New Website Launch - Traffic Way Down

[WaySEO]

We launched a new website in June. Traffic plummeted after the launch, we crept back up for a couple of months, but now we are flat, nowhere near our pre-launch traffic or previous year's traffic.

For the past 6 months our analytics have been worrying us - Overall traffic and new visitor traffic is down over 10%,  bounce rate is up almost 35% since site launched, keywords aren't ranking where they used to, and of course, web sales are down.

Is this supposed to happen when a new site is launched, and how long does a new this transition last?

We have done all the technical audits, adding relevant content, we're at a loss. Any suggestions where to look next to improve traffic to pre-launch numbers?

[AdeLewis]

Hi.

Marie is right in what she says regarding there being many possible reasons but my main guess is that you have either been hit by Panda or that your old site had better content.

Firstly I would say that if you have had a technical site audit carried out that it was either a poor quality one or that you haven't actioned the recommendations.

There are two full versions of your site on different domains:-

http://www.waytekwire.com
http://order.waytekwire.com

These domains mirror each other exactly and both home pages are claiming to be the canonical version.

The content is extremely thin and your site is pretty much an example of what the original penguin update was released to combat. This product for example has no description and no worthy content on the page - http://www.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-/
This product is not alone on your site, most of your products have no descriptions.

Also your site is suffering from a common ecommerce issue of your products being viewable with or without a trailing slash and there is no canonical tag in the source to say which is the canonical version. i/e:-

http://www.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-/
http://www.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-

Show the same content. in fact the same content is shown on all of these urls :-

http://www.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-/
http://www.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-
http://waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-/
http://waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-
http://order.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-/
http://order.waytekwire.com/item/48006/LED-CLEARANCE-MARKER-1-5-

As Marie says, there could  many possible reason for your ranking drop, my guess is that it is a combination of multiple reasons. Until you get the very basics sorted you are going to struggle in cracking this issue.

My best advice would be to pay for a really good site audit and follow through every recommendation. Failing that, sort out your site canonicalisation issues and give every single product a good description.

Really sorry for the bad news but hopefully it helps point you in the right direction.

All the best.
Ade.

[MarieHaynes]

Sorry to hear about your traffic drop.  Unfortunately I think this type of question is too broad for you to get an answer in a forum.  There are so many possible reasons for the traffic to drop.  Here are a few:

-The initial traffic boost could have been from the "honeymoon affect".

-Do you have content that is taken from other sites or otherwise duplicated?  If so, then Panda could have affected you.  Have a look at your organic traffic and see if it drops on a known Panda update day.

-If you built links with too much anchor text and from easy to get sources then Penguin could have affected you.

-You could have issues with your server

-You could have malware

-You could have competitors with better SEO.

[WaySEO]

Thank you for responding...

Yes, we did 301 redirects.

Yes, we did change the content

And yes, we switched platforms

www.waytekwire.com

[AdeLewis]

Hi John,

First question is did you 301 redirect all of the old pages over to the new pages?

Did you change just the design or all of the content as well?

Did you switch platforms. i/e from one type of CMS to another.

Can you post the link to your site?

Cheers.

Ade.