(15)
A WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster asking a very common question - where do I start looking first if my traffic falls by 50%?
The Webmaster asked where does he start looking to analysis why there is a drop in his traffic.
He did immediately check Google Webmaster Tools for warnings or notifications, but nothing came up. No hack notifications, no SEO issues reported, no unnatural link warnings - so what is wrong?
Many SEOs would also jump to their analytics to see where the source of the traffic drop was from. Was it Google organic search? If so, which keywords dove most? Which landing pages took the biggest hit?
Based on figuring those details out, you can then try to understand if it was algorithmic or maybe a technical bug on your site.
Tedster, WebmasterWorlds administrator, wrote:
1) If you dropped 10 or more positions, then something in the algorithm probably decided to demote your site. Looking for that factor is one kind of analysis. It could be either a recent change that you made, or it could be a change in the algorithm that Google made.2) If just one of your big keywords dropped just a few positions (say from #1 to ##4 or 5) then it may be about a different kind of algorithm change - one that is rewarding your competitors' sites for some factor rather than demoting your site.
There are so many places to look, from competition, to your own site, to a bug on your end to a bug on Google's end.
Forum discussion at at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
Jawad Latif
02/13/2013 01:45 pm
First look at your SEO Expert :-p
Anti-SEO
02/13/2013 02:37 pm
LOL)) Tedster should write articles for eHow.com and WebmasterWorld should be renamed to WebmasterWorld for Dummies. Barry, I can understand your nostalgie (fr.), but can't you find better source of information ?
josh bachynski (SEO)
02/13/2013 05:16 pm
1) check traffic / rankings history, 2) check relative rankings, 3) submit for reconsideration even if no message in WMT (they can take time) - if in doubt, ask SEO expert for help - a good one should have it diagnosed in 20 minutes ;p
jeffyablon
02/13/2013 05:54 pm
Is it just me, or did this piece say NOTHING that every single reader here wouldn't already know?
boston business school
02/13/2013 10:20 pm
I always check Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics. They show all problem on the website for any period of time.
Anti-SEO
02/14/2013 03:20 am
Common, be polite. Obviously Barry didn't know that. So what ? ))
jeffyablon
02/14/2013 05:02 am
I was being wryly humorous, but since you asked: I'm pretty sure (other than doing SEO ... hmmmm ... ) the point of writing is to say something. When Barry gets a gig at a mainsteam magazine or website and gets his editors to let him write a story such as this one, then it will be a different beast. But here ... well just kinda funny.
Amith
02/14/2013 06:34 am
I dropped position from first page to 20 page. What to do in this situation.
Dario Petkovic
02/14/2013 01:08 pm
Perhaps good title for keywords. The subject however is real: no warnings and your website is down big time, WMT or WTF
Barry Schwartz
02/14/2013 04:20 pm
It's about the discussion.
Barry Schwartz
02/14/2013 04:20 pm
I don't do this for money.
jeffyablon
02/14/2013 07:47 pm
I call "shenanigans", Barry. Of COURSE you do. Everything we do we do for some sort of renumeration
Kevin Martin
02/15/2013 04:54 am
If my site ranking completely disappear from Google search engine then what step should I take to restore my site ranking? On 17 Jan 2013, might be algorithm update, after that day my site ranking were disappeared.
gibraltar
05/09/2013 07:12 pm
FIrst thing I would do is check Ahrefs to see who is linking to me. Your competitors will often spam your website with bad links to destroy your rankings. It happens more than you think. It's absolutely crucial to get authority in Google ASAP before you lose your rankings. I build authority by: - Keeping bounce rates low - Increasing pageviews through related links and easy navigation - building PR5+ backlinks on big websites to keep Google happy - Tracking brand searches in Google and type-in traffic - Reducing page loading times and eliminating bad WP plugins These will give you the biggest effect in the short and long term. The worst thing you can do is panic because action is the only thing you need to focus on.
gibraltar
05/09/2013 07:14 pm
Check your backlink history on Ahrefs and use webmaster tools to track impressions and clicks. Most likely, you will find problems there. Then search Google for a relevant article. There are many forums like this that provide good solutions.