Reasons why your website may be losing traffic

SEO elements to monitor for performance and effectiveness
19
Nov

Losing website traffic can be frustrating and concerning, especially if your site is a key part of your business or marketing strategy. Many businesses, even big name brands, are currently noting a drop in traffic and rankings, as the full effects of Google’s latest algorithm changes come into play. If you are experiencing a sudden drop in visitors, you may also notice a negative impact on revenue, leads, and brand visibility, which is understandably a problem for your business. So what are the most common reasons why your website may be losing traffic? And how can these issues be resolved?

So what are the most common reasons why your website may be losing traffic?

There are a number of factors and causes that can contribute to this, and these include:

  • Search engine algorithm updates
  • Technical website issues
  • Content issues
  • Increased competition
  • Decline in referral traffic

Search engine algorithm updates

One of the number one reasons why websites experience a drop in traffic is due to search engine algorithm updates. Search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms to improve search results and user experience, aiming to show the best possible results that most closely align with the user intent. As a result, while these updates aim to reduce spam and promote quality content, they can inadvertently penalise websites that don’t meet new standards. This is most likely to affect rankings for content that was thin, or less clear than that of your competitors, or alternatively, good quality content that was ranking for a less relevant search intent.

To resolve this, or to make sure that your content can survive search engine algorithm changes, you should be sure to regularly review these, and be prepared to adapt your SEO strategy to keep up.

 

Technical website issues

If you see a slow decrease in people using your website, and very few or no return visitors, website technical issues are often the number one cause. A website that struggles to load, or simply performs poorly, actively discourages both visitors and search engines alike. Visitors can become frustrated with the experience, and will simply leave for the website of a competitor. Even small issues can accumulate and deter users from returning. So what are the most common of the technical issues? Well, these include:

  • Slow loading speed- visitors to any website expect this to be fast-loading. As such, a delay of even a few seconds can cause a significant traffic drop.
  • Mobile design issues- if your website is not optimised for performance as well as display on a mobile device, you will struggle to retain traffic, and may see a high bounce rate. More people than ever before are using mobile devices to search the internet, more than those that are still using laptops or desktops, and for this reason, your website needs to perform well for mobile searchers. If it does not, your website can lose rankings, and traffic.
  • Broken links and error pages- pages that return “404 Not Found” errors disrupt the user experience and harm SEO. These errors interrupt the browsing experience and prevent your website users from finding the information they need.

To prevent and resolve technical issues, you should regularly audit your website’s performance.  This can help identify any technical issues early, so that these can be resolved before your traffic takes a hit.

Content problems can result in a traffic drop

Your website’s content plays a vital role in attracting and retaining visitors. Outdated, irrelevant, or low-quality content can push people away. This is why content that is designed to meet the needs of your audience, or those who would be interested in your products or services, is so important. Some of the most common content issues include:

  • Irrelevant topics- Content that no longer addresses your audience’s interests or needs will struggle to attract clicks.
  • Lack of fresh content- Regular updates signal to search engines and users that your website is active and relevant.
  • Duplicate content- Pages with similar or copied content may face penalties from search engines.

To avoid content issues you should be sure to focus on creating high quality, original content that will engage with your website visitors, and your intended audience. To rectify content issues, be sure to audit your content regularly to ensure that no duplicate content issues are arising, and to monitor the traffic levels and overall performance

Increased competition

The online environment is a competitive space, with new businesses in the same industries emerging consistently year on year. This means that even if your niche was relatively safe, it won’t remain so for long. The more competitors there are, the harder it will be for your website to rank in the top spots, and the more choice interested searchers will have. This all means that search traffic will be split into different directions, diluting traffic to your page.

In a competitive online landscape, new players or improved efforts from competitors can draw traffic away from your site.

One way you can keep on top of this is to carry out competitor analysis, which will help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors website, so that you can improve your own.

Decline in referral traffic

If your organic traffic hasn’t been hit, but your overall traffic from other referral sources is down, this could be an issue. There are a number of different reasons why this may occur, including:

  • A previously strong backlink source may have removed links to your site- new business owners may decide to clean up the link profile of their website, which may unfortunately involve removing links to your website.
  • Partner websites may have gone offline or lost their own traffic- websites are not eternal and some may go offline or business may dissolve, which will lead to a loss of links to your website.
  • You might have lost visibility on social media or forums

It’s important to build strong relationships with reputable websites for referral traffic, but it’s also important to monitor and maintain these relationships over time, and be looking for new ones, because this can help to futureproof your referral traffic.

Here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing experts. From SEO to content, we are the team you can count on for your website’s success. Why not get in touch today to find out more?

Pumpkin Web Design Ltd is a small and highly results driven digital agency working for like minded clients in Preston, Chorley, Southport, Blackburn, Burnley, Morecambe,Wigan, Manchester, London, Warrington, Blackpool, Lancaster, Leyland, Lytham St Annes, Bolton, Chester and the UK. Our services include web design, SEO, content marketing, video production, brand design and much more.