Huge and sudden fall in SEO traffic

[bodaclick]

Hi,

I’m writing you because we have noticed in Google Analytics account, a huge fall in the SEO traffic of mywebsite, starting suddenly in one precise day.

The difference between this day and the previous one is: -46,36% . Traffic has fallen in all parts of the site in the same way. Some details:

-       we did not make any relevant change to the website

-       we haven’t been banned by Google (or we don’t have any message about it in GWT)

-       the number of the landing pages remains approximately the same

-       the number of indexed keywords falls from 9.000 to 4.000.

-       around 2 weeks ago we found out around 120 pages with 404 error, but the error now is solved and the pages are currently working

• we open the content to Google about 4 months but still we have not published our Site Map.

I know that the 404 error could could affect the indexation, but do you have any other idea, apart of this, of what could have happened? Thanks!

[augustos]

Agree.

Didn't saw any changes in our german website...

[Hurf]

The 404 errors aside, which are certainly prime suspects  for the drop -  did the drop occur at the same time as a drop in your competitors rankings too? I recently noticed a 10 position drop for a major keyword and checked the Ranking History for that particular keyword and noticed that at all three of the competitors I initially submitted when I setup my campaign had all dropped an equal (or greater) number of positions for that particular keyword in the same week. Which would suggest to me that a change to Google algorithm has taken place and affected us all equally, rather than as a direct result of changes made to my website content or any temporary issues with the site which would prevent Search engines from crawing the site.

Whilst I am still suffering as a result of this drop it is good to see that it wasn't isolated to my site and therefore likely to be as a result of content changes or technical problems.

[stevenheron]

Candida,

We will need more details from Google analytics in order to determine a more likely cause for the problem. As Daniel suggested, it could be the Farmer Update if these changes occurred over the past month, but it could be something else.

What I suggest you do is view the entrance sources for the actual pages that received the drop in traffic. What keywords specifically received this hit? What keywords didn't? What sort of optimization did you do for the keywords that received the hit?

[Mr.Rangen]

It would be helpful to see the domain so we could analyze the existing link profile. Depending on link types, anchor text percentages, and linking sites there could be a plenty of reasons the recent algo updates earmarked your domain.

Are you using an exact match domain?

Are the majority of your links one type? (Article dirs, blog comments, blog networks, etc.)

What have your search query reports showing recently? (Impressions, Click-thru rates, rankings)

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Candida, I'm wondering how your rankings are doing now that it's been a few weeks since the (possibly coincidental) update. Have you recovered any traffic? Did you figure out any reasons for the drop?

[kwoolf]

Search results can differ when logged into search engines, so make sure you compare results when you're logged out.  After Google indexes your site again and finds the 404s gone, I'm sure you'll work your way back up.

[joemas99]

Check your recent back link structure. A change in Google's algorithims could have render certain key words as not ranking because they are now considered to have an artificial linking structure.

[KeriMorgret]

Though it appears her website is targeted at Spain, and the Farmer/Panda update was aimed at US sites at that time, so that may not be the issue.

Can't reply to myself so will edit and correct. I should have said that the update was targeted to users in the US, not sites in the US, so she would need to see if it was just visitors from the US that dropped off to see if it was this update.

[bodaclick]

Yes, the fall has been the same in all sections of the web

[Hondaspeder]

Thanks I had no clue about this. Better check my feed more eh? That guy definitely thumbed down you lol

[StalkerB]

Do you track any of your rankings? Have they fallen by a uniform amount?

[DanDeceuster]

There was this pretty major algorithm update over the weekend called the Farmer Update. You can read more about it from Search Engine Land here:

http://searchengineland.com/google-forecloses-on-content-farms-with-farmer-algorithm-update-66071

If this applies to you, then it would definitely explain the drop in traffic.

[RogerGreene]

My first thought is to check two things:

1. make sure the Google Analytics code is still present (and correct) on all your pages.

2. Check to make sure there aren't any new filters being applied to your Analytics account.