A growing number of website visitors is one of the most important metrics which can show you that you’re going in the right direction. However, what if your web Traffic starts stagnating or, worse yet, shows a sign of decline? What if this decline is rapid and completely unexpected? How do you handle this issue? Naturally, the first thing you need to do in order to handle this problem is to figure out the root cause of this fall in web traffic. Seeing as how each of these problems has a unique solution. All in all, here are several things worth taking into consideration.

1. Algorithm update

One of many reasons why your website is not doing so hot these days is due to the fact that the algorithm has been updated and you were left behind. You see, when optimizing your website for Search engines, you’re always following current guidelines, however, what happens when these rules change? Sometimes, your website’s rank may suffer which should lead to a massive decline in a number of visitors. After all, about 33 percent of all Google users finish their search on the first result, which is why getting shifted by a single spot may drastically impact your average daily web traffic.

2. Incorrect robots.txt rules

The robots.txt file is something that you’re using in order to allow or restrict access to Google crawlers to your domain. The pages that they can’t access are the ones that they can’t index. It’s as simple as that. However, what if you accidentally restrict access to more than you’ve intended to. In order to fix this problem, you need to check the disallow rule and remove it. It may sound simple but the problem caused by this oversight is definitely a major one.

3. Loss in organic ranking

One of the most concerning reasons for a sudden fall in traffic volume is the loss in organic ranking. Why is this so scary? Well, because it doesn’t have a simple fix (like our previous example). Instead, you need to revisit your ranking keywords and compare each individual change in positions. Then, you need to retarget dropped terms with adequate new keyword research and mapping. Keep in mind nonetheless, that this is a technical SEO, which is why outsourcing might provide you with more consistency. Finding a local aid and hiring Sydney SEO experts to handle this for your NSW-based enterprise is probably the best way to avoid this problem in the future.

4. Manual search engine penalty

There are so many reasons why your website may be penalized for violating webmaster guidelines. Some of the reasons are user-generated spam, unnatural outgoing links, sneaky redirects and more. In other words, those who use any kind of black-hat marketing technique and get caught shouldn’t be surprised that they’re getting penalized. Another thing that you can get penalized for is duplicate content. Needless to say, duplicate content is one of the most common SEO mistakes. In other words, just avoid trying to cut corners and work on creating quality, organic online presence.

5. A loss of valuable backlinks

Sometimes, your traffic rises due to the fact that a quality post or domain links towards your content on a regular basis. This ally blog is, therefore, responsible for a significant portion of traffic towards your website. However, what if that particular blog starts losing followers, dropping in rank or goes down? What if they delete these links towards your content? In this scenario, it would be expected that you start losing some traffic. While there’s not much you can do to remedy this, what you can do is try to diversify your backlinks.

6. Competitor changes

Another thing you need to understand is the fact that your SERP position mostly depends on how you compare to others within the industry. Even if you have a unique keyword, chances are that it’s not 100 percent unique. This means that there are still others that are using it. So, if your rank starts going down, chances are that one of your competitors has started investing more heavily in their own digital marketing. In this scenario, you need to find a way to become more competitive. So, competitive analysis is more than necessary.

7. Ignoring traffic analytics

One of the worst things that can happen to a website is the misinterpretation of data. You see, your web traffic doesn’t have to have a gradual, linear growth. Instead, it may have fluctuations, which would mean that a current stagnation isn’t necessarily a downward trend. The thing is that you need to expand your analysis further in the past instead of just monitoring day-to-day activity. It’s not uncommon that you have days of the week on which your website is the busiest. So, comparing a slow part of the week and a high-traffic one is definitely a bad thing.

8. Tracking the wrong rankings

There are some keywords that are no longer relevant or outdated. Over the course of years, a lot of people use different variations of the same question as a go-to phrase. This is a normal linguistic progression that can, on a micro-scale, happen a lot quicker in a digital era. Also, rather than relying on just a couple of keywords, more and more people are using full sentences in their search.

9. PR disaster

Sometimes, people will avoid your business or your entire industry due to a PR crisis in the form of damaging news or reviews. A steady review flow is one of the keys to a successful digital marketing campaign. Sure, your brand might see an increase in traffic due to an increase in the number of brand mentions (even if the trend is a negative one), however, in time, the public curiosity will drop. This, however, is seldom a mystery and it’s something that you can see coming from a mile away. For this, you need to learn how to handle a PR crisis.

10. Voice search

In 2020, it is expected that about 50 percent of people might use the voice search option on a regular basis. Therefore, if your web presence isn’t optimized for voice search, your brand might start suffering. Also, keep in mind that voice search has rules of its own. The format of the search is far more grammatical, due to the fact that uttering a phrase (or a full-sentence) is less labor-intensive than typing it.

In conclusion

In the end, it all comes down to adjusting to change but in order to adjust, you must first notice a change or, better yet, notice it coming from a mile away. This way, you can soften the blow or avoid repercussions (a fall in web traffic) in its entirety. Sure, from time to time, unpredictable things happen but this is also a scenario that you can both impact and turn to your own favor.

The post 10 Ways to Recover From a Sudden Fall in Traffic appeared first on Brew City Marketing.