How to find out the reason for the sudden drop in website traffic?

The most critical task of website operation is traffic generation. Without website operation, the subsequent work cannot be carried out, so we must pay attention to the traffic of our website every day. Usually we will install statistical codes on the website and then collect data on website users' visits every day. But many times we will encounter this situation, that is, the website traffic shows an abnormal decline. But many times when we encounter abnormal website traffic, especially novices, we will panic. We don’t know the reason, nor do we know where to start analyzing it, let alone come up with an effective solution. The boss asked about the reason for a long time and couldn’t explain the situation clearly. Today He Yang will talk to you about what aspects we should check on the website when there is a sudden drop in website traffic, and gradually identify the causes until we find a solution.

Generally, when we find that our website traffic has dropped suddenly, the first thing we need to figure out is: which source of website traffic channel has the abnormality? The best way to know the answer is to log in to your website analysis background to view the traffic source channel report and do a comparative analysis;

The following is an example of Baidu Statistics. The steps are as follows: log in to the Baidu Statistics backend –> find the traffic source report –> conduct a year-on-year analysis;

The following is an example of GA statistics. The steps are as follows:

Log in to the GA statistics backend –> find the traffic acquisition report –> Overview –> Channels –> Source/Media;

Once we know which source of traffic has a problem, the general direction is basically determined. At this time, we need to screen out some common factors that cause a sudden drop in traffic and match them with the general direction we have determined, and finally locate the cause and propose a solution. So the question is, what are the possible reasons for the decline in website traffic? He Yang gives you some ideas here, I hope it will be helpful to you.

1. Statistics code failure

There are many general situations in which statistics code fails. For example, when a website is revised, the statistics code of some pages is not installed correctly because different template information is used, or there is a conflict between other JS codes and statistics on the website, server abnormalities or accidental incorrect configuration (such as pausing report operations), etc., all of which will cause the statistics code to work abnormally.

The sources of traffic that affect traffic include: search channels, referral traffic, and direct traffic;

Generally, there are two results caused by this kind of problem:

1. No traffic overall: This is definitely caused by the statistics code not working. It is recommended to check whether the code can work properly (whether there is a conflict or it cannot be loaded), or whether there is any wrong configuration (such as pausing the report);
2. Some directories have no traffic as a whole: For example, the pages under the product directory of the website have no traffic as a whole. We can analyze the traffic trend of each directory through the sub-directory report (GA calls it content grouping). If the traffic under a certain directory suddenly disappears, then at this time we need to check whether the statistics code in this part of the directory is not installed or working properly;

2. Normal fluctuations during holidays

This is very common and universal. At the beginning of major holidays (such as Spring Festival and National Day), most websites will have a significant downward trend. This is normal and we can easily check and verify it in the statistical report, mainly by observing the date and duration of the traffic change. We can also retrieve historical data and compare it with the same period last year.

The sources of traffic that affect traffic include: search channels, referral traffic, and direct traffic;

If this happens, don’t be nervous or make any adjustments;

3. After the Marketing Activities

We know that in the process of website operation, we will carry out different types of promotion activities according to different needs, which can help us accumulate popularity, retain users, and even improve conversions. Therefore, as long as the activity of attracting new users is effective, it will generally show a significant increase in website traffic in the short term, but after the activity ends, it will return to normal range in a short time.

The sources of traffic that affect traffic include: search channels, referral traffic, and direct traffic;

What we need to do in operations is to connect with the marketing personnel, ask what type of activity it is and which channel of source traffic will be affected, and then analyze the type of declining traffic channel we determined above to see if the source channel matches. If they match, then it means that the current decline in traffic is a natural regression phenomenon after the end of the event, and there is no big problem.

4. Search engine ranking reduction;

Those who do SEO may be very sensitive to this word. What SEO worries most is being demoted by search engines. There are many reasons for this, such as creating a large number of spam links in a short period of time, joint penalties for friendly links, and various black hat techniques. Generally, a more serious demotion will cause the website's keywords to lose all rankings in the search engine results page, resulting in a significant impact on the website's traffic.

The sources of traffic that affect the site include: search channels;

However, we can easily identify the impact of search engine demotion on traffic by opening the search source report and comparing the same time period.

So what should we do after finding the cause? If the company has a dedicated SEO, of course it should be left to him. If you also work as an SEO, you need to analyze the reasons that led to the demotion of the website, then formulate corresponding corrective measures and wait for the search engine to review it again. And you need to track the daily traffic changes in a timely manner until the keyword ranking recovers.

5. Impact of external promotion links

There are many ways to attract external traffic to a website, such as hard advertising and various external links. The purpose is to increase as many entrances as possible for users to visit our website. However, sometimes the different status of external promotion links will have a greater impact on the traffic of the website, which is mainly manifested in two aspects:

1. Problems with a large number of links : For example, a large number of links were posted in a highly relevant forum, but the account was blocked due to violating the forum rules, causing all the posts with a large exposure to become invisible at once;
2. One or several links with good traffic generation effects have problems: For example, I used to do a lot of hard advertising on some webmaster sites, which were highly relevant and therefore had very good results. But generally there is a cycle, so after the cycle ends, the website traffic will have a significant drop;

There are actually many types of problems we mentioned above, which can be divided into the following three categories:

1. Normal offline: For example, the paid hard advertising we mentioned above will be offline naturally after the cycle ends;
2. Manual deletion: For example, the forum account we mentioned above was blocked, causing all previous external links to be deleted;
3. Links are not working: Links are often not working because of domain name changes, so we must do a good job of 301 redirects;

Influencing traffic sources include: referral traffic;

When these problems occur, we can first use the historical trend chart of the external link report changes in the statistical report to locate which external links have problems. If it is the first type of normal offline mentioned above, then you should consider whether it is necessary to renew the subscription to continue displaying. If it is the second type of manual deletion, then you should check whether you have violated the other party's rules and avoid posting external links in the future. If the connection is not working, you should check whether you have changed the domain name without doing a 301 redirect, causing the original address to be unreachable and resulting in traffic loss.

6. Server or CDN abnormality

There are many types of server anomalies, such as downtime, hacking, etc., but once an anomaly occurs, it will cause users to fail to access the website. Naturally, the statistical code cannot be loaded at all, and the website's access data cannot be counted.

Another reason is that in order to ensure access speed, websites that use CDN acceleration may often cause access anomalies to the website, such as inability to connect to the configuration node, no coverage area, etc.

The sources of traffic that affect traffic include: search channels, referral traffic, and direct traffic;

Usually, if the website cannot be accessed, ask the company's technical staff to handle it as soon as possible. After the problem is solved, you can use the webmaster ping or speed test tool to test whether the website can be accessed normally in every area.

Conclusion

No matter what skills or methods He Yang introduces in his articles, he likes to tell everyone the ideas behind the skills and how we should think so that we can quickly master them. In fact, the same is true when website traffic suddenly declines. First, determine the general direction of which channel’s traffic is abnormal, and then analyze every factor related to this channel, so that we can quickly locate the cause of the abnormality and find a solution. Of course, there are far more factors that may cause engine traffic to decline than these. If you have any methods or questions about traffic anomaly detection, please leave a message to communicate.