If you are wondering why your organic traffic is dropping, you should know that there are many different answers to this question. To get the right answer, you need to know how to discover organic traffic loss, then identify what could be causing it, and finally find out what you can do to get rid of it. This way, you can eliminate the factors causing a decline in your organic traffic and improve the efficiency of your website.
“Why is our organic traffic dropping?” is a question that causes concern and distress for many people today, from SEO experts to business owners, marketers to stakeholders. Because organic traffic means customers. The customer appears as revenue. Knowing this, everyone inevitably wants to avoid organic traffic drops.
In order to manage your site much more effectively, make much safer business decisions and gain more stakeholders, you must first determine why your organic traffic is dropping. However, only by achieving this will you have the opportunity to reach your desired outcomes in other areas as well.
Wayne Cichanski, Vice President of Search and Site Experience, shared numerous tips that can help you with this topic during a seminar at iQuanti on March 16. We wanted to provide a brief summary of what was discussed in the webinar to help you overcome these issues and discover the reasons behind your declining organic traffic, so you can make the necessary adjustments.
Identify the Causes of Traffic Declines
One of the most curious topics in the digital world is the causes of organic traffic declines. These types of declines, which can have a wide range of causes, require a meticulous approach to identify the true reason, along with accurate evaluations.
However, there are basically three different triggers for organic traffic drops. Each of these is linked to the other and together they cause the fall to take place. These triggers are as follows:
- Change in search results
- Volume change
- Change in click-through rate
In fact, there is a classic formula you should consider at this point:
- Volume * Click-through rate = Organic traffic
To reach the most effective solution at this point, you need to know the elements, understand the changes, know the math and move forward to solve the problem. Only in this way can you take the necessary actions and understand the real reason for the decline in your organic traffic and troubleshoot the problems.
How to Identify an Algorithmic Decline
When an algorithmic drop occurs on your website, it’s important to know how to detect it. This way, you can convey the necessary information about the current decline to the relevant individuals and guide them effectively to take the right steps for correcting the situation.
At this point, it is necessary to determine whether the organic traffic decline is continuous or whether there is a sharp decline at certain times. If there is a continuous decline, that is, if there is a steady decline in traffic, it means that one of two factors has caused this situation. Either your website has lost its authority or your competitors have become more authoritative than you. The situation we refer to as website authority actually involves the links and domains that direct traffic to your site.
If the drop has happened suddenly in a short period of time, it is likely that there has been a change in the algorithms and this has caused a sudden drop in your website’s organic traffic. In such times, performing the necessary optimization efforts in line with the updated algorithms becomes the solution to this sudden decline.
Learn How to Calculate Revenue Loss
A drop in your organic traffic will directly lead to a drop in your revenue. It is to your advantage to learn how to calculate lost income at such times. For example, if a page on your website typically receives 12,120 visits per month but currently only gets 7,244, there is an average traffic decline of 59.7%. This situation inevitably leads to a significant loss of revenue.
If you wish, you can use the formula provided in the seminar to determine how much of the organic traffic decline is due to rankings, volume, or click-through rates, allowing you to clearly and accurately identify the reasons behind the decline.
It is advantageous if you can calculate the loss of income in this process. Since you have accurate data, you can make informed decisions and create successful solutions by communicating effectively with the relevant people. Because such calculations give you the insight you need. You can also decide which situation is more costly for you and make direct improvements in areas where organic traffic is declining.
How to Recover Lost Revenue
You may have lost revenue due to your organic traffic falling for various reasons. In order to recover lost income at this point, you first need to understand very well what you can and cannot control. Because income losses due to factors beyond your control cannot be recovered. For example;
- Situations related to authority can be corrected,
- The volume is out of your control and cannot be corrected.
- The click-through rate, while fixable, is quite challenging.
What to Do If Organic Traffic Decline Cannot Be Corrected
If you’re having trouble fixing organic traffic decline and the decline continues or you’re not getting the desired uplift, you may be concerned about what to do. In such cases, you can first examine the loss of income according to each item, thus gaining transparency about how much income you can generate and setting realistic expectations. To achieve this, it is crucial to know the answers to the following questions and to act with careful attention to the action points.
- Did another internal page collect organic traffic?
- Where did the volume shift?
It is also important to redefine the core purpose of the areas of decline. In the process, you also need to acquire data that is ideal for the new volume. By paying attention to all these details, you can perform a much deeper and more effective work in recovering your traffic. You should remember that almost every website experiences a drop in organic traffic. At this point, it is important to be prepared for such situations. This way, you can quickly develop effective solutions and easily overcome the problem.
