Sudden Drop in Organic Traffic? These are the 7 Main Reasons

You’ve been watching your website traffic increase steadily month after month and you’re patting yourself and your team on the back for a job well done.

Then, you wake up one morning to check your website, and you see it.

A sudden drop in organic traffic. All your hard work turned to vanishing numbers without warning. You are right back where you started.

Don’t panic. A sudden drop in organic traffic is a common nightmare for most marketers and managers, so you aren’t alone. But you aren’t without a solution either.

That’s why we wrote this article - to explore the 7 main reasons for the sudden drop in organic traffic and share actionable solutions on how to restore your website’s performance and get back on track in record time.

Tools to investigate a drop in organic traffic

To restore your website’s performance, you have to find out what’s causing the vanishing numbers. There are various tools you can use to crack this, but below are the 5 tools we recommend:

• GA4: Short for Google Analytics 4, GA4 is a web analytics tool that helps you track your website’s performance, understand user behaviour and make accurate predictions. Its use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning makes its insights more comprehensive and result-oriented. GA4 has both free and paid versions. While the free version provides the essentials you need, the premium version offers additional features and more support.
• GSC: GSC, or Google Search Console, is a free Google analytics tool that helps you analyse your website’s metrics - clicks, impressions, click-through rates (CTR), etc. It allows you to track the cause of the sudden drop in website traffic and user behaviour on your website. The Performance Report provides insights into your website’s performance in search results, while the Coverage Report shows manual actions, indexing issues or crawl errors affecting your traffic. Also, you don’t have to be a technical expert to use GSC. It’s user-friendly and fast to master.
• SEMrush or equivalent: SEMrush is an analytics tool that integrates other tools such as GSC and GA4. The combined data from these different sources provide a detailed analysis of the sudden drop in website traffic. Also, SEMrush tracks your backlink profile, keyword rankings, and valuable content gaps. It analyses your competitor’s traffic, audience demography, user’s interests and journey and not-so-obvious keywords that can improve your website’s rankings.
• Sitebulb: Sitebulb is a website crawler that crawls your website to uncover SEO issues responsible for a sudden drop in organic traffic. It checks your page speed, metadata, internal linking, HTML errors, duplicate content, site structure, indexing issues, website structure, etc. As such, it provides a more technical report than others.
• ScreamingFrog: Like Sitebulb, ScreamingFrog is another website crawler that points out potential issues responsible for website traffic nosedives. Aside from crawling your website to identify issues such as broken links, missing pages, and wrong image alt texts, it integrates with GA4 and GSC to provide a holistic report of your technical data. While ScreamingFrog is free to use, you need to obtain a license to crawl more than 500 URLs and access advanced features.

7 Most common reasons for organic traffic loss

While there is a plethora of explanations for your vanishing numbers, here are the 7 most common reasons:

Core Algorithm & SERP layout updates

At periodic intervals, Google updates its search engine algorithms and search engine results page (SERP) layouts to improve user experience and product quality. Your website’s ability to keep up with these updates will significantly affect its visibility, and consequently, traffic.

For instance, new features like featured snippets, ads and video carousels change the SERP layouts, resulting in organic content being pushed to the bottom of search pages.

Solution: Keep abreast of Google’s updates. You can subscribe to their newsletter and follow reputable SEO-focused websites for the latest announcements. Also, regularly assess your content for quality and relevance. Ensure it demonstrates E.E.A.T - Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Target the less-competitive but high-volume keywords to improve your website traffic. Finally, always adapt the new features into your content.

Tracking errors

Imagine running a marketing campaign and setting up 100 billboards in 100 locations. The end-of-campaign report shows 80 billboards in 80 locations, but you paid for 100. Where did the remaining 20 go? That’s what happens with tracking errors.

Either some website users aren’t counted, some are counted twice, your traffic source can’t be traced, etc. All these lead to inaccurate data that gives you a false perception of your website traffic.

Tracking errors are usually caused by the wrong setup of analytics tools, wrong tracking codes, ad blockers, privacy tools, cross-domain tracking, website updates, and bot visits.

Solution: Check if your traffic codes are correctly installed on your website pages. If you perform a site restructuring, update your tracking configuration accordingly. Use tools such as Google Search Console or Google Assistant to check for discrepancies and resolve them immediately.

robots.txt rules

The robots.txt rules control how accessible your site is to search engine crawlers. If it’s properly set up, visitors can access the website sections you want them to, boosting your organic traffic.

If it’s not, it gets confused and blocks search engines from accessing your site. As such, your webpages are removed from search engine indexes resulting in a sudden drop in website traffic.

Solution: Use GSC’s URL Inspection tool or ScreamingFrog to check if your robots.txt files are properly configured or if your web pages are accidentally blocked. Also, you must ensure the “no index” feature is only applied to pages you don’t want people to access, such as the admin page. Finally, update your robots.txt file when you make changes to your website.

XML sitemap changes

An XML sitemap tells search engine crawlers which URLs they should show in search engine result pages (SERPs). In short, it determines which website pages/sections feature in search results. If it’s outdated or broken, your website won’t be featured in SERPs, leading to a drop in organic traffic.

Solution: Automatically update your sitemap whenever you add new content to your website or restructure it. Use third-party tools like Sitebulb or ScreamingFrog to check for broken links and ensure the URLs lead to actual web pages, not dead ends.

Migration issues

Sometimes, you might need to change your hosting provider for better efficiency. But if anything goes wrong in the process, you’ll have broken links and missing pages.

Also, search engine crawlers won’t be able to properly index your website. Even if users find your website, they’ll find 301 redirects which lead nowhere.

Solution: Carefully execute your migration. Ensure you aren’t missing any backlinks and are mapping old URLs to new ones. Tweak the 301 redirects to your new pages. After the migration, use tools such as GA4, Semrush and GSC to monitor your website’s performance and check for potential issues. Fix all problems immediately.

Redirects

Redirects are used to send visitors from old URLs to new ones. They help maintain your website traffic in cases of migration or when the original URLs are no longer valid. There are 2 types of redirects: permanent and temporary.

Permanent redirects, also known as 301 redirects, are used when the URL has changed permanently and they have the full ranking power of the old URLs. Temporary redirects, called 302 redirects, are used when you still plan to return to the old URL, so they don’t have full ranking power.

If you use temporary redirects instead of permanent ones, you’ll lose traffic. Also, if your redirects are broken, they lead to 404 pages that lead your website users and search engine crawlers to a dead end.

Solution: Ensure your redirects point to the URLs you want your users to visit. Use GSC or SEMrush to find and fix 404 pages. Use 301 redirects for permanent URL pages to ensure the full ranking power of the old pages is passed to the new ones to maintain your website traffic. Try as much as possible to reduce your redirects loop so users and search engine crawlers don’t give up on your website.

Cannibalisation

Cannibalisation occurs when multiple pages on your website are ranking for similar keywords and competing against one another in search engine results. No single page can rank highly as each page is struggling for visibility from search engine crawlers and your website users. These struggling pages eventually cause a sudden drop in website traffic.

Solution: Use SEO tools such as SEMrush and ScreamingFrog to perform a content audit and identify instances of cannibalisation on your website. Consolidate similar content into one. Optimise the remaining content to rank for other keywords in search results. Ensure your content demonstrates EAT- Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

Other reasons for a sudden drop in website traffic

Beyond the common reasons we’ve mentioned above, other less obvious culprits might be responsible for a sudden drop in organic traffic.

Let’s explore some of these overlooked reasons and how to address them:

Ranking losses

Ranking losses happen when your website loses its position in search engine result pages (SERPs), leading to reduced visibility and organic traffic.

They can be caused by poor content quality, increased competition, algorithm updates, and technical issues.

Solution: First, identify the cause of the ranking losses and fix it. Maintain a high content quality; your users will always return if they gain value from your website. And this automatically signals search engines to boost your website in search results.

In addition, regularly audit your website for technical issues to improve user experience. Follow the algorithm updates and adapt your traffic strategy to suit them.

More about dramatic ranking losses in Google here.

Crawl errors

Crawl errors occur when search engines can’t access your web pages, reducing your chances of being ranked in search results. Causes usually include broken links (404 errors), server downtime, wrong robots.txt files, website misconfiguration, etc.

Solution: Regularly check GSC’s coverage report for crawl errors. You can also use the URL Inspection Tool to identify and fix these errors. Update your sitemap and robots.txt files. Use SEO tools such as Ahrefs or ScreamongFrog to fix broken links. Ensure your server performance is stable for faster page loading speed and smooth user experience.

De-indexing

If your website flouts some rules, consistently produces low-quality content, duplicates content or often experiences technical issues, Google removes it from its index. This means your website won’t be ranked in search results, leading to a sudden drop in organic traffic.

Solution: Find out what caused the de-indexing and fix it. Is it due to website penalties, low-quality content, algorithm updates or technical SEO issues? Optimise the low-quality content for better performance and address the technical issues. Monitor algorithm changes.

One key algorithmic change in the March 2024 core update which prioritises relevant keywords, high-quality content and improved user experience for websites’ indexing and ranking. Ensure your website meets these requirements. After fixing the causes, request Google to re-index your website.

Google Penalties

Google penalties are negative effects your website receives for violating Google’s webmaster guidelines. These negative effects include reduced visibility ]or complete removal of your website from search results. Some common causes of Google penalties are black-hat SEO techniques, keyword stuffing, malware hosting, spammy domains, duplicate content, etc.

Solution: Use the Google Search Console to diagnose what caused the penalties. Improve your content quality and remove all bad links. Audit your website for malware issues and address them. If it’s a manual action, send a reconsideration request to Google after making the changes. If it’s an algorithmic update, improve your website quality. You don’t need to send a reconsideration request.

Competition is getting better

Your competitors aren’t resting on their laurels, and neither should you. Competitors who constantly improve their content quality, invest in more effective SEO practices and optimise their websites will outrank yours in search results. Besides, more companies are competing for the same keywords, making the market saturated. You need to be on your toes if you don’t want a sudden drop in your website traffic.

Solution: Analyse your competitor’s performance and adapt the insights to your strategy. Stay ahead by conducting thorough research to find content gaps that you can fill. Invest in your SEO performance and website structure. You need to give your best if you want the best.

Link losses or spam

Link-building is an integral part of SEO, but if done wrongly, it leads to a sudden drop in organic traffic. Link losses happen when links to your website are removed, while spam occurs when spammy links lead to your website. These actions signal search engine crawlers to de-rank or remove your website from search results.

Solution: Use third-party SEO tools such as Ahrefs to monitor your website backlinks. If you notice link losses, reach out to the owners of the linking websites to reinstate the links. Use Google’s Disavow tool to remove spammy links. For a healthy backlink profile, acquire links from reputable and valuable websites.

Thin or Low-quality content

Thin or low-quality content provides no value to your users. As such, they will stop using your website. The quality of your content significantly impacts your website traffic. High-quality content makes users prefer your website to others and spend more time on it. These actions make search engine crawlers push your website to the top of search engine results. Similarly, low-quality content pushes your website to the bottom.

Solution: Create content that answers the biggest questions of your target audience with actionable steps. Identify the valuable content gaps your competitors aren’t seeing and fill them. Optimise your pages for less competitive but high-volume keywords.

Still not sure what caused the sudden drop in your organic traffic?

Watch this helpful video:

Conclusion

A sudden drop in organic traffic can be alarming, but it’s not the end of your career. That’s why we’ve walked you through the tools to investigate the drop in website traffic, the common reasons and the necessary solutions.

Also, beyond addressing the reasons for the sudden drop in website traffic, you are building a more resilient website that can thrive in the digital landscape.

Now, we know the changes you want to see won’t happen overnight. And it’s equally taxing to keep doing all that’s needed for these changes to happen. But not to worry, Operation Nation to the rescue.

From diagnosing the main reason for your traffic nosedives to using the appropriate tools to fix it to preventing such from happening again, our services cover all. Secure your slot for the SEO consult now and watch your website traffic soar.