Our ApproachWhy Is My Website Traffic Going Down? (And How Do I Fix It?)
Why Is My Website Traffic Going Down? (And How Do I Fix It?)
If you’ve noticed a dip in your website traffic, you’re not alone. This is a common concern for many site owners, and finding a solution fast is critical. Fortunately, we’re here to explore some of the most frequent reasons for a decrease in website traffic with Clayton, a seasoned SEO expert at WebFX, shares his valuable insights on the typical causes of traffic drops and how our team effectively addresses them!
Based on 28 years and 3,212,407 hours of expertise
Some of the most common reasons why website traffic declines include a new search engine algorithm update, not providing “helpful” content, and having technical SEO errors on your site.
“It is possible you will see a drop in your site’s organic traffic if you are not prioritizing the creation of “helpful content”. Google’s helpful content system intends to favor sites that are creating people-first content and provide value to readers. Creating content just to do it no longer works. Instead, focus on creating content that provides value to help grow your organic traffic, rather than fill it with unhelpful content that is more likely to lose traffic.”
Clayton
WebFX Internet Marketing Expert
“Your site has technical errors that are holding it back. Trying to build a site on a poor technical foundation is going to be difficult. As these issues continue to grow, you are likely see your site’s traffic dip. Taking time to address your site’s technical SEO can go a long way in boosting your site’s existing content, as well as putting new content in a better position to drive results faster.”
Clayton
WebFX Internet Marketing Expert
“Maybe some of your campaigns were paused, and you didn’t realize it. Maybe you have a social or Google Ads campaign that stopped running last month causing your overall traffic to take a dip. Do yourself a favor and create reminders for when you have campaigns starting and stopping to help you not miss anything when reviewing your site’s analytics.”
Clayton
WebFX Internet Marketing Expert
“Many sites experience a dip in traffic after launching a new website, especially if there are major changes to URLs. If did not properly prep for a redesign (content migration, 301 redirects, updating internal links), you are likely to see a drop in traffic that might take some time to recover from.”
Problem: With Google’s Helpful Content Update in 2022, creating valuable content for users has become more important than ever. Search engines like Google want to give their users the best possible experience. And that means showing them valuable content that answer their questions and provide them with the information they need.
If your content isn’t people-first focused compared to being created for search engines, you’ll likely experience decreased rankings and therefore a decline in traffic.
Expert insights from
ClaytonWebFX Internet Marketing Expert
“It is possible you will see a drop in your site’s organic traffic if you are not prioritizing the creation of “helpful content”. Google’s helpful content system intends to favor sites that are creating people-first content and provide value to readers. Creating content just to do it no longer works. Instead, focus on creating content that provides value to help grow your organic traffic, rather than fill it with unhelpful content that is more likely to lose traffic.”
Solution: When working on your content marketing strategy, make sure you’re outlining content with the user in mind first. That means, rather than trying to optimize for every keyword variant, you’re writing content that’s genuinely providing value for your users and showcasing your expertise.
WebFX Approach
Develop a custom content marketing strategy that prioritizes content that your target audience is actively searching for.
Lean in to our specialized, in-house copywriters and editors. Our team will conduct thorough research to ensure we’re providing quality content that provides value to users.
If needed, our CRO team and/or design team can help support content implementation- ensuring it provides a great user experience for site visitors.
Problem: Technical SEO is a set of website and server optimizations that make your site easier for crawlers and website visitors to understand and use.
There are plenty of technical SEO ranking factors that you need to consider when it comes to ranking well in the search results and driving traffic to your website.
Here are a few common technical SEO issues our team encounters:
“Your site has technical errors that are holding it back. Trying to build a site on a poor technical foundation is going to be difficult. As these issues continue to grow, you are likely see your site’s traffic dip. Taking time to address your site’s technical SEO can go a long way in boosting your site’s existing content, as well as putting new content in a better position to drive results faster.”
Solution: If you’re asking, “Why is my website going down,” and you’re not familiar with technical SEO, you’ll likely need the help of a professional agency.
Tools like SEO.com and GradeMyWebsite can help you identify and prioritize technical SEO errors, but you will likely also need the help of a web developer to resolve all of the errors.
WebFX Approach
Our team conducts a comprehensive technical SEO audit at the start of our SEO projects. We’ll identify any technical SEO issues and other errors affecting your SEO performance and web traffic.
From there, our team will work with you to craft a custom SEO strategy that helps you solve those technical SEO issues in order of priority and reach your business goals.
Problem: If you were running an effective paid ad campaign, like Google pay-per-click (PPC) ads, that drove a lot of traffic to your site, you might have experienced a dip in traffic after it stopped running.
You may also experience a loss in traffic if some of your campaigns are paused.
Expert insights from
ClaytonWebFX Internet Marketing Expert
“Maybe some of your campaigns were paused, and you didn’t realize it. Maybe you have a social or Google Ads campaign that stopped running last month causing your overall traffic to take a dip. Do yourself a favor and create reminders for when you have campaigns starting and stopping to help you not miss anything when reviewing your site’s analytics.”
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.
WebFX Approach
When diagnosing traffic drops for clients, our team will look into your paid ad campaigns to determine if they are the root cause behind your loss in traffic.
If they are, we’ll work with you to get those campaigns back up and running to restore your traffic.
If they are not, we can put together a content strategy to help you turn your traffic drop around and even more traffic (and conversions!) for your website.
Problem: Redesigning your website can be an excellent decision for SEO, especially if you have an older site. The problem, however, is that many traditional website redesign companies do not prioritize SEO when designing their site.
While they understand design and how to create an attractive and usable website, they don’t recognize the relationship between web design and SEO, and how a redesigned (or newly designed) website can tank traffic without an SEO strategy accompanying it.
Expert insights from
ClaytonWebFX Internet Marketing Expert
“Many sites experience a dip in traffic after launching a new website, especially if there are major changes to URLs. If did not properly prep for a redesign (content migration, 301 redirects, updating internal links), you are likely to see a drop in traffic that might take some time to recover from.”
Solution: If you’re working with a website design agency, find a partner that also offers SEO. Alternatively, you can ask during the sales process if they work with an SEO partner during their projects. Keep in mind that if they work with an SEO partner vs. in-house SEO, your website redesign fees may be higher since you’re technically paying for the expertise of both agencies.
If you’ve already launched a new website, you can have your website developer restore your previous site from backups while you work on optimizing your new site in a staging environment.
WebFX Approach
Because we offer both SEO and website design services, WebFX can be your go-to agency for your website redesign project. We can help your team and company regain your traffic, as well as ensure that future design updates protect your SEO strategy.
Learn more and request your free website redesign quote today!
Problem: Search engines like Google and Bing are constantly evolving their algorithm. For example, Google launched more than 4,000 changes in 2022 alone.
Search engines have also gotten more wary of sharing the “why” and the “what” they update due to black-hat SEO strategies- which means you may only find out about an update when your traffic and rankings decrease rapidly.
If a search engine like Google, for example, updates their algorithm and that results in your website moving from page one to page two for a competitive keyword, it can cut your site traffic substantially. That’s because only 25 percent of users view the second page of search results.
Solution: Google only makes major algorithm changes a handful of times a year. By following white-hat SEO strategies, and optimizing for E-E-A-T, you can future-proof your website from the thousands of other micro-updates that search engines make each year.
WebFX Approach
Our SEO experts stay up-to-date with the latest search engine algorithm changes and updates to ensure your website consistently drives traffic and revenue.
If we find that your website lost traffic due to an algorithm update, we’ll investigate to determine what factors influenced the drop in traffic and fix them. We’ll also optimize your website on an ongoing basis to keep your website up-to-date with the latest changes.
We can also help you implement a cross-channel marketing strategy to help your business earn website traffic from multiple sources.
Restore your website traffic (and then some) with WebFX
No one wants to see their website traffic down, but it happens. Learning why your website traffic is going down on Google and how you can fix it, however, provides your business with the insight and tools for regaining your traffic.
In many cases, it’s an enormous task to restore your website traffic, like after a website redesign or abandoned keyword strategy. That’s why businesses partner with our full-service digital marketing agency.
With more than 28 years of experience, plus more than 500 web marketing specialists, we have the skills and technology to help your company. Just browse our testimonials and digital marketing services to see how our team can help yours.
Start Ranking in 2024
WebFX has helped thousands of businesses drive traffic and revenue from search engines like Google.
Based on 28 years and 
