{"id":865,"date":"2021-05-09T06:50:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T06:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/?p=865"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:45:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T11:15:12","slug":"diagnosing-a-traffic-drop-just-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/diagnosing-a-traffic-drop-just-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnosing a Traffic Drop? Just Breathe!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A traffic drop or decline is something all of us have come across on multiple occasions. A four-step guide to help you tackle this problem.<\/p>\n

Have you ever checked your analytics and saw a sudden or gradual organic traffic drop?\u00a0Who hasn\u2019t?\u00a0If there\u2019s one common thing in just about any marketing strategy: All of us have dealt with organic traffic decrease on many occasions. Any website out there has seen traffic dips, often even regularly.<\/p>\n

How to deal with an organic traffic drop when you see something like this inside your Google Analytics?<\/p>\n

\"organicSource: Screenshot made by the author (April, 2021)<\/i><\/p>\n

Here are four well-defined steps to take when diagnosing a traffic drop:<\/p>\n

Step 1: Check Which Traffic Source Was Effected<\/h2>\n

This is an obvious one but too many people automatically assume it\u2019s Google organic traffic that has dropped.<\/p>\n

So make sure it hasn\u2019t been PPC traffic that has exhausted your budget. This happens more than you think!<\/p>\n

So assuming, it is an organic traffic drop, let\u2019s go on checking:<\/p>\n

Step 2: Which Page Has Dropped?<\/h2>\n

To quickly find out which pages dropped, navigate to your Google Analytics account Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Channels. Click \u201cOrganic\u201d there and in the date range, check \u201cCompare to\u201d and in the drop-down select \u201cPrevious period\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"comparingSource: Screenshot made by the author (April, 2021)<\/i><\/p>\n

Now scroll down and click the \u201cLanding pages\u201d tab to see all your pages and how their traffic of this week compares to the previous week.<\/p>\n

\"landing<\/p>\n

Source: Screenshot made by the author (April, 2021)<\/i><\/p>\n

No need to scroll a lot here. If you see a traffic dip, chances are, your higher-ranking page or pages were affected. So look at the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Now, most importantly, if all your pages took a hit, that\u2019s a good reason to worry. This may be an indicator of a site being affected by a recent Google Update or even a penalty (the latter is much less common these days).\u00a0This article<\/a>\u00a0lists a few good ways to research whether there was an update and how to evaluate whether you may have been affected.<\/p>\n

A more common scenario is that you will see some pages dropping. Others will remain intact or even start gaining in traffic. This is a good indicator you shouldn\u2019t be worried about any possible action from Google. Most pages go up and down search engine result pages all the time.<\/p>\n

Now, you grab the list of declining URLs and research them further.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Was There Any Impact On Rankings?<\/h2>\n

It is not such a rare thing: We see a gradual decline in traffic without any obvious impact on rankings. This can be explained by two possible reasons:<\/p>\n