New Website Launch - Traffic Way Down
-
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?
-
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.comThese 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. -
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.
-
Thank you for responding...
Yes, we did 301 redirects.
Yes, we did change the content
And yes, we switched platforms
-
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.
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
-
Many New Urls at once
Hi, I have about 5,000 new URLs to publish. For SEO/Google - Should I publish them gradually, or all at once is fine? *By the way - all these URLs were already indexed in the past, but then redirected. Cheers,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | viatrading10 -
Content very similar on different websites
Hello, I am in the travel industry and I am currently building the same website (different domain names), one for the US and one for the UK (same website design). They will both features the same content (itinerary, activities) on the page with 2 exception, the 1 st one is that I will use different hotels for my uk clientele and for my US clientele and on the UK page I will use the word "holiday" in the UK and the word "vacation" in the US. Can the fact that I do the same "itineraries" and use the same text on 95 % of the page hurt my ranking in one country or another ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
New websites
Hi Moz community, My company updated and used a new developer to build and re-design their charity websites: www.runforcharity.com, www.cycleforcharity.com and www.sportforcharity.com. This sites were "re-launched" at the beggining of December 2015 and I have now been able to get a good 6 weeks worth of data. I've been religiously using Moz.com for a couple of years and I use it simply for SEO purposes. Our websites are built upon organic traffic being driven to them and I have noticed that the PA on the new sites has taken a hammering. They all appear to have a PA of 1 and I'm at a loss why? It appears that no page has h1 text? Would this be an issue with the developer or something the content team is doing wrong? Any help of advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks Ryan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bennerya0 -
Questions about websites coupon codes
Hi guys, i have 2 questions about my website of coupon codes: should i do redirect people of google to mywebsite, e.g. Someone is looking coupons for Sony or LG and arrive to brand Sony in my website but i show him offers for Sony in Amazon when he click in some offer, ¿that is correct? Footer images links. I saw many sites that put their logos in footer of online stores to get authority, ¿should i do that? Thank you so much.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pompero990 -
Website Structured data in Google
Can anyone help me to show website structure data in Google when someone search my website in Google. I already added my website in Google and Google webmaster tool. Thanks in adv.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | talkinnetventure0 -
Interlinking multiple websites
Most websites (for example) Zalando intern link there other CC tld domains to the root. For example: On http://www.zalando.nl/damesschoenen-pumps/ the links in the footer go to the other CC tld's: http://www.zalando.es , zalando.co.uk etc. Does anyone have experience with the fact if you would interlink to the relevant page on the other CC tld;s.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TjeerdvZ
For example: http://www.zalando.nl/damesschoenen-pumps/ links to http://www.zalando.co.uk/womens-shoes-heels/ in stead of linking to the homepage ?
In theory this would give more relevance intern linking. Looking forward to hear if anyone tried or experienced this and what the results where?0 -
Organic Brand Traffic Tanking
Hey Guys, We recently launched a new website in late February. Since then, we have seen a drop in organic traffic from most of our top organic keywords. My major concern is the drop that we've seen from our branded keywords. Since the new site launch, our #1 organic traffic and revenue-driving keyword (brand name) dropped over 31%! It should be noted that all of our URLs changed, however, I've updated the sitemap in GWT and we have utilized 301 redirects on all old URLs. Any insights or recommendations on where I should be looking or what I should be doing? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Shorething0 -
Best way to help a city-centric service provider market in new nearby territories?
Our client recently acquired new county territories outside the main area city. We could create separate location pages under the primary domain, but are wondering if micro sites with unique content (and location-including url) that links back to the location pages would also be a good idea. There is some traction for certain location-based keywords in those areas. Better to focus on the one domain, or augment with separate websites in different parts of the state? I can come up with plausible reasons for and against either, but would love your thoughts. Thank you for any insight!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PerfectPitchConcepts0