Why is our traffic dropping?
SEO professionals, marketers, business owners, and stakeholders all have the same question and concern.
Traffic = Customers = Revenue. We all know that.
Managing your site more effectively, making more confident business decisions, and winning over stakeholders can all be achieved by understanding the source of traffic loss.
On March 16th, I moderated a webinar sponsored by Wayne Chechanski, Vice President of Search and Site Experience at iQuanti.
Share tips to help you diagnose lost traffic, discover the possible cause behind it, and determine how to remedy it.
Here is a quick summary of the webinar. To access the entire presentation, Complete the application.
Detect reasons for low traffic
Organic traffic denials are often a combination of three factors:
- Change in ranks.
- change in size.
- Change in CTR.
The general formula to keep in mind is:
Keyword volume x CTR = traffic
[See this formula in action] Instant access to an on-demand webinar →
The key is to understand the elements and changes, do the math, and move forward to solve them.
How to detect low algorithm
Knowing how to spot an algorithm drop gives you the ability to communicate this to your organization’s stakeholders and guide your teams to take action.
A steady rejection shows a change in power
A common cause of steady decline is a shift in power.
Your site has either lost authority (links/referral domains) or your competitors have gained authority.
[Learn what to keep an eye on] Instant access to the webinar →
Sharp drops mean algorithm change
iQuanti, March 2022If your traffic was stable and then suddenly dropped over a short period, this indicates an algorithm change.
[Learn what you should do] Instant access to the webinar →
Learn how to calculate lost revenue
Let’s take a look at this problem statement:
Page A normally gets 12,120 visits per month but now it only gets 7,244 which is a 59.7% drop in traffic.
Loss of revenue during this period is $150,000.
When you sum all of these things together, you get a percentage of what happened.
[Get the step-by-step on calculating revenue loss] Instant access to the webinar →
Using the formula from the on-demand webinar, you’ll be able to more clearly explain what percentage drop in traffic ranksAnd the soundAnd CTR.
The ability to calculate loss of revenue gives you the intelligence and insight you need to make those informed decisions and communicate properly with your stakeholders.
Or, if you’re the stakeholder, you can now tell your team which direction you want to go based on what it’s cost you and what areas of traffic have decreased.
How to recover revenue
Understand what you can and cannot control.
Not all revenue can be refunded due to some items beyond your control.
- ranks: Repairable
- the sound: out of your control
- CTR: Hard
[Find out why] Instant access to the webinar →
What to do if the traffic is not recoverable
After you break down the loss of revenue by each contributing component, you can get transparent about how much revenue you might hope to recover.
Here are some questions and action points for you to consider.
- Did another internal page pick up traffic?
- Where in the scene did the scale shift to?
- Redefine the purpose of the dropped terms.
- New net data size.
[Dive deeper into recovery] Instant access to the webinar →
There will be a drop in traffic for almost every website, so it’s wise to be prepared.
[Slides] How much revenue are you losing from low organic traffic?
Here is the presentation:
Image credits
Featured Image: Paolo Bobetta/Search Engine Magazine
