issues

The quality and relevance of your website content play a crucial role in attracting and retaining visitors. If your content is outdated, irrelevant, or fails to meet user intent, it can lead to lower rankings and traffic drops. Google prioritises content that provides value to users, and failing to create “helpful content” can lead to lower rankings and traffic.

Backlink Issues

Backlinks from other websites are essential for building website authority and improving search rankings. Losing valuable backlinks or having a high number of low-quality backlinks will not benefit your website. It’s important to analyse your backlink profile for toxicity, as toxic backlinks can lead to Google penalties and traffic decline if links have been manipulated with the purpose of “gaming” the search results.

A very popular tool for checking on your backlinks is Ahrefs. Here, with just a click of a button, you will generate the majority of links pointing to your website and the domain authority website that points to yours.

Here, you can check what domains are linking to your website and the total number of links. Although Ahrefs does not give a spam score, you can export your links and manually check each domain.

Manual Actions

A manual action is a penalty imposed by Google when a website violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. These penalties can result in a significant drop in traffic or even the removal of your website from search results.

You can identify manual actions in Google Search Console’s Manual Actions report. While a manual penalty can be concerning, it’s not the end of the world. By addressing the issues and submitting a reconsideration request, you can recover your website’s standing and regain your traffic.

Competitor Activity

The online landscape is constantly evolving, and increased competition or changes in competitor strategies can impact your website traffic. Your competitors might be:

• Improving their SEO: They might be improving their websites, creating high-quality content, and building strong backlink profiles.
• Investing in paid advertising: They might be running paid advertising campaigns that are diverting traffic from your site.
• Targeting your keywords: They might be targeting the same keywords as you, making it more challenging to rank for those terms.

It’s essential to monitor your competitors’ activities and adapt your strategies to maintain a competitive edge.

In the example below, you can see how you can track how your business competes with competitors by tracking keywords. If you have dropped in positions, you may see a correlation with a competitor who is making gains from your losses. Certain positions can be dropped simply because your competitor has a better, more informative page. Tracking not only your own keyword position but those of competitors can also help you gain more understanding when you do lose positions for valuable keywords.

 

Changes in SERP Layout

Search engine results pages (SERPs) are constantly evolving, with new features and layouts being introduced regularly. These changes can impact website traffic by diverting clicks from organic results.

For example, the introduction of featured snippets, knowledge panels, or an increase in the number of ads displayed on a SERP can affect the visibility and click-through rate of organic listings. Recently, the inclusion of AI-generated search query results at the top of search engines can also impact the number of visitors that will land on your website for informational queries.

Website Redesign/Migration Issues

Redesigning or migrating a website can lead to traffic drops if not handled correctly. Some common issues include:

• Improper Redirects: Incorrectly implemented 301 redirects can lead to broken links and lost traffic.
• Content Migration Issues: Failing to migrate content properly can result in missing pages or duplicate content.
• Technical SEO Errors: Changes in website structure, URL structure, or internal linking can negatively impact your website’s SEO.
  Fixing the Issue

 

How to Address Taffic Drops

Once you’ve identified the cause of your website traffic drop, you can implement appropriate solutions to address the issue and recover your traffic. Here are some strategies for fixing traffic drops

Addressing Algorithm Updates

If an algorithm update is the culprit, analyse the update’s focus and adjust your website and content accordingly. This might involve:

• Improving Content Quality: Ensure your content is comprehensive, informative, and meets user intent.
• Enhancing EAT: Focus on demonstrating expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in your content.
• Optimising On-Page SEO: Ensure your pages are appropriately optimised for relevant keywords and follow SEO best practices.

It can often be challenging to address the situation if a core update has been responsible for the drop in traffic, as Google, for example, will not tell you precisely what you need to address.

You can research for trends, and the SEO communities are generally full of suggestions of what type of sites have suffered a drop. The best way to not suffer from a decline in the 1st instance is to always implement best practices when you are creating your web pages.

If your content is useful, relevant and addresses the topic at hand, you will be on the right path. You should keep your content refreshed and do not feel scared to remove or merge pages that no longer hold value to end users.

Fixing Technical Issues

You should also look to address any technical issues identified through your analysis. This might involve:

• Fixing Broken Links: Regularly check for and fix broken links on your website.
• Improving Page Speed: Optimise images, leverage browser caching, and consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to improve page speed.
• Ensuring Mobile-Friendliness: Use responsive design and optimise your website for mobile devices and screen sizes.
• Resolving Crawl Errors: Fix any crawl errors identified in Google Search Console and ensure your robots.txt file and sitemap are correctly configured.
• Regular Website Maintenance: Regularly update your website’s software and plugins, perform backups, and monitor your website analytics to prevent technical issues that can cause traffic drops.

Adapting to User Behavior

Stay updated on search trends and user behaviour to ensure your website and content remain relevant. This might involve:

• Keyword Research: Conduct regular keyword research to identify new and relevant keywords to target.
• Content Refreshing: Update existing content to keep it fresh and relevant.
• Diversifying Content Formats: Explore different content formats like videos, infographics, and interactive content to engage users.

It is often overlooked just how much user behaviour plays in how search engines rank pages. If a user lands on your web page, interacts with it and finds the answer they are looking for, this all sends positive signals to the search engines.

Compare this to a page where people land and bounce off immediately. It can be a clear signal that this page is not as good as the one that keeps people engaged.

You can use tools such as Microsoft Clarity to record website sessions for free.

Improving Content Quality

Focus on creating high-quality, user-centric content that provides value and meets user intent. This might involve:

• Content Audits: Conduct content audits to identify underperforming or outdated content.
• Content Optimisation: Optimise existing content for relevant keywords, readability, and user engagement.
• Content Promotion: Promote your content through social media, email marketing, and other channels to reach a wider audience.
  Addressing Backlink Issues

Build a strong backlink profile by acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. This might involve:

• Guest Blogging: Contribute guest posts to relevant websites in your niche.
• Broken Link Building: Identify broken links on other websites and offer your content as a replacement.
• Content Marketing: Create high-quality content that naturally attracts backlinks.

It’s important to note that Google’s approach to penalising websites has changed. While they used to actively penalise websites with poor backlinks or content, they now often “ignore” such websites, meaning they don’t rank as well in search results.

This highlights the importance of focusing on quality over quantity when it comes to backlinks and content.

Get Help with Traffic Drops

Website traffic drops can be alarming, but with a systematic approach and the right tools, you can identify the cause and implement effective solutions. By regularly monitoring your website traffic, conducting thorough analyses, and staying updated on SEO best practices, you can maintain a healthy flow of visitors and ensure your website’s continued success.

Here at Maxweb, we use tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Semrush to understand why website traffic has dropped and to implement effective fixes for businesses.

If your website has suffered a loss in traffic and you need a pair of fresh eyes on the issue, contact our team today for help.

Posted on Thursday, February 27th, 2025 in Latest News.