Why has my traffic decreased? 10 possible reasons

You probably keep a close eye on your website and traffic. With Analytics and Google Search Console, it’s easy to get real-time information about how your site—and by extension, your business—is performing. That’s why it’s easy to get a sinking feeling when you see your traffic dropping, and dropping, and dropping. What has happened? What should you look at when your traffic declines even though your site is working normally?

In this article, we want to help those of you who feel lost and don’t know where to start. We’ll cover some of the most common reasons why a site loses traffic. This is not a complete list, but hopefully, it can guide you on your way to figuring out why your traffic has dropped.

No set rules

Unfortunately, there are no definitive answers to this question. There are many reasons why a site might lose traffic, which means there are just as many steps to take and aspects to investigate.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand why Google does what it does. They’ve become more transparent than they used to be, but much is still hidden in the dark, and we have to test and learn.

Have you lost rankings?

If you’ve lost positions in Google’s search results, that’s an obvious reason for a drop in traffic. Fewer people see your site, fewer people visit it. If you know you’ve lost several positions, that’s the next thing to investigate.

Losing rankings and losing traffic can have the same cause. That’s why those who’ve lost positions may also benefit from this article!

Are you optimizing for the right keywords?

Are you using the right keywords when optimizing your landing pages? Your keywords should match the content and search intent as closely as possible. You might be optimizing for very broad and popular keywords, but the search intent isn’t 100% aligned.

If you offer blue shirts and only optimize the page for “shirts,” you’ve missed the chance to match search intent more precisely. It’s more appropriate to optimize for “blue shirts,” even if the search volume is lower. The chances are greater that those landing on your site are actually looking for blue shirts.

It’s always a good idea to review your keywords from time to time, to ensure you’re optimizing for the right ones and to explore the possibility of targeting other or new keywords.

Is your site functioning properly?

Let’s start with the basics. Make sure your site is working correctly! Check Google Search Console to see if it flags indexing issues or a large number of 404 errors.

You can also go to Google and type the following into the search bar:

site:yourdomain.com

Google will now display all indexed results of your site. If your site isn’t indexed, or if it has far too few or far too many pages… you’ve got a place to start!

Is tracking still working on your site?

Check that Analytics still has access to your site and that the tracking code is in the source code. Sometimes it’s as simple as the code having disappeared or been removed!

Are there errors in robots.txt?

Check your robots.txt file to ensure it’s not blocking Google’s bots. For example, if it looks like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Then you’ve got a problem—the disallow rule in this robots.txt file means that all pages on the entire site are blocked.

Luckily, this is easy to fix. You only need to remove the disallow rule in the file and then submit robots.txt to Google so they can crawl your site again and detect the correction as quickly as possible.

Have you made any changes to the site?

If you’ve recently made major changes, check if they could be the cause. You may have implemented changes that appear to improve user experience but at the same time hurt your SEO.

It’s easy to miss things when making large changes. By moving around products and pages, you may forget to set up proper redirects or adjust internal linking.

Has customer behavior changed?

It’s difficult to predict and control customer behavior. But some things you can certainly investigate.

Customer buying behavior can change due to seasonality. You won’t sell as many grills in winter as you do in spring and summer. Products that were once in fashion may have been replaced by something new.

You can use Google Trends to keep track of the latest developments in your chosen topics. This way, you can also gather insights into which products, services, articles, or similar have become popular. That can help you develop your business and stay ahead of the curve.

Has Google released updates?

When Google rolls out major updates to its service—so-called “core updates”—a lot can change overnight. By keeping an eye on the Google Webmaster Blog or Twitter, you can know right away when they release a new major update.

The updates are intended to improve their service and deliver the best search results to users. After such an update, it’s wise to pay close attention to your site and keywords. If your keywords and traffic drop drastically, chances are your site has been affected. Then it’s up to you to figure out what the update entails, what it focused on, and why it might have impacted you.

Is your site slow?

A slow site has little chance of reaching top positions in Google’s search results. They value fast sites far too much. You can use PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s speed. It’s not a completely precise tool, and the numbers can vary quite a bit from day to day. Instead, focus on the advice Insights provides and the recommendations for actions that can make your site faster.

What are your competitors doing?

Visit your main competitors. Maybe they’ve launched a new site, come out with a really good offer, or expanded their range? When your competitors grow, there’s a risk you decline—they’re simply taking traffic from you. Always keep an eye on your competitors’ sites so you can react quickly.