Client Portfolio
Get a Quote

Why Is My Website Traffic Going Down?

Discover SEO Services
by WiaDigit

5 Common Causes of Website Traffic Decline

  1. Your content isn’t “helpful”
  2. You have technical SEO errors
  3. Your paid ads campaign ended
  4. You recently redesigned your site and didn’t prepare for SEO
  5. A new algorithm update launched

How to Fix a Site That Isn’t Showing Up on Google

1. Helpfulness of Content

Challenge: Since Google’s Helpful Content Update in 2022, producing valuable, user-centered content has become essential. Google and other search engines aim to deliver the best possible experience to their users by highlighting content that answers their questions and provides necessary information.

If your content prioritizes search engine optimization over user value, you’re likely to see a drop in rankings, which can lead to a decline in traffic.

Solution: When developing your content marketing strategy, focus on creating content with the user as the top priority. Instead of over-optimizing for every keyword variation, aim to produce content that genuinely offers value to your audience and highlights your expertise.

2. Technical SEO

Challenge: Technical SEO involves optimizing your website and server to improve accessibility and usability for both crawlers and visitors. Numerous technical SEO factors can impact your website’s ability to rank well in search results and drive traffic.

Here are some frequent technical SEO issues our team often finds:

  • Slow site loading speed
  • Lack of mobile optimization
  • Non-SEO-friendly URL structure
  • Insufficient website security
  • Ineffective robots.txt file setup for SEO.

Solution: If you’re wondering, “Why is my website’s performance declining?” and aren’t familiar with technical SEO, professional assistance may be essential.

Tools like WiaDigit and GradeMyWebsite can help identify and prioritize technical SEO issues, but you’ll likely also need a web developer’s expertise to address these issues fully.

3. PPC Ended

Challenge: If you were running a successful paid advertising campaign, such as Google PPC ads, that brought significant traffic to your site, you may notice a drop in traffic once the campaign ends.

Traffic can also decrease if any of your active campaigns are paused.

Solution: Understand that PPC can be a supplemental strategy for SEO. Consider reinvesting in PPC at a lower ad spend or investing more in SEO content creation to help make up for lost traffic.

 

4. Website Redesign

Challenge: Redesigning your website can be a great move for SEO, particularly if your site is outdated. However, many traditional web design companies do not focus on SEO when creating new designs.

While they excel in building visually appealing and user-friendly sites, they often overlook the crucial link between web design and SEO. Without a well-thought-out SEO strategy, a redesigned website can suffer significant traffic loss.

Solution: When choosing a website design agency, consider one that also provides SEO services. Alternatively, ask during the sales process if they collaborate with an SEO partner. Be aware that working with an external SEO partner rather than an in-house team might increase redesign costs, as you’ll be covering expertise from both agencies.

If you’ve already launched a new site, you can ask your web developer to restore the previous version from backups while optimizing the new one in a staging environment.

5. Algorithm Update

Challenge: Search engines like Google and Bing continually update their algorithms, with Google alone implementing over 4,000 changes in 2022. They have also become more cautious about revealing the specifics of these updates to prevent misuse by black-hat SEO strategies. This means you might only become aware of an update when you notice a sudden drop in traffic and rankings.

If a major update causes your website to slip from the first to the second page for a competitive keyword, your site traffic could decline significantly, as only about 25% of users check the second page of search results.

Solution: Google only releases major algorithm updates a few times a year. By focusing on white-hat SEO practices and optimizing for E-E-A-T, you can help protect your site from the thousands of smaller updates made throughout the year.

SEO Services by WiaDigit