The best time for any website owner would be when the website traffic shows consistent growth, the conversion rate is steadily on the rise and the page views look up and good. However, no matter how well a website may be performing, the chances of this performance being permanent are close to nil.

The threat of a drop in website traffic is always there. The reason for a decline in traffic could be a number of things. Often times novice site owners and SEO professionals overlook this unusual decrease in traffic and by the time they realize what has happened, it’s too late to do anything about it.

What Could Be The Reason For The Drop?

There are a number of factors that could lead to a decline in traffic. Let’s take a quick look at what the most common ones are, shall we?

• Change in the consumers’ preferences – Something as simple as a new trend wave can have a great impact on website traffic.
• Changes done to the website – Modification of website design or content is one of the most common reasons for the traffic to take a dip.
• Issues with the mobile site – A desktop website that does not have a responsive design is to bound suffer from loss of traffic in this era of smartphones.
• Google’s algorithm updates – Google is known to update its algorithms on a regular basis and these updates are known to cause a dip in site traffic.
• Insecure URL – When Google starts warning visitors that a website is insecure, most of them usually turn away from it.
• Webpage indexing issues – A poorly organized website usually makes it difficult for Google Bot to properly index it and that means low traffic.
• Hacked website – A hacked website can only lead to problems and these problems generally cause the traffic to take a hit.

How To Find Out If You Have A Problem?

The first thing you need to do is determine whether it is a sudden drop in traffic or a steady decline. A quick drop in traffic could possibly be a result of any kind of technical issue or a Google Penalty. A gradual decline in traffic may be caused due to a Google algorithm update.

One of the easiest ways to find out is to monitor the stats on Google Analytics for a considerable period of time. Check if the drop in traffic is really sudden and unreasonable or is it because of the seasonality, holidays, or something along the same lines.

Final Takeaway

Even if you are too busy with the other aspects of your business, it is always a good thing to take some time out of your schedule, no matter how hectic it is, to keep an eye on your website’s performance. While the occasional traffic drop can be expected, sudden, steady and long-term drops must be investigated. Extended downtime in website traffic can prove to be extremely dangerous for your site’s search ranking.