Target Search Terms Changed - does this affect traffic?
-
We spent the last 12 months targeting a particular search term (mortgage broker) and have been ranking well for it consistently for about 6 months now. We have decided to change the target search term to something else (insurance broker) but noticed that our traffic has started to decline since we started doing this.
We are still ranking well for the initial search term, and our ranking is slowly improving for the new targeted search term in SERPs but traffic is down about 60% from January. Is it normal/expected for this to happen?
-
Ok, it is difficult without a full set of data.
But if traffic has dropped and not rankings, then it is seasonal. Mortgage Broker is a big term, so if that is still ranking 1 then sounds ok.
What does sound concerning, is it now sounds like you have a number of sites and they could be interlinked ie a PBN.. so have to factor same in.
It is tough to advise, but my view is if rankings have remained the same and online visibility if you are tracking - then all is good. If rankings for mortgage broker and visibility have declined then it is a problem and site audit should be undertaken asap.
Not sure that helps, as data sets not great, but hopefully a starting point.
Regards
-
The first decline was from Jan to Feb, where traffic dropped by 33%. Feb - March, there wasn't much of a change, March to April it dropped by 56%. This was potentially seasonal due to Easter, as all our other sites also experienced a drop in April but they all recovered in May, except for this site which is still down approx 50% from March.
We are targetting the new search terms on different pages to the original search term.
-
Hi
On traffic decline there have been some major updates, August last year, March 12 and June 4 this year. Do any declines or changes in rankings co-inside with those dates? Or does the decline date within days of site changes?
Secondly, are you targetting these terms on the same page or on different pages?
Regards
-
In my experience, I would expect it to recover assuming that the page is optimised for that the new keyword, that the said keywords are on a new page & that some link building activities are undertaken.
Do you have the URL for me to browse?
-
The business does mortgage broking and insurance broking. We focused on getting "mortgage broker" to rank first, as that is what we were predominantly known for, but now we want to get our name out there for our insurance services too.
Our ranking for "insurance broker" hasn't gone up enough to make up for the drop in traffic. In your experience, do you expect the drop in traffic to last, or will it slowly recover?
-
Sounds like normal behaviour to me, why did you change the focus & how much has Insurance Broker has gone up - has it made up for the drop?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is the language targeting at Adwords?
Hey guyz, I've used the adwords for the my organic seo keyword research. As you guyz do And I noticed that I don't really know to what does language targeting do ?
Keyword Research | | atakala
I mean what is the function of it .
I know that when we change the language targeting I mean setting it English from global doesn't change the volume of the search data .
So why is there ?0 -
Competitive Search Terms?
Does Moz provide a way to see what search terms are generating traffic on competitive sites? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | jmueller08230 -
Arrow changes
I feel stupid asking this bt my report came out today. Beside each keyword is a narrow either red pointing Dow with a number beside it or a green pointing down. What do these mean? guessimg a green down arrow means my position for this word moved down 2 positions? ( from google spot 5 to 3?)
Keyword Research | | Jasonalanmagic0 -
How to get search volume in Google's keyword planner
I want to know the search volume for ~1000 keywords that I discovered via ubersuggest. Yesterday I could have done this in 5 minutes, but I can't seem to get it to work in the new Google tool and would love some advice. When I either upload or copy and paste my list into the tool I can get it to give me search ideas with volume, but it has all the keywords I am uploading as 0 search volume (when I know that is not true and some of them have thousands of searches). I've tried "entering keywords to see how they perform" and also "searching for keyword ideas" (the second just because the first didn't try after my 10 tries) Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?
Keyword Research | | theLotter
Or is this a bug other people have been experiencing?0 -
What does it mean when two keywords in Google's Keyword Research Tool have exactly the same amount of searches?
The two keywords are [publicity] and [product placement] (both in exact search - not broad) and have 22,200 searches each. Is it purely coincidental or are the two keywords kind of related in Google's eyes and that's why we're seeing the same amount of searches for each?
Keyword Research | | davhad0 -
What is the relationship/difference between categories and keywords in terms of google local seo?
I know that they are very similar as search signals, but I would like to understand the exact relationship. My company is in the process of adding local seo services to our seo offerings, and we are trying to hammer out a process for determining optimal categories for businesses based on keywords we are already using for optimizing their sites. Any insights or suggestions on how best to do this would be much appreciated.
Keyword Research | | CustomCreatives0 -
Organic vs Places (Maps) Searches
I realize one can use the google adwords keyword tool to get rough organic search volume, but Is there a method to see how much a keyword is searched within specifically google places? That is, seperated out from the organic search? Ideally i would like to see how often certain keywords are search for in google, v.s. in google places/maps directly. maybe it is not possible. cheers, storwell
Keyword Research | | adriandg0 -
No real traffic, but moderately high PPC value - how come?
I've been given some terms with no noticeable traffic in the Keywords research tool, but have a moderately high PPC value - why is that and are they worth pursuing if they have no recordable traffic? FYI, this may be a newbie assumption on my part that -- means no noticeable traffic... Thanks guys!
Keyword Research | | Designbuddy0