So in your latest reporting you\u2019ve seen a sudden drop in visits to your website? Or you’ve seen a constant decline over a number of months?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously the more visitors you have the more opportunities you have to attract new customers but there could be a number of explanations as to why visits have dropped. These range from relatively simple content issues that could be cleared up to perhaps something more technical that needs careful consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Below we\u2019ve put together our top 10 reasons why websites experience decreases in visitor numbers. This could be a sudden drop or clear decreased visits over time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google releases updates to its algorithm throughout the year and these are becoming increasingly intelligent. Some updates are small tweaks but others are major \u201ccore\u201d updates and these are the ones that cause most fluctuations in ranking positions. Google are very transparent about when updates are released<\/a> but getting real detail about what an update is looking for or doing is far harder to extract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you know an update has been released it\u2019s worth looking through your ranking and visitor stats to see if there was an impact. Plus, it\u2019s also worth keeping yourself up to date with what algorithm changes are being rolled out so your strategies stay ahead of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This happens far more often than you might think. When you add a tool to your website that gathers visitor metrics it\u2019s highly likely you\u2019ll need to add a tracking code to it in order for the tool to gather data. However, if you\u2019ve had recent updates done to your website and you\u2019re looking at a drop in visits it\u2019s definitely worth checking if the tracking is working correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if you\u2019ve suddenly realised there\u2019s no sessions being reported in Google Analytics, the first step is to check the tracking is firing correctly. This is especially common if someone has been working on your website who is unfamiliar with what tools you utilise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you sure your website isn\u2019t blocking search engine bots? In order to appear in search results in vital bots can crawl your content and it\u2019s easier than you think to block them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is especially important if you\u2019ve recently either launched a new website or had a large update. Developers tend to work in a staging environment which will rightly be blocked from search engines, but as this test version will likely replace the live website, it\u2019s crucial it\u2019s opened up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a website that\u2019s a few years old or has gone through several iterations it\u2019s likely they\u2019ll be link redirects in place. A webmaster will commonly add these to your htaccess file, but they can also be quickly managed from a range of plugins if you have a WordPress website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a website owner it\u2019s important you keep on top of what redirects are in place, and you test any new ones, especially if you\u2019re adding a large amount. If one of your redirects isn\u2019t working or links to the wrong page it could result in a drop in page views and cause people to leave your website. Plus, with re-directs there\u2019s a few additional considerations such as avoiding redirect chains – when a redirected link points at another redirected link. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quite a simple explanation to a sudden drop in visitors is that your website has lost organic ranking positions. Using a tool like Google Analytics<\/a> it\u2019s straightforward to split your visits by their source, and this might well reveal the reason is a drop in organic visits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re tracking organic ranking positions for relevant keywords or you know of a strong ranking position that produces visitors, it should be straightforward to identify what\u2019s happened. You could also use the Search Console<\/a> to check general search engine visibility drops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Linked to the algorithm updates mentioned above, a manual penalty is one where instead of just being marginally penalised by a machine, you\u2019ve been penalised by a human. If your website is being hit by the algorithms then the next level is for it to be reviewed by a human and if they find you\u2019re going against Google\u2019s guidelines they have the power to hit your website much harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see if your website has been hit by a manual action in the Search Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to build and maintain search engine rankings all content you add to your website should be based around a basket of relevant keywords. These should be the search terms your target audience are using when researching your products or services. If you\u2019ve previously held competitive ranking positions that have now been lost then the content you\u2019re adding to your website (or indeed not adding) could be to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is possible that you\u2019re doing all the right things but still losing visitor numbers purely because a competitor has upped their game. Keep yourself up to date with your competitors by monitoring their digital marketing<\/a> tactics such as social media, link building, and content strategies. There\u2019s a host of tools you can use to monitor links and other metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they\u2019ve recently built a large number of inbound links it could be they\u2019re also investing in a new SEO strategy<\/a>. By understanding why a competitor is enjoying higher ranking positions you can start to create your own strategy to bounce back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Your tracking codes have been removed or have errors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. There\u2019s been changes made to your robots.txt file<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. You\u2019ve added incorrect re-directs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. You\u2019ve lost ranking positions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. Your website has got a manual penalty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. You\u2019re not considering target keywords when building content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Your competition has upped their game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
9. You\u2019ve migrated to a new website or made a large update<\/h2>\n\n\n\n