"Help, my traffic tanked!" 🚦

Hello Reader,

👉 First, a heads-up that my shop is going to be hibernated for a few weeks starting in early November while Josh and I do a big migration to a new learning platform. Some courses are also going to get updates and edits during that time as well. If there's anything you've had your eye on, use the code BIGMOVE for a very, very nice discount. You'll also be moved to the new platform and get any updates we add when it all goes live later this year, so don't worry about losing access. This includes my big ol' SEO bundle, which is a great value and all the tools you need to build a search-fueled marketing funnel.

Every so often I get a panicked message from someone because all the sudden, their website traffic plummeted. Usually they've had decent visibility thanks to Google, and suddenly it's crickets...

It's pretty scary when this happens, and oftentimes when people take to social media with this, the feedback loop typically lays the blame on algorithms.

And sometimes, it IS the algorithm. And that really stinks! We definitely saw this when Google shifted to mobile first indexing when not everyone had a mobile-friendly site.

However, most of the time it's not. Once I investigate, I typically see these traffic issues happen due to one of a handful of things. If you're someone who's keeping an eye on your traffic (and if you're not, it's time to start—here's an intro guide) and you suddenly see your traffic dip, don't freak out! Here's what to look for, broken down into normal people lingo as best as I can:

1. There may be something technically wrong with your website.

Believe it or not, while this sounds scary, it's often the easiest fix. It's absolutely possible your website went offline or something broke that's super duper easy to repair. Here are some common culprits.

• Your SSL (that little lock in your browser) isn't set up right. Google will heavily penalize this. I still come across this issue a few times a year.
• You changed a bunch of URLs (the addresses of content) and forgot to do the redirects (that's a little bit of code telling the internet that the page lives elsewhere now). This results in a bunch of 404 errors (pages aren't found), which can cause big problems.
• You changed your overall domain name, such as switching from firstname-lastname.com to firstnamelastname.com (this is why I haven't flipped the switch over to sarahmoon.com yet, even though I finally own it).
• This may sound wacky, but make sure your website is actually up and running! I've seen this more than a few times—if you forgot to renew your domain or even your web hosting, you may suddenly see zero traffic. Yes, I've encountered both these scenarios.

2. Your website is sending spam-ish signals to the internet.

A lot of folks who operate influencer or "content creator" sites have felt the squeeze of this one, dating back to summer of 2023. At that time, Google rolled out a massive update prioritizing content the algorithm deemed helpful. We saw, and continue to see, a lot of smaller sites actually perform better thanks to this update, but some sites experienced the opposite. Here are some of the things that can contribute to this issue:

• Multiple pop-ups can cause usability problems that trigger this. This can be tricky because there are just a bunch of things that pop up on modern sites, like cookie banners and email newsletter signups. Those things on their own don't usually trigger issues but sequences of pop-ups can. It's easy to do this by mistake (yes, I've made this mistake myself), so definitely check things out in incognito mode to see the user experience.
• Too many ad insertions that cover content is a huge issue with influencer/"content creator" websites that have been penalized over the last year. It's a poor user experience and rankings have tanked on many of these sites. I understand their need to monetize, but truly, it makes the internet deeply unpleasant for users—it's probably time to get creative with your monetization if this is part of your business plan.
• Too much sponsored content can also create this issue. Again, we see this more with influencer style sites, but it's also impacted more traditional sites that monetize content as well.
• You may also see these actions taken when you use large language models to push content to your website. I know of at least one WordPress plugin that does this: basically it bulk "writes" blog posts and then publishes large volumes of this AI-style content at once. Google has already gotten wise to this game, but website owners may not know that using this type of tool can be very harmful.

3. There are larger industry issues at play.

This is one I always feel uncomfortable diving into, but your website traffic is influenced by your industry's overall health as well.

For example, outdoorsy activities such as cycling or paddle boarding had huge search spikes in 2020 and have declined ever since, basically going back to 2018-2019 levels. Same with many personal development topics. We've seen this echoed in the state of these industries. Of course this really is unfortunate for these industries, but they were likely using traffic benchmarks that were unlikely to hold steady forever—new customers don't stay forever customers.

We also see this happen on the positive when there are "blips" in the media landscape, like a celebrity using a product or being photographed using a product (think Taylor Swift's glitter freckles). As an example, look at the spike in traffic she caused recently:

One thing a lot of beneficiaries of this kind of traffic blip don't realize is that the traffic patterns usually correct in a relatively short time, so it's expected to experience downturns after a "glitter freckles"-style spike. Basically, don't plan your business around outliers!

The inverse can also happen: Bad publicity in an industry can have a knock-on effect and searches can diminish or be "negative searches" (this is a Sarahism, but basically I mean that people are looking for the hot gossip, so searches on Reddit etc will spike).

I say all these to be a voice of reason and calm in a sea of marketing panic that's designed to agitate you.

Even if search funnels aren't your thing, you've likely seen some shift in the business and marketing metrics you track over the last year. Too many people right now are stirring the pot to cause stress and anxiety so you, of course, use their amazing system to right the ship. Before you jump on the latest too good to be true promise and blow up systems that previously worked, get curious and see if the problem has a simpler solution than you think.

Talk soon,

Sarah