Is your web site visitors down? Perhaps it isn’t your fault

In case your web site loses visitors, it is pure to marvel what is going on fallacious. However what if it isn’t your fault?

Let’s be actual. Most often, it is in all probability enamel In a means it is your fault. There may very well be web site or content material high quality points you were not conscious of, or low-quality hyperlinks which might be slowing down your efficiency.

Nonetheless, at all times assuming it is your fault will be dangerous. Attempting to “repair” an issue that does not really exist can backfire and do extra hurt than good. In some circumstances, visitors loss is not really your fault and could also be utterly out of your management.

Listed below are the three major causes for visitors loss that’s not your fault, and what you are able to do about it.

If your whole high rivals are experiencing comparable visitors loss as you, that is your first clue that Google could also be stealing your visitors.

To examine if that is taking place, go to the web site Open Site Explorer and add your top competitors to the organic search traffic graph in the Overview report.

If your graph looks like this, Google is favoring an emerging competitor.

If you see this, Google do not have Steal your traffic. You need to gather information about your competition and understand what they do better than you.

But if you see a graph like the one below where most, if not all, of your competitors’ traffic is decreasing at the same time as yours, that’s a good sign that Google is stealing your traffic.

To double check that this is the case, we need to dig a little deeper by asking the following questions:

• Has Google changed how ads appear above the fold?
• Has Google introduced new organic SERP features on top of organic search results?
• Has Google pushed organic search results even lower in mobile search?
• Has Google made any changes to the design of organic search results that could impact click-throughs?

If you answered yes to any of these, Google may be squeezing your traffic.

If you’re not sure if any of these are affecting you, you can find out by: First, enter your main keyword into Ahrefs’ keyword explorer. Let’s use “gardening” as an example keyword.

Next, scroll down to the SERP comparison view. Enter the two dates you want to compare. Ideally a few days before and a few days after the decline, but you can choose any period that is suitable for your analysis.

An example of year-on-year comparisons is shown below.

Note any SERP feature changes that exist and the order in which they appear. For example, from the example above, you can see all the following his UI changes made by Google:

• Deleting local search packs
• “Top articles” has dropped to 3rd place
• “People also ask” dropped to 4th place
• Occupies the area where shopping results appear above the fold
• More images now stand out in the SERPs

You can also dig a little deeper here by looking at the visual layout of the SERP.

For example, you can conduct research such as: wayback machine To see what your search outcomes appear like in native packs:

Admittedly, some knowledge gaps exist right here as not all key phrase searches are recorded by the wayback machine, however many widespread evergreen phrases have some historic snaps. I want a shot.

You possibly can then examine these to the stay SERPs, particularly the above-the-fold space. For the “Gardening” instance:

What’s much more attention-grabbing is that as a substitute of linking to the web site the place every product tile seems, Google opens the panel in its personal interface.

In case your web site ranks in native search outcomes for this key phrase, that visitors loss shall be unattainable to get well irrespective of how arduous you attempt.

Equally, if you happen to’re featured within the “High Articles” or “Common Articles” sections, you are seeing a major drop in visitors in your web page (which results in decrease click-through charges), so it is arduous to get that visitors again. will be troublesome.

And even for the supposed “winners” on this scenario, i.e. e-commerce manufacturers whose merchandise seem within the new SERP outcomes, Google intervenes itself within the conversion course of to maintain extra individuals on its platform. , they’re lowering visitors to their product pages.

So if you happen to’re dropping visitors to Google, it may be troublesome to get it again as a result of:

• It is arduous to take part in each new characteristic Google releases.
• New options typically do not make sense for what you are promoting mannequin.
• Google is more and more involving itself within the conversion course of.

As a substitute, it is likely to be higher to give attention to and align with Google’s bigger targets. Within the gardening instance, it will be a case of accepting the lack of visitors for this explicit key phrase, however as a substitute discovering a subject or content material kind with new progress potential.

To do that, examine the key phrase predictions in your subject in Key phrase Explorer and establish the appropriate content material angle for what you are promoting.

Many individuals use the identical phrase however are in search of various things. When this occurs all of sudden, it could set off an intent swap that causes Google to alter the structure and kind of outcomes returned.

For instance, take the subject of “conservatorship.” Earlier than Britney Spears’ courtroom drama grew to become a well-liked subject in gossip magazines, individuals primarily searched the time period for authorized definitions and recommendation.

The highest SERPs now appear like this:

However when Britney was going by her authorized drama in 2021, the highest of the SERPs seemed like this, with High Tales options taking precedence.

of The Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) model is responsible for this. This is a re-ranking model that changes her SERP at the last minute to provide the most up-to-date information.

In this situation, if your site remains on the SERP and your content is relevant to new intents, you may experience a temporary spike in traffic. However, if the content is not relevant to the new intent or is removed from the results completely, you may experience traffic loss there.

So, what should you do when a keyword turns on your intent?

• I thought it was a QDF event that I would pass.: You can also wait until the rankings stabilize again.
• If it’s a small change of intent or something that’s consistent with your brand.: Content can be updated to reflect the shift.
• If the new intent doesn’t match your brand: There are not many actions you can take. It’s best to be transparent with stakeholders about why traffic was lost and how traffic reuse is out of your control. Instead, show where new strategic advantages lie and how you might pivot your strategy.

Another reason why intent switches occur is: Google’s understanding of what users want has improved

This is exactly what happened in the gardening example used above. Between both dates I checked, informational intent dominated organic listings. But Google has shifted its above-the-fold feature from prioritizing local services and gardening news to showcasing e-commerce products instead.

Google will continue to make changes like this as it gets better at understanding what people want.

In this scenario, it’s not a passing QDF event, so you’ll need to either update your content to reflect the change or admit defeat and communicate the reason for the traffic loss to your stakeholders.

A standard instance of this taking place within the SERPs proper now’s how Google incorporates user-generated content material and discussion board websites into key natural positions.had Announced in 2022 We launched the “Boards and Discussions” characteristic, however since then we’ve got made numerous modifications to incorporate extra UGC content material within the SERPs.

Websites like Reddit and Quora at the moment are squeezing visitors from digital publishers and area of interest web site house owners with hundreds of thousands of beforehand unrepresented SERPs.

Check out Reddit visitors developments over the previous two years on Ahrefs.

General, we noticed the next on Reddit:

• 24.5% improve in natural key phrases
• 81.5% improve in natural visitors
• 47% improve in high 3 key phrases
• 87.2% improve in visitors worth (which shocked me)

And Quora efficiency follows an identical sample.

Quora has confirmed the next:

• 16.7% improve in natural key phrases
• 72.3% improve in natural visitors
• 26.7% improve in high 3 key phrases
• 85.5% improve in visitors worth

Until Google makes modifications, publishers and types who misplaced visitors will not be capable of simply get it again.

Now, that does not essentially imply you’ll be able to’t do something in any respect. We encourage you to suppose outdoors the field and discover artistic methods to create content material that may win within the face of such modifications.

For instance, many SEOs now put up on Reddit and leverage Reddit’s present rankings to get extra consideration to their content material.

Adjustments in consumer conduct also can current alternatives for brand spanking new content material codecs which might be untapped and have little competitors. The sport right here is to adapt and present your viewers the place they’re looking out, even when it means going past Google.

search engine optimisation in its purest type is platform impartial. This is not only a Google difficulty. I feel lots of SEOs overlook this.

closing ideas

Usually, it is best to take no motion till the foundation reason for your web site’s visitors loss is recognized.

Adjusting your content material or throwing hyperlinks to your web site is unlikely to get well the visitors misplaced for the explanations listed above.

However if you happen to really feel like there’s extra you are able to do, try our information. How to recover if traffic drops significantly.

If you have any questions or have other examples of why your organic traffic has decreased when it’s not your site’s fault, please feel free to share with me. X or linkedin.