9 Reasons Why You've Seen a Sudden Drop in Website Traffic

If you are experiencing a consistent decline or sudden drop in website traffic, here are some reasons and solutions to fix the issue.

Every company that relies on online presence knows the importance of website traffic. If they have a high number of visitors, they will also have higher chances of increasing their brand’s reputation, connect with their target market, and eventually sell their products and services. Because of this, the sudden drop in website traffic can be an online business’ worst nightmare. It will result in lower profits and massive business losses.

To fix the issue, you need to know why the site is losing traffic in the first place. Here are nine of the most common reasons why your website suddenly experiences a drop in traffic.

Table of Contents

Website Traffic Decline Diagnostics

Before you learn the reasons why the website traffic drops suddenly, you must know how to check the traffic properly. You can evaluate by asking these questions:

Are You Measuring Right?

Make sure that the measuring tools that you use are fully functional before looking into the performance of your website. It will cross out the possibility that there is nothing wrong with the site, but it has several missing data that causes the lower registration of traffic.

Sometimes, several changes in the website may affect your Google Analytics code. It becomes the reason for stalling the delivery of the traffic statistics in your account. Another possible problem that may affect the accurate measurement of website traffic is the unexpected deactivation or outdated statistics plugin on your site admin.

Aside from checking your Google analytics, make sure that you install the Google search console accurately. It should deliver data all the time. Check if you receive any regular alerts and notifications to know if the website is facing problems or any penalties.

Which Traffic Metrics Are Down?

Web administrators must have all the data on hand to determine the reason why the traffic of the website is down. Most of the time, the decreasing overall organic traffic is the most noticeable metrics that catches the site admin’s attention. Yet there are other metrics that you must also evaluate to understand the situation entirely. Some of these metrics include:

Traffic from Specific Sources

Figure out the factor where your site loses the traffic by thoroughly checking the website. An excellent example of this is to check if you have a broken link from your social media accounts. If your audience encounters any broken link, they may think that everything in the site is no longer readable. It may cause them to lose interest in browsing your site and abandon it ultimately.

Data from New and Returning Visitors

website traffic drops comparison between Users vs New users curves

Based on the Funnel Metrics, the returning visitors of your site are part of your sales leads. You can usually catch their attention through your consistent follow-up activities like push notifications, email marketing, and social media remarketing. Meanwhile, you can reach new visitors by boosting the site’s search engine page (SERP) results, escalating your audience reach, or posting content on a different channel. Just make sure to monitor all activities on the traffic sources used.

Metrics from Desktop and Mobile

Nowadays, people use different devices to access websites. Depending on their lifestyles, some use desktops primarily if they are glued to their work in the office while others use mobile devices if they are always on the go. If one of the contents of the website will not work on either the desktop or the mobile version, it may cost you a significant number of lost visitors.

You may also like to read: Top Sites for Material Design Inspirations in 2020

Website Traffic Loss Checklist

Here are the nine major points to check if there is a constant or noticeable drop in the site traffic:

I’ve been using Cloudways since January 2016 for this blog. I happily recommend Cloudways to my readers because I am a proud customer.

Updates on Search Engine Algorithm

All search engine optimization (SEO) pros know that Google continually releases various updates at any time of the year. Some of these updates have significant effects compared to others. Yet even the most experienced SEO specialists will have difficulties getting comprehensive details about the changes brought by these updates. But the safest way to know the full impact of the algorithm update is to wait for Google to confirm the information. You may also use different algorithm tracking tools like Mozcast as well as SEMrush Sensor.

Tracking Errors

Some site owners and webmasters make mistakes that affect the site’s traffic. If you are one of them, you do not need to panic since you can quickly reverse the error as soon as you spot it. So, make sure to keep an eye on your site all the time, so you do not have to miss out on essential data for a long time.

Inaccurate Robots.txt rules

Some web developers forget to change their robots.txt files after the migration of the website. As a result, it may prevent search engines from crawling on your site. Since this incident is often accidental, your developer can fix it as soon as possible.

Read: How To Create And Optimize Your WordPress Robots.txt For SEO

Changes in XML sitemap

All SEO experts know that only the URLs that provide a 200 response and are completely indexable can be present in your sitemaps. It will change if you leave the redirected URLs purposely to make sure that popular search engines can find it faster. The solution for this is to run through the sitemap URL regularly and make sure that they will all provide a 200 OK response. It must also include the new landing pages and contents.

De-indexed URLs

In 2019, Google confirmed the existence of a “de-indexing” bug that removed a site’s essential pages abruptly. Looking for those relevant URLs that no longer exist in search results can become a critical factor when trying to find answers about why the website suddenly loses its much-needed traffic.

Manual penalties and actions

Google will issue a standard action against your site if a keen human reviewer discovers a content that violates the search engine’s guideline. To avoid this, check the webmaster guidelines on Google Search Console.

Toxic Backlinks

Toxic backlinks are unnatural links from sites that harm the search rankings of your site. Latest Penguin update focuses on penalizing the sites that have a huge toxic backlinks profile.

There are some SEO agencies that provide thousands of spammy links to give their client a sudden rank boost. Getting services from these SEO companies can cause a severe damage to the health and reputation of your website. Most toxic backlinks come from spam sites, which are designed solely for selling links, sites that are not indexed by Google, websites that have malware and viruses.

You can get rid of these toxic backlinks by analyzing your backlink profile and removing or disavowing.

Disavow or remove toxic link using SEMrush

Redirect mistakes

Most websites have redirects at work. Developers periodically add these through the .htaccess file or a plugin for those using WordPress. If you add a new redirect (301) on your website permanently, test it first before making it live, especially if you plan to add large amounts of redirects.

Cannibalization of Keywords

Keyword cannibalization happens when you make several new contents about a particular topic without studying the keyword targeting. It often occurs when the site appears on the SERP for a keyword with several URLs. As a result, the traffic will spread out across different posts or pages. Go to BigMetrics.io to check if this is your problem.

Changes on The SERP Layout

Because of the recent changes implemented by Google, the traffic levels of your site will get affected substantially. You may prevent lost traffic by making sure that the site is adaptable to any changes that will come out once in a while.

How to Boost Website Traffic Again

According to one of the Sydney SEO agency, Businesses that encounter a severe drop in their website traffic will feel the repercussions in their sales. But if they can find out the reason for the declining traffic, they can always find solutions to fix it. So, every webmaster and site developer must make it a point to check out every possible cause to develop a recovery plan as fast as possible.

9 Reasons Why You’ve Seen a Sudden Drop in Website Traffic