Many variables can affect website performance, so when a business notices a sudden drop in traffic to their site, it can be difficult to determine the source of the problem. It helps if your in-house marketing team member or agency partner has expertise in various aspects of web design and analytics, user experience, inbound content, marketing, and other related areas.
Opinions differ among industry players as to what is the best first step in determining why the number of visitors to a company’s website has dropped. Also, the most useful approach to identifying and solving problems always depends on many factors. Here, her 16 members of the Forbes Agency Council each share their first steps in correcting a steep drop in client traffic to her website.
A member of the Forbes Agency Council shares tips for diagnosing a drop in website traffic.
Photos courtesy of each member.
1. Immediately compare analyzes at 30-day intervals to identify changes
First, immediately examine your analytics (Google, HubSpot, etc.) to identify the sources and timelines of impacted traffic. Compare 30 days to the next 30 days to see what has changed externally or internally. Then, based on the information you’ve found, decide if your website needs technical changes, SEO updates, or if you need to respond to ads like Facebook Ads or Google Ads to keep things moving forward. Judge. – Gavin Baker, Baker Labs
2. Digging into web data to find specific root causes
A sharp drop is usually due to one traffic source, such as organic search. Once you’ve identified the root cause of the problem, dig deeper into your web data to identify the specific root cause. For organic searches, the culprit could be a page that used to stand out, or a page that slipped in the search rankings, no longer ranks, or no longer exists. – Wendy Covey, TREW Marketing
The Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives at successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. am i eligible?
3. Ask more questions to see if the lost traffic is worth it
There are many reasons for what is perceived as a “sudden drop in traffic”. First, is it really declining? Did you remove the analytics code? Secondly, what is the source of the drops? Organic traffic? directly? Paid? If there was a true decline, was it worth the traffic? In other words, did it translate into something worthwhile for the business? If not, don’t sweat it. -Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync & EPL Digital
4. Recreate content in sources that are causing its decline
No one wants to see a sharp drop, but it can happen. Using analytics and tracking mechanisms such as Google Analytics allows us to see declines and mitigate them before they become problems. First, we need to understand what causes the decline. Once you know this, dive into that content trench. See what generated the most traffic and start recreating your content. – Ashley Piga, Lotus Digital
5. Improve search engine optimization with a consistent blogging strategy
A consistent blogging strategy improves search engine optimization. Create a new URL for your site each time you write a new blog post. Every new URL is a new opportunity for your website to rank in search. Through blogging, you can carefully craft keywords and topics that make you look like an industry expert and help you rank higher in search engines.- Durée Roth, Durée & Company, Inc.
6. Instead of panicking, try analyzing the problem from a different angle.
Do not panic. Panic leads to the usual reaction. These are often misguided and negatively impact your business. If you notice a drop, take a step back and try to analyze the problem from a different angle. Is it a seasonal effect? Have you changed your SEO strategy? Have you ever stopped sponsoring something and your visibility has dropped? A simple analysis can point the way. – Hamish Anderson, Three Piece Marketing
7. Address content, keyword, and platform issues for each channel
If a company notices a sudden drop in traffic to their website, the marketing team wants to know where the traffic is coming from and how it compares to previous months and years. should be analyzed. Once declining traffic sources are identified, teams can see if they need to change their strategy for each channel to address content, keyword, and/or platform issues. Google Analytics is a great tool for that. – Marilyn Cowley, PREM – PR & Social
8. Incorporate SEO Analysis into Owned Content and Promote It
Conduct an SEO analysis to determine which relevant keywords are performing well and incorporate them into your company’s blogs, white papers, and other content assets you own. From there, leverage social media advertising to promote your content. Advertising is a great way to target specific customers and entice them to check out relevant landing pages on your website. – Heather Kelly, Next PR
9. Use Google Analytics to compare the decline in organic traffic to individual pages
Using Google Analytics, in the left menu[行動]>[サイト コンテンツ]>[すべてのページ]to compare individual page traffic. This will tell you which pages have lost the most. You can add a ‘Secondary Dimension’ of ‘Source’ to see which source is causing the drop. If the rejected source is ‘organic’, audit the content and link your portfolio. – Jason Brands, Custom Legal Marketing
10. Look at Site Content to Enhance Performance and UX
There are several first steps to assessing potential issues, such as SEO audits, Google Analytics evaluations, and backlink reviews using SEMrush. However, beyond the drops, I would like to focus on the content of the site. Blog presence or frequency, content press room depth, video assets, etc. are all important factors that enhance site performance and user experience. – Dean Trevelino, Trevelino/Keller
11. Check SEO Editing and Website Speed
Check the SEO edits implemented on your website and check the speed of your website. Both of these factors can have a significant impact on your SEO score. Simple architectural changes can often have a big impact on generating and retaining organic traffic. – Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC
12. Analyze year-over-year site analytics for patterns
Don’t forget to check the 30,000 foot view when you see a drop in traffic before diving deep into troubleshooting mode. Analyzing year-over-year or multi-year site analytics allows you to visualize historical traffic decline patterns based on time of year. Understanding traffic seasonality and search behavior is key to marketing. – Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia
13. Integrate heatmaps into your website
If your website doesn’t already have a heat map integrated, that’s the first step. A heat map visually represents the most popular (red) and least popular (blue) areas of a website’s pages. Marketers can use this information to improve page performance and understand what’s most interesting for current traffic. -Thomas Morganelli, Centipede Digital
14. Check if there have been any Google algorithm changes
The first thing I would do is find out if there were any Google algorithm changes that affected the decline. If your algorithm changes affect inbound links, make sure they’re within best practices. Another thing I like to do is look at the keywords on pages 2 and 3 of Google search results and reoptimize my content. – Christopher Kerr, Farotech
15. Check for technical issues first
A sharp drop suggests a technical issue, not a content issue. Make sure everything is working in terms of URLs, page speed, backlinks, etc. Identify the source of decreased traffic. Are your search rankings drying up or are you missing out on important referrals? What content is driving traffic to your competitors? Look at your media. Journalists create compelling content. what is working? – Richard Cook, Champion Communications Ltd.
16. Integrate brand advocates into your strategy
A sharp drop usually indicates something big. The website is just a symptom. It could be a blatant failure of strategy, a PR crisis, a lack of attention to technology change, or a product that just doesn’t resonate. One way he avoids surprises and achieves greater success is by incorporating brand advocates into his strategy. stay close to them Overinvest in them. – Ted Vaughan, Historic
