Why Has My Organic Traffic Dropped? A Step By Step Guide

Why Has My Organic Traffic Dropped? A Step By Step Guide

It can be a pretty frightening experience when you check your analytics and see a drop! Don’t worry, it isn’t the end of the world. A drop in traffic is a completely normal event that has occurred in every business's life. All websites take a hit to their organic traffic eventually, sometimes even regularly. So at Mensa Marketing we are here to help you identify your drop in traffic and what we can do together about it. With our expert knowledge we can help you get your website back to the top of the page and get you the customers you deserve!

So the first thing you have to ask yourself is simple, why has my traffic dropped? This is a straightforward process, so let's break it down together.

Why Has My Traffic Dropped?

Check your traffic black box!

The first thing you need to do is check your black box, which is the Google Search Console. Here you will find everything that you need, and it's best to start at ground zero and work your way up. 

The simplest thing that you can do is make sure your traffic code is reliable! Sometimes a drop in your traffic can be due to unreliable data, so before you raise the alarms, check under the hood and see if somethings going wrong with your traffic code. Changes to your website code - like adding a new splash page - or analytical plug-ins can affect the underlying traffic code. Which could lead to unreliable data and be the real cause for your traffic drop.

So once you’ve checked your black box and you can see that your traffic code is working and being reliably read by Google Analytics let's move onto the next step.

Check if it is actually an organic traffic drop!

The first thing you need to do is determine if it actually is an organic traffic drop. It may sound silly, but it’s better to find out as early as possible instead of later down the road. 

Check your pay-per-click (PPC) traffic and make sure that isn’t actually causing your drop in traffic. Sounds simple, but once you can rule that out and know it's an organic traffic drop for certain, then things become a lot clearer. 

So now that you’ve definitely ruled out PPC traffic as the cause, it’s now time to identify which page on your website is causing you some trouble.

Check which page or pages have dropped!

Now you need to see which page or pages have seen their organic traffic drop, and this is easily manageable through the Google Search Console. Take a measure of time, like a week, or a month, and compare all your pages before and after your chosen measure of time.

Usually you don’t need to investigate far, more often than not it's your higher ranked page or pages that are affected. 

Now if you’ve seen some pages, or all your pages go down, the most important thing is to not panic. This is something that can be turned around with our help. Every now and then Google updates its algorithms on how it ranks pages, slight tweaks to how they measure things can cause your traffic and ranking to go up or down.

Once you’ve found your list of pages affected by a drop in traffic, the next step is check if your rankings have also taken a hit.

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Check if it has impacted your rankings!

Here is where things get a little tricky, and you will need to enlist the help of professionals like us. Sometimes a decline in traffic and a decline in ranking can be something as innocuous as seasonal search terms (people don’t search for snowboard hire in summer for example). Sometimes search engine pages have brought in a new search element, which is then all the rage. 

Once you have identified that your pages have been affected by an organic traffic drop, and have also taken a bit of a dip in the rankings, it's time to turn things around.

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What can I do to generate more traffic?

Generating more traffic is a difficult task to do as a business, which is why thousands of clients all around Australia trust us to get the job done. Not only that, we know exactly what needs to be done in the Building and Construction industry, where the small things count. If you’re the first person they see when they search for a builder in their city, that’s more jobs for you and more money in your pocket. 

So how do we generate more traffic? The key is CONTENT! Changes to how Google’s search and ranking algorithms (like the Panda update) punish websites with low-quality content and reward websites that have stronger content. At Mensa Marketing we produce high-quality content and copy for your website, ensuring that you and your business are in the best possible position.

So what counts as good quality content?

Good quality content is usually pushing a higher-word count, and that's because you can fit more semantically relevant and keyword relevant words in it. Not only that but your content needs to be freshened up and better optimized every now and then due to changes to the Google algorithm.

You might also need to improve or de-index ‘gateway’ pages, particularly if they are getting low traffic. Your gateway pages serve as a solid foundation for all your other pages to sit on. 

Other additional content, particularly if it's educational, helps your potential customer answer any questions they might have before they engage your services.

Besides content, you also need to consider the user-experience! Some websites are really frustrating to use, you can’t find the information you want and it ends up being a big maze. By reducing user unfriendly design and things like pop-up ads your website has a better chance at the top rankings.

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Mensa Marketing is your one-stop-shop to the top of the rankings!

At Mensa Marketing we have a wealth of knowledge in getting your business to where you want to be. We’ve worked with thousands of clients all over Australia in the Building and Construction industry to achieve their business goals.

With our integrated digital marketing strategies we can help you better engage with your target market and boost your long term growth. We always work with you to generate consistent enquiries and a consistent brand image across social media, your website, Google search and more!

We are Australia’s most affordable digital marketing services for small & medium sized business's and we always deliver what you want. Get in touch with us today and let's get you and your business to where you want to be!