When it comes to measuring the success of a website or the effectiveness of an SEO campaign, it is always recommended that a webmaster focus on the traffic a site is receiving rather than obsessing over where they are ranking with Google and the other search engines for their chosen keywords.

Traffic volume, as well as visitor behaviour reports and similar tools, can give a much better idea of whether a site is targeting relevant visitors rather or just enjoying the false vanity that comes with ranking well for an irrelevant keyword.

A website dropping down the search rankings might not be much cause for concern. However, a sudden drop off in the traffic a site is seeing will definitely set alarm bells ringing. Before starting to panic, it is always worth looking at a number of factors and making some considerations. What are they, and why could they make a difference?

Are You a Seasonal Website?

Think about this in terms of the products that you sell and your market, rather than the traditional seasons of the year or festivals such as Christmas, when you might expect to see a rise in traffic.

What are the factors that might lead to your website traffic dropping off? For example, if you are a business services provider, you could expect to see a drop at the end of the financial year, with perhaps an increased demand in the first month of the next one.

It is important to be able to recognize these natural peaks and troughs, so that you don’t mistakenly believe there is a problem with your SEO campaign, for example, and decide to change course hastily.

Did You Change Something About Your SEO Activities?

Some of you might have already made changes, and if you are seeing a prolonged depression in your visitor numbers, this is the sign that you didn’t need to change anything. You will have to work hard to bring back the visitors, but as you will have some level of name recognition, it will not be an impossible task to do so.

Ask yourself if you have fallen into the trap of believing that you had “done’ SEO. Many businesses reach page one and stop with their SEO activities completely. Refocus yourself concerning SEO, and commit to it being a long-term part of your workload.

What Else Have You Done Differently?

As much as SEO is powerful for site traffic, it is not the be all and end all of getting people to come and check out your pages and make a purchase from you. What else have you done differently that might have reduced your site traffic?

• · Have you changed the dates you send out email marketing?
• · Are you still focussed on social media for driving leads?
• · Do you still engage with customers or do you use automated responses to save time?

Drops in web traffic very rarely “just happen,’ and the chances are that you will probably be able to find the reason why it happened to you reasonably quickly.

Investigate, put it right, and start moving your website forward once again.

Robert is a passionate user of SEO tools that help websites to improve their rankings and user experience. Robert is a lover of all things SEO, and regularly spends his time researching and writing about the latest industry trends.