Why has site traffic dropped dramatically?

This question sooner or later concerns almost every site owner. Unfortunately, a sharp drop in traffic can occur even for a well-optimized resource containing original content and not abusing external links. But often these problems arise due to errors and flaws webmaster or site optimizer. In this article we will look at the main reasons for the sharp drop in traffic to the site.

Fell position in the issuance

One of the reasons for the reduction in traffic is the site's subsidence in the issuance of significant positions. The resource becomes harder to find, resulting in a decrease in the number of transitions from the search. In some topics, most of the organic traffic is provided by only a few high-frequency queries located in the TOP. Sinking on these positions can significantly affect the overall attendance of the resource. Why are the positions of the site falling?
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Search engine filters

A filter is a kind of fine search for violating optimization rules, as a result of which the site is seriously reduced in issue. Thus, Google and Yandex are struggling with spam and malicious sites. Most filters penalize re-optimization and the use of black promotion methods. For example, the filter “AGS” of Yandex is designed to combat sites that sell links and do not bring any benefit to ordinary users. The filter "You are spam" was created to combat re-optimized pages. In Google, the Panda algorithm introduced in 2011 is struggling with this problem.



Yandex also has a filter for cheating behavioral factors and for very long texts on one page of the site. From the point of view of search engines, perfect SEO-text should not exceed 2000-2500 characters. For young sites, Google and Yandex have a so-called “sandbox” ; the meaning of the filter is that the new site (younger than 6 months) cannot be ranked better than reputable old sites by high-frequency queries. Filter "minus 30" from Google is struggling with too active and aggressive website promotion. It is far from always immediately and precisely able to establish which filter is imposed and for what. There are situations when “white and fluffy” from the point of view of SEO sites fall under the filters. In any case, you must immediately write to Platon Schukin on Yandex.Webmaster or on Google support .



Site traffic before and after being hit by Google filter.

Penalties for links

Any optimizer knows that you need to be very careful with external links. Excessive diligence in this matter usually does more harm than good. Particular caution must be exercised in the construction of the reference environment of a young site. The well-known Google Penguin algorithm, launched in April 2012 to combat spam in all its manifestations, affected more than 3% of English-language queries and 5% of Russians. As a result, many sites suffered, losing from 10 or more positions in the issuance. To learn how to build a link promotion site, read the article: "The use of external links in the promotion of sites is the main factor for getting into the TOP-10."

Removing links

When moving from one SEO company to another, rented links are often removed, which instantly and quite significantly affects the position of the site. This in turn causes a phenomenon known as “flashing” of links - the frequent removal or replacement of links, which negatively affects the promotion of a resource.

Duplicate pages

The presence of doubles reduces the position of the site, because instead of the promoted page in the issuance may be her double. Doubles may appear due to incorrect operation of the CMS, as they can form, for example, pages "print version" or pages with session identifiers, etc. Such pages of the site must be closed from indexing in the robots.txt file.

Non-original content

For Yandex, the source of information has great authority, and such sites in the ranking are ranked higher. Therefore, we recommend our customers to post original content or at least quality rewriting. At the same time, all new texts must be added to a special Yandex service, thereby pointing the search engine to the primary source of information. To some extent, it will also help protect site content from theft. Read: "How to create the right content for search engine promotion and get 100% to the point."

Slow server operation

Users do not like it, if the site is loading slowly or frequent failures occur during its operation, this increases the failure rate. This parameter is also taken into account by search engines and adversely affects the ranking of the site.

Changes to the site

Any changes on the promoted site should be coordinated with the optimizer. The most common harm is:

• Change (url) without redirection to a new site, in other words - broken links;
• Design change;
• Change CMS;
• Changes to the robot.txt file, leading to the appearance of error pages;
• Changes in significant amounts of content on the site;
• The presence of a large number of inaccessible files, illustrations, links that give 404-error. It is necessary to maintain a constant performance and availability of all files on the site.
• Malfunctions in the processes of uploading directories from 1C and other accounting systems to the site. Sometimes the search robot comes exactly at the moment when some kind of failure occurred, the catalog (some parameters of the goods, the goods themselves, the hierarchical structure) did not unload completely or did not unload at all. Such cases have a very negative impact on the position of the site in the issuance.

Site availability

For search engines, site performance is crucial, and if at the time of indexing the search robot cannot visit the site for more than 24 hours, most likely, the loss of positions in the results can not be avoided, especially by top and high-frequency queries. It is desirable to maintain hosting in full daily working capacity, and also not to forget to prolong the term of domain registration in time, otherwise you can instantly lose positions gained over the years.

Provider

A provider is an organization that provides access to the Internet. According to the complaint of the provider on illegal content, access to the site may be restricted or blocked. This situation is especially common for torrents, sites with movies and music, but can occur with any site if piracy is suspected.

Seasonality

In some areas of business, site traffic is greatly influenced by seasonality, we are talking about the so-called seasonal traffic. Contrary to popular wisdom, skis and sleds are still much more in demand in winter, and air conditioners in summer. Even some requests have a clear seasonal focus, for example, ice fishing. Therefore, one should not be surprised at the changes in traffic volumes with the advent of the new season.



The graph clearly shows how the request "tree" is gaining momentum in October and reaches a peak by December.

Viruses

It is no secret that search engines restrict access to sites that do not inspire confidence, contain viruses or a large amount of advertising (clickers, popanders, etc.). Therefore, do not forget to check the site for viruses and do not abuse advertising.

Finally

This article describes the main points that may cause a sharp drop in traffic. But each case is individual, and to avoid such problems, regularly monitor traffic to the site using Google Analytics or Yandex.Metric , monitor the position in the issue, follow the recommendations of search engines and follow the update of their algorithms.

The author of the title photo Glassholic.