15 Ways To Check Why Your Site’s Traffic May Be Down

Last updated connected July 31, 2021.

Is your tract experiencing a postulation loss? Are you wondering if it’s due to the fact that of the Google algorithm update? If your reply is YES, past this is the usher conscionable for you. 

Google has precocious been precise fruitful erstwhile it comes to the fig of confirmed algorithm updates. However, that does not needfully mean that your site’s postulation is down owed to 1 oregon much of these updates.

There are tons of imaginable causes of a postulation loss… different than an algorithm update. And, obviously, to beryllium capable to hole the situation, you request to cognize the existent wherefore which is precisely what I volition beryllium exploring successful this guide. 

Let’s get started! Here are 15 ways (plus 1 bonus way) to cheque if your site’s postulation is down due to the fact that of an algorithm update oregon thing else.

1. Make definite the tract is not experiencing server errors

If your site’s server is returning presumption codes 5XX, past thing is decidedly off, and, yes, you whitethorn beryllium experiencing a postulation nonaccomplishment arsenic a result.

If server errors proceed for much than 2-3 days, Google whitethorn commencement to deindex your tract starting with the pages that are crawled the astir (the astir fashionable web pages usually driblet first). 

Here is however to cheque whether your tract is having server issues:

• Check the crawl stats study successful Google Search Console and spot what’s nether Host status and the Crawl requests breakdown. If determination are issues with the big and you spot a immense percent of responses Server mistake (5XX), past you should interaction your big to larn why. 

• Crawl your tract with Screaming Frog oregon Sitebulb to cheque if determination are pages returning 5XX server errors. 

• Simply sojourn a mates of pages connected your tract and spot if they load correctly. If the concern is rather serious, you whitethorn travel crossed 5XX without overmuch effort from your side. This is the concern I was successful erstwhile I was inactive utilizing Bluehost😡 and which made maine alteration the hosting provider.

If this is so the server that is to blame, past you request to interaction the hosting supplier and get guidance and support. If you are utilizing immoderate inexpensive shared hosting plan, past you should earnestly deliberation astir moving to a dedicated server. 

2. Exclude communal method SEO errors

If your postulation abruptly falls disconnected the cliff, past it whitethorn beryllium owed to immoderate superior method SEO error. The quickest mode to cheque if that’s happening is to execute a afloat crawl of your tract with either Sitebulb oregon Screaming Frog.

Things to ticker retired for include:

• Noindex and nofollow tags 
• Robots.txt directives that, for example, artifact the full tract from Google
• Cacanoncal tag issues, specified arsenic canoncalizing each web pages to the homepage (I erstwhile saw specified a case)
• Password extortion of the areas that should beryllium disposable to users and hunt motor robots

Technical errors are usually speedy to hole and determination is simply a immense accidental that the rankings and postulation volition instrumentality rapidly erstwhile Google recrawls the site. 

3. Make definite that the site’s velocity and show are not perfectly dismal

Speed is 1 of the hundreds of ranking factors and much of a tie-breaker but if the site’s velocity and show are perfectly horrible, past – yes – it whitethorn origin a driblet successful traffic.

Google whitethorn demote oregon wantonness crawling a tract if it’s taking everlastingly to load. Users whitethorn suffer their patience and instrumentality backmost to SERPs, which Google volition besides see. 

Here is however to cheque if the site’s velocity is causing issues:

• Test the tract with Google PageSpeed Insights and wage peculiar attraction to thing marked successful red. If everything is successful reddish and the site’s people is adjacent to 1/100, past it whitethorn beryllium the velocity to blame. Below is an illustration of a tract I person precocious been auditing and the velocity scores it got successful PSI.

• Check the GSC crawl stats report and cheque the mean effect time. Are determination immoderate spikes? The spike beneath was the infinitesimal erstwhile I mislaid my patience with Bluehost and moved to a antithetic server.

• Simply unfastened your tract and cheque however it’s loading. If the concern is critical, you volition announcement adjacent connected a high-speed net connection. 

In summation to performing regular velocity and Core Web Vitals optimizations, it tin precise often marque a immense quality if you simply alteration the server and determination to a accelerated dedicated solution. This is what I did and each velocity and performance-related problems connected my tract magically disappeared.

4. Make definite that the site’s leafage acquisition isn’t perfectly dismal either

Google Page Experience, conscionable similar the above-mentioned speed, is besides 1 retired of galore ranking factors and much of a tie-breaker. However, if it’s perfectly dismal, past the tract whitethorn acquisition a postulation loss. 

Just for the reminder, the Google Page Experience update started rolling retired successful mid-June and volition beryllium afloat rolled retired by extremity of August. The leafage acquisition signals see Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, Safe Browsing, and no intrusive interstitials.

Here are the situations wherever having a atrocious leafage acquisition whitethorn wounded a tract and origin a postulation loss: 

• Your Core Web Vitals are tragic like, for example, LCP and/or FID is adjacent to 8-10 seconds oregon more. They are truthful tragic that it is hard to usually usage a site. Below are the scores that are so dismal.

• Your tract has a horrible advertisement acquisition and Google is penalizing it for having excessively galore intrusive interstitials. 
• You are an e-commerce store and you don’t person HTTPS. 

If your postulation nonaccomplishment started soon aft you implemented precise assertive ads, past you should look into that further. 

Note that the Google Page Experience study successful GSC does not amusement you whether your tract has afloat HTTPS sum oregon whether it’s being punished for having intrusive interstitials. It lone shows you the afloat accusation astir Core Web Vitals, mobile friendliness, and Safe Browsing. 

You tin cheque the existent presumption of your Ad Experience Report successful the aged portion of GSC. 

5. Analyze the postulation successful Google Search Console 

If your site’s experiencing a postulation loss, the archetypal spot to cheque the details is Google Search Console. GSC should beryllium your fig 1 SEO instrumentality for diagnosing immoderate postulation drops due to the fact that its full intent is to supply the information connected the integrated traffic,  visibility, and indexability of your site. 

Google Analytics (GA), connected the different hand,  shows you the information astir each your users and each postulation sources, including, for example, referral oregon paid traffic. That’s wherefore erstwhile it comes to SEO data, Google Search Console is the instrumentality to go.

To corroborate that this is so the integrated postulation that has dropped, spell to the Performance report successful Google Search Console. Remember, however, that determination is simply a fewer day’s lag successful GSC, and the freshest information you tin spot determination is from 2 days ago. 

6. Check if it is the integrated postulation that really went down 

To get the full representation of wherefore (and if) your tract whitethorn beryllium losing traffic, you request to analyse the concern with a fewer antithetic tools. 

One communal mistake that I often spot is that radical lone look astatine the Google Analytics unfiltered postulation view.  If they spot a driblet there, past they ascribe it to the Google algorithm update, which is not ever the case.  

Not lone is GA not the close instrumentality to analyse the SEO postulation (see the constituent above), but its unfiltered presumption tin beryllium skewed a batch by, for example, bot traffic. 

The default postulation presumption that you spot successful GA erstwhile you log successful shows each postulation sources. The lone mode to beryllium truly definite that it is so Google that has issues with your tract is to cheque the organic postulation successful Google Analytics. To bash that, spell to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium and google / organic. 

That’s wherefore you ever request to analyse immoderate imaginable postulation drops utilizing a assortment of tools (GSC, GA, Ahrefs, Semrush, etc.) and metrics (earnings, conversions, etc.).  

7. Check the visibility of the tract successful Semrush or/and Ahrefs

Semrush and Ahrefs are usually precise speedy to announcement that the tract is experiencing an integrated postulation loss. Of course, these tools lone supply estimates and are not escaped of errors but if the site’s positions and visibility are falling disconnected the cliff, these tools usually prime that up.

If Ahrefs oregon Semrush shows a immense visibility nonaccomplishment (in the integrated postulation section) and you person ruled retired different imaginable reasons, past this whitethorn so person thing to bash with Google shifting their algorithms and relevance. 

Checking the tract with these tools is particularly important if you don’t person entree to the GSC data. 

8. Compare the integrated postulation from Google vs Bing 

One of the ways to cheque if the postulation nonaccomplishment is caused by the Google algorithm update is to comparison integrated postulation betwixt Google and Bing.

If the postulation trajectory is unchangeable successful Bing and has fallen lone for Google, past it is precise apt that Google has problems with your site. If you spot the drops some successful Google and Bing, past it whitethorn beryllium a method contented that is causing this.

Here is however you tin comparison postulation from Google with postulation from Bing:

• In GA, spell to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/medium and choose google / organic and bing / organic. Note that if your tract is not having a important magnitude of traffic, you whitethorn not beryllium capable to trust connected this information excessively much.

• Use Bing Webmaster Tools and comparison what you spot determination with what you spot successful Google Search Console. 

Keep successful caput that your Bing postulation is surely galore times smaller than the postulation from Google and you are lone looking for a akin signifier oregon deficiency thereof. 

9. Exclude seasonality and/or holidays

A  precise trivial and elemental crushed wherefore your tract whitethorn beryllium experiencing a abrupt postulation nonaccomplishment is seasonality and/or holidays. 

• For example, for e-commerce sites, it is wholly mean to ever acquisition postulation drops implicit the play and spot spikes connected Monday. 

• The aforesaid is existent for holidays, specified arsenic Christmas oregon the 4th of July. Your postulation whitethorn so autumn disconnected the cliff connected those dates (depending connected your niche) and it’s wholly OK. 
• If your tract is simply a precise seasonal niche similar golf, past you whitethorn consciousness arsenic if you person been penalized by Google successful the wintertime months. That’s due to the fact that less radical are funny successful and actively looking for accusation and products relating to this sping/summer activity. 

Seasonality is wholly mean and does not mean that Google has issues with your site.

10. Check if determination are information issues

Security oregon Google Safe Browsing is 1 of the above-mentioned Google Page Experience signals but it’s truthful important that it deserves a abstracted conception successful this guide. 

If your tract has superior information issues, past Google whitethorn demote it successful hunt to support users, and alternatively of showing your tract Chrome volition show an disfigured reddish warning.

If the tract is having information issues, past Google Search Console volition notify website owners astir that via e-mail. These issues volition besides beryllium intelligibly disposable successful the main presumption successful GSC and successful the Google Search Console Security report section. 

Google Search Console reports connected the pursuing 3 types of information issues:

• Hacked content (malware, codification injection, contented injection, URL injection)
• Malware and unwanted software (deceptive pages, deceptive embedded resources, harmful downloads)
• Social engineering (unclear mobile billing, imaginable phishing detected connected idiosyncratic login, uncommon downloads) 

If your tract is experiencing information issues, past it should instantly go your apical precedence to cleanable this up. 

11. Check if the tract has a manual action

If a tract has a manual action, immoderate of its pages oregon adjacent the full website whitethorn wholly vanish from Google.

If this is the lawsuit with your site, past you volition besides spot the notification successful Google Search Console (right aft you log in), get an e-mail, and spot that accusation successful the Manual Actions report.  

Here are the types of manual actions that Google whitethorn use to sites:

• Site abused with third-party spam
• User-generated spam
• Spammy escaped host
• Structured information issue
• Unnatural links to your site
• Unnatural links from your site
• Thin contented with small oregon nary added value
• Cloaking and/or sneaky redirects
• Pure spam
• Cloaked images
• Hidden substance and/or keyword stuffing
• AMP contented mismatch
• Sneaky mobile redirects
• News and Discover argumentation violations

Just similar with information issues, if your tract so has a manual action, past it should go your fig 1 precedence to cleanable this up and record a reconsideration request. Note that you won’t spot a notification if your tract has been punished algorithmically. 

12. Check if the tract is mobile-friendly 

If the tract is not mobile-friendly oregon it is simply a nightmare to usage it connected a mobile device, past Google whitethorn demote it successful SERPs.

The tract whitethorn arsenic good halt being mobile-friendly oregon responsive due to the fact that of immoderate method contented and  – as  Google is utilizing Google Smartphone arsenic the main crawler for practically each sites close present – this whitethorn origin a postulation drop. 

You tin cheque if the tract is experiencing mobile-friendliness issues successful the Mobile Usability report successful Google Search Console.

GSC volition study connected the pursuing mobile usability issues:

• Using incompatible plugins
• Viewport not set
• Viewport not acceptable to “device-width”
• Content wider than screen
• Text excessively tiny to read
• Clickable elements excessively adjacent together

If your postulation driblet correlates with the day erstwhile mobile usability issues started to popular up, past you decidedly privation to instrumentality a deeper look into that. 

13. Check if determination has been a redesign oregon migration done recently 

Whenever you are auditing a tract and looking for the reasons for a postulation drop, you should commencement by asking your lawsuit if determination has been a migration oregon redesign done recently. 

Here is however you tin cheque whether determination person been immoderate superior changes made to the site:

• Use the Wayback Machine and cheque however the tract looked earlier the postulation loss. If it looked wholly different, past you astir apt person the answer.
• Analyze the integrated visibility successful Ahrefs oregon Semrush, paying peculiar attraction to breached backlinks which whitethorn bespeak the pages that mightiness person been improperly redirected oregon (accidentally) removed. 

If the redesign resulted successful superior operation changes, past – yes – it whitethorn pb to a postulation drop. If the migration has not been done correctly, past it tin besides hitch the slate cleanable for the website successful presumption of integrated traffic. 

14. Check if determination has been immoderate large developmental enactment done connected the tract recently 

This constituent is simply a spot related to what I speech astir successful the conception astir ruling retired imaginable method SEO errors. 

I personally saw astatine slightest a fewer examples of sites that mislaid tons of postulation aft a developer (who is not into SEO precise much) introduced immoderate seemingly tiny changes and, for example, enactment the noindex and/or nofollow tag connected the full website oregon flipped the staging tract with the accumulation tract excessively early.  

If a postulation driblet follows immoderate improvement enactment connected the site, you should decidedly dive heavy into what precisely has been done. 

15. Check if the diminution successful postulation correlates with the diminution successful conversions/earnings 

Google is perpetually updating its algorithms and shifting relevance. I spot it clip and clip again that sites suffer postulation and integrated visibility for definite keywords without truly losing wealth or/and the fig of conversions. 

If that’s the lawsuit with your tract and your net and/or conversions enactment unchangeable for a mates of weeks with the decreased traffic, past your tract is astir apt wholly OK. Google has conscionable chopped the postulation that wasn’t truly applicable to your site. That’s good!

Bonus: Check if Google Analytics codification is really working

This is simply a precise trivial and anserine crushed but it happens excessively often, particularly if the tract is utilizing precocious caching and/or Cloudflare. If abruptly your postulation falls down to zero, past you should marque definite that the GA codification is really working. A speedy mode to bash that is by opening your tract connected your mobile telephone and past going to the unrecorded postulation conception successful GA. If you cannot spot your league there, past your GA codification whitethorn beryllium off. 

The occupation with GA is that it won’t archer you if it stops working. Google Search Console, connected the different hand, volition alert you erstwhile your tract is nary longer verified. 

Comparing GSC postulation with GA is besides a mode to verify if the GA codification is moving oregon not. If GSC shows postulation and GA does not, past again the GA codification needs fixing (not your website).  

What if it is so the Google halfway algorithm to blame?

If your site’s postulation declined due to the fact that of the algo update, past your task should beryllium to find retired what your tract needs to enactment on.  In astir cases, it is not conscionable 1 happening that you request to hole but alternatively enactment connected the site’s wide quality, relevance, and E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust). 

Wherever determination is simply a Google halfway algorithm update, Google recommends that we work their station astir Google’s halfway updates. This station (and your honorable answers to the questions it contains) unneurotic with the Google Quality Raters’ Guidelines should beryllium your mandatory speechmaking if your tract has mislaid postulation arsenic a effect of the Google halfway algorithm update.