A successful website equates to having a steady flow of traffic. While putting in the effort to create good content that will attract visitors, you need people to visit your website to know your website is noticed.
However, there are times that after successfully having a steady stream of website traffic, you notice that the traffic has dwindled or dropped. This makes you wonder reasons your website traffic is declining. Therefore, here, we will explore some of the reasons why.
1: Website having expired SSL certificate.
Having an SSL certificate on your website helps protect your website, increases visitors’ trust, and helps search engines bring up your website. However, an expired SSL certificate does the opposite. Browsers will see that a website is unsecured, which makes it impossible to rank such a website for related keywords. Customers will not visit such sites due to threats to their online information. As a result, it leads to high bounce rates, ultimately affecting traffic. It is necessary to renew the SSL certificate timely. A site owner can use SSL certificates like Thawte SSL Certificates, Comodo SSL Certificates, RapidSSL Certificates etc. to Secure their website.
2: Google algorithm updates
Google’s algorithm constantly updates, and it is not static. No one wants a website that cannot pull in organic traffic. However, one of the reasons your website traffic is dropping is because of Google’s algorithm. In truth, Google claims that updates are made daily to enhance the searcher experience and that specific and significant core updates are performed regularly.
Effective search engine optimization makes all the difference in getting your post to rank since this algorithm matches users with the search result that most closely matches their wants. Therefore, optimizing your website well means you will only sometimes be at the mercy of Google’s algorithm.
There are times that despite your best SEO efforts, Google may still decide to alter its algorithm entirely. Luckily, some websites like SEM rush give recent news on Google algorithm updates which will be helpful to you.
3: Nofollow/Noindex Code Set by You
Some people need to be aware that you can block people on social media and prevent their web pages from being indexed and appearing in Google search results. It is one reason your website traffic drops without you knowing the cause. It can be that your web designer or developer had placed a “nofollow/noindex” code inside your robot’s Meta tag to accomplish this.
Preventing Google from indexing your website prevents users from seeing your web pages in its rankings. Thereby bringing about a decline in traffic. Inserting this Code is helpful in some circumstances, such as:
Avoiding duplicating content, such as that from a blog post and an author’s page.
Avoiding the confusion that might result from people performing searches and ending up on an empty page, such as a login page for your staff.
Employing it as a model while developing, redesigning, or creating your website.
However, leaving this nofollow/noindex code or unintentionally selecting the WordPress “Do not index this page” checkbox can prevent Google from indexing your website and reduce organic traffic if you want to publish your content and have it continue to be indexed. You can easily remove this Code when you discover it has been put in.
4: Low-quality content
Creating original content is one of the finest ways to draw website visitors to your page and expand your consumer base. Using high-quality content to market your brand or build yourself as an authority is one of the finest methods to do so without spending much financially. All you have to do is hire the right people to create content.
Unfortunately, some bloggers or businesses could become reluctant when producing content, producing poor-quality, brief, and useless web-user-unfriendly articles. Search engines like Google are aware to steer visitors away from websites with poor content.
As a result, it is critical to keep producing well-researched content that adheres to SEO best practices and gives users essential information. If your website traffic has suddenly decreased, you should examine your content and remove any blog entries that are not helpful.
5: Tracking codes that are lost
Tracking Codes are unique lines of the text inserted into a website’s HTML or Source Code. They can be connected to Google Analytics to help monitor key performance indicators or KPIs, monitor website traffic, calculate click-through rates, and examine the actions of other users. The HTML code for tracking codes must be inserted in a specific location, and the location of these codes is continually changing.
If you have accidentally added a tracking code somewhere else and need to learn more about HTML or JavaScript, you can notice a sudden decline in site traffic. Even seasoned web admins and designers make mistakes occasionally and might have put the tracking code in the wrong location, which is one of the reasons your website traffic is dropping. It is crucial to resolve this problem and the Code as soon as feasible. The more valuable analytics are lost, the longer it takes to fix it.
6: Using PBN or dead links
Refrain from being too eager to add links to your website; you need to be mindful of the links you add. Even though link building is a crucial component of website design, it might hurt your search rankings mainly if your website contains links to pages that no longer hold, are damaged, contains stale content, or connect to a PBN. Google can penalize you and delist your website from search results, which causes a decline in web traffic.
A private blog network is another name for a PBN. These are essentially shell websites that are only utilized to expand your link profile and to improve your search rankings theoretically. On the other hand, Google has now recognized this trend and will penalize you if you link to websites that use a PBN. The best thing to do is to avoid PBNs altogether and pay attention to the recommendations of only knowledgeable and reliable SEO consultants and web designers.
Additionally, you should review your website traffic and determine whether the traffic has decreased. You may accomplish this with the use of tools like Sitechecker and SEMrush. After discovering links that are no longer useful, remove these links or replace them with functional ones.
7: Excessive Optimization
Applying the ideal keyword ratio to the finest SEO techniques is crucial. It is crucial to include keywords in your content if you want to increase organic traffic. However, it can also make Google believe that your website is more focused on marketing than user experience, navigation, and content. Briefly, excessive optimization lowers search rankings.
Refrain from stuffing keywords to attract visitors; it decreases your website traffic. Include just the right amount of keywords in your content, Meta description, title tags, etc.
8: Ineffective Keywords
Google is now altering how it provides information to consumers by giving them results when they search using language that is more conversational. Consider producing fresh content with updated keywords if your website traffic has decreased to boost search engine rankings and assist users in finding what they are looking for. Your keywords should be user based. Content should be written with users in mind and not just search engines.
9: Not focusing on SERP layout optimization.
The term “SERP” stands for “Search Engine Results Page,” which is crucial when discussing Google ranks and attracting organic traffic to a website. The SERP structure has seen significant recent changes, including adding “rich snippets,” which are now frequently the first result displayed on Google’s SERP.
Unfortunately, even if you performed well for a keyword, another page may take your place and rank since its content contains a rich snippet, graph, or other appealing visual that Google decided to highlight at the top of its SERP arrangement.
Ensure that you make adjustments that align with the new SERP design to raise the ranks of your website, such as:
- Using bold text to clearly and concisely respond to a question.
- Using informational bulleted lists that answer a specific query.
- Adding an informative graph or image to your article.
Additionally, pay attention to Meta descriptions and tags because search engines consider that. There should be keywords in them for you to attract visitors. Some visitors only look at snippets to decide if they want to visit a website and read the entire content. So, make it count.
10: Website response time
The success of your website as a whole may depend mainly on its speed. Many users will only leave the site if it takes a short time to load. This is crucial since Google gives site rankings based on SEO and website speed.
Do a web speed test and make sure to fix any issues that could cause your web speed to dwindle, such as:
- Too much overhead on your site.
- Your CSS needs to be optimized.
- The larger size of media files.
- Too many plugins.
- Themes that cannot be easily navigated.
Also, ensure that your website is mobile-friendly because most traffic comes from mobile devices. You want to make sure you get quality traffic because mobile users were not put in mind, and your website needs to respond better.
Final thoughts
There are many reasons your website traffic is dropping. It could be one of the issues listed here or any of the issues. You only have to diagnose the problem and fix it accordingly to increase your website performance
