6 Reasons Your Blog Traffic Might Be Declining [And What to Do About It]

I’ve learn a number of feedback right here on Problogger from bloggers who’re feeling low as a result of they’ve observed a plateau or perhaps a lower within the site visitors coming to their weblog.

Whereas all of us need to see our site visitors rise the fact is that each weblog has days, weeks and even months the place site visitors ranges out and even decreases. This may be fairly distressing for bloggers who’ve huge hopes and desires for his or her blogs.

As we speak I’d like to take a look at some of the explanations a weblog’s site visitors may lower and counsel some methods ahead for every of them.

1. Seasonal Site visitors

In case you’re nonetheless within the first 12 months of your weblog you might be but to see what a full calendar 12 months seems to be like when it comes to site visitors in your area of interest. Most niches have pure rises and falls in site visitors.

For instance (see beneath for a chart of customer numbers) on my photography tips weblog we see spikes in site visitors in December and January. December’s site visitors increase is usually to do with folks researching new cameras to purchase and January is usually related to folks understanding the way to use cameras that they received for Christmas. On the flip facet we frequently see dips in site visitors over August to October.

What to Do: The primary time you see a seasonal rise or fall in site visitors it may be fairly complicated – nevertheless the important thing with it’s to not panic if you see a dip however to determine alternatives to maximise the rises and to attenuate the falls.

For instance it is likely to be that you want to tailor your content material for sure instances of 12 months and what individuals are doing in relation to your area of interest.

For me on my images weblog this meant writing content material in November-December on how to buy a digital camera (to capitalize on the Christmas shopping for development), writing beginner photography tips in January (to capitalize on the development of individuals on the lookout for recommendations on the way to use their new cameras) and through low seasons (like July when it’s summer time within the US) writing topical suggestions like Beach Photography Tips or How to use a camera in the Bright Sun.

One other Tip – one nice free instrument for taking a look at seasonal site visitors is to make use of Google Trends to research what individuals are looking the net for. For instance if I type in ‘digital cameras’ I get this chart:

There’s plenty of fascinating stuff on this (the downward development for starters) nevertheless it clearly exhibits what I’ve noticed above – extra individuals are looking the net for that time period from November-December every year. This info might verify a suspicion you could have or enable you to determine a development to capitalize on in your area of interest.

Additional Studying: Seasonal Site visitors and Methods to Seize it in your Weblog.

2. Topical Curiosity

At different instances of 12 months site visitors occasions could be triggered by different present occasions. For instance I do know one leisure blogger who has had plenty of site visitors this previous few weeks just because they’d beforehand had plenty of content material that ranked properly in Google on Will Smith. After all in coming months because the information of Will Smith’s dangerous behaviour on the Oscars subsides it’s possible that they’ll see some declines in site visitors.

What to Do: The important thing with topical rises and falls in site visitors is to attempt to seize as a lot of the frenzy of site visitors as you possibly can in order that when the decline comes you’ve received new subscribers/readers to your weblog (see additional studying beneath on ‘sticky blogs).

It’s additionally necessary to pay attention to upcoming occasions in your area of interest and writing content material in anticipation of that. This may be arduous in predicting the demise of a mega pop star like Jackson however in several niches it’s attainable to foretell occasions.

For instance – earlier than the Athens Olympics I used to be concerned in working a weblog the place we wrote a put up prematurely of the Olympics for each single occasion within the video games. The posts included athletes names and any info we might get on the occasions. We up to date the posts with outcomes as soon as they occasions had been run. In consequence we had been persistently rating very extremely for ‘Occasion title Outcomes’ when folks had been looking for winners of occasions in Search Engines.

Additional Studying: Methods to Create a Sticky Weblog

3. Posting Frequency

One frequent purpose for lulls in site visitors is {that a} weblog has had a lull in new content material being revealed. I noticed one blogger writing a put up not too long ago about how their weblog was failing to realize traction and within the feedback of the put up a reader identified that the blogger had hardly been posting. The fact was that the blogger had produced little or no to be learn and so folks weren’t visiting.

What to Do: Posting extra doesn’t assure additional site visitors however it may be an element to think about. Chart your previous couple of months of posts and see if there’s any correlation to rises and falls in your site visitors – you may determine a development!

Value noting is that some bloggers report that after they put up LESS that they really get extra traction with readers. I do know of 1 blogger who was posting 10-20 instances a day and when he dropped issues again to 2-3 posts a day he observed not solely will increase in remark numbers per put up however that his posts had been being shared extra on social media websites. At 10-20 posts a day posts had been coming off the entrance web page of his weblog a lot that readers hardly had an opportunity to learn and share them.

Additional Studying: What’s the Best Submit Frequency for a Weblog?

4. Shifts in Search Rankings

Many blogs see the way in which that they’re ranked by Google (and different engines like google) rise and fall through the years.  

A Private Instance – Again in 2004 (simply earlier than Christmas) I awoke at some point to search out that my essential weblog at the moment had all however disappeared from Google. I’d not executed something to the weblog that wasn’t allowed by Google and hadn’t made any main modifications to the location – I simply disappeared. My coronary heart sank (truly I felt fairly sick) as a result of that weblog was the primary supply of revenue from my running a blog and 75% of my site visitors had vanished.

The lull in site visitors lasted about 6 weeks earlier than it magically reappeared. In that point I received myself one other job and diversified my running a blog and discovered loads.

What to Do: Generally engines like google change their algorithms and infrequently they appear to lose websites from their rankings for no obvious purpose. The important thing with this sort of lack of site visitors is to not panic, be sure you’re abiding by Google’s guidelines (not promoting textual content hyperlinks or doing the rest thought-about to be black hat) after which  apply for re-inclusion utilizing Google’s webmaster tools.This has occurred to me a few instances through the years and every time the site visitors got here again – it wasn’t fairly nearly as good as when it disappeared however issues appeared to proper themselves.

Additional Studying: Search Engine Optimization for Bloggers

5. Poor High quality Posts

After all one other issue to think about when trying on the site visitors to your weblog is whether or not you’re truly constructing a invaluable web site for readers and producing prime quality, participating and helpful content material.

This one could be a little confronting to suppose by way of and may take you getting an outsiders critique or suggestions (typically it’s arduous to be goal about one thing you’ve put a lot work into). As I look again alone running a blog I do know there have been particular instances the place site visitors has suffered after I’ve struggled for inspiration as a blogger and the place this has impacted the standard of what I used to be capable of write.

On the flip facet there have been instances the place I’ve been impressed to write down sequence of posts which have related with readers and helped them in sensible methods which has pushed plenty of site visitors to my websites.

What to Do: Ask your self (and others round you):

• Are You Being Related and Helpful to Readers?
• Is your weblog serving to your readers by offering them with worth, fixing their issues, entertaining them or giving them a way of group?

If the reply is not any then it’s more likely to affect the variety of folks studying it.

Additional Studying: Methods to Write Nice Weblog Content material

6. Promotional Actions

As I take a look at a few of the rises and falls in site visitors to my blogs I do know that a few of them could be straight tied to my very own advertising and marketing and promotion of my blogs (or the shortage of promotion that I’ve executed).

Writing nice content material doesn’t assure a weblog’s success. You possibly can’t simply construct it and anticipate that ‘they are going to come’. Generally you want to get on the market and promote your self.

Maybe the lull in site visitors by yourself weblog is partly to do with taking your foot off the accelerator in your individual advertising and marketing.

What to Do: This implies various things for various blogs however might embody investing into social media websites like Twitter, selling your posts to different bloggers, networking with different bloggers, working a contest in your weblog, leaving feedback on different blogs and boards, visitor posting on different websites, doing promotions in essential stream media, doing a little giveaways….. and many others

Additional Studying: Methods to Discover Readers for Your Weblog.

Maintain Transferring Ahead – Don’t Give Up

There are many different potential components that might be at play (I invite you to share others beneath) however the hot button is to not be paralyzed by the declines and plateaus in site visitors that you simply expertise however to spend just a little time making an attempt to determine the explanations after which carry on motoring on together with your weblog.

You possibly can see from the primary chart above that my images weblog has had fairly a number of months the place site visitors has plateaued and dipped – however I’ve stored to the imaginative and prescient that I’ve for the location and continued to maintain working. A lower in site visitors from one month to the following just isn’t nice nevertheless it’s not the tip of your weblog. If I’d allowed the dips to find out whether or not I’d maintain running a blog or not I’d most likely have lasted 2-3 months on that weblog and did not see it develop to the purpose that it has.

In case you’re critical about constructing an viewers in your weblog and need to supercharge your site visitors ProBlogger’s Discover Readers Course provides you with the roadmap and information you thru 6 clear steps to search out readers.

This text was first revealed on July 15, 2009 and up to date April 28, 2022.