Google didn't reduce my traffic. I did.

[dickbaker]

Like many on this forum, I've seen a decline in Google traffic, especially compared to last year. I assumed that my rankings for some phrases had gone down, that an update had affected my site, and that my problems were generally attributable to something Google had done.

Yesterday I sat down and really took time to analyze my Analytics data, comparing 11/21/2008-12/21/2008 with the same period this year.

Last year's period was getting 40,000 to 50,000 page views daily, compared with 30,000+ this year. Time spent on site was two minutes average last year, compared with 1.75 minutes this year. Page views were 5+ last year, compared to 3.8 this year.

During that one month period last year, visitors found my site using 91,000 different search phrases. This year they found it using 83,000. Those numbers struck me as being fairly close. I know my site last year got a big boost in traffic for political reasons after the election, so the closeness of the number of search phrases was interesting.

I took the first 500 phrases for last year's period and this year's and exported them into an Excel file, and spent a lot of time comparing. I was surprised to see that there was very little difference. Phrases moved up or down a few places, but only a couple changed dramatically.

When I considered all of the information, there was only one conclusion I could reach: I'd lost the interest of a lot of visitors who'd been to my site before. I didn't add enough new content. People who've been to the site probably see it in the search results and say, "I've been to that site. It doesn't have what I want."

Creating new pages is boring, but it's what I have to do. More photos, more content to draw visitors in and keep them. It's Brett's rules. I just got lazy.

[HRoth]

Do you have a search box on your site? I have found that looking at the search log results for my site is really helpful in finding out what people are looking for that I don't have. It has helped me develop new products. It would show what your customers can't find.

[wheel]

Good point DB! It's like reminding people to set up automated backups and check them once in a while. yeah, we all know about it and really should, but we never quite get around to it.

Me, I've got 5000 pages of content waiting to go live on my site in the new year :).

[zehrila]

Or it could be due to the loss of interest in your specific keywords.

[AnkitMaheshwari]

Though addition of new content (leading to user interest) might be the best guess, however I would recommend that you should check for any missing analytics code from important/main pages.

[dickbaker]

Though addition of new content (leading to user interest) might be the best guess, however I would recommend that you should check for any missing analytics code from important/main pages.

I already have.

[dickbaker]

I thought I'd update this thread, as it may help people who think their site is having Google problems.

I really crunched numbers from my analytics program today to try to figure out if I've actually lost ground with Google, or if I've simply gained ground with Bing and Yahoo.

Google Analytics has shown that Google as a traffic source has gone from 65% last year to 55-58% this month. I thought that was a sure sign I'd lost rankings.

I compared the number of keywords used for Google, Yahoo and Bing. Yahoo and Bing showed larger increases than Google.

Finally I eliminated Bing and MSN (last year) from the search engine referrals and found that the percentage of referrals from Google has remained almost exactly the same. The drop from 65% to 55-58% was due to Bing and Yahoo bringing more traffic, particularly Bing.

If you're thinking that your Google world is crumbling, take a look at the numbers in a different way.

[gomer]

Creating new pages is boring...

Try creating a site about something you really like and then it won't seem like work.

[dickbaker]

Try creating a site about something you really like and then it won't seem like work.

The site is about something I really like. However, it's been my experience that turning a hobby into a job takes the joy out of the hobby. I was an avid photographer, became a professional and, after 30 years in the business, sold all my equipment.

I like learning about the various models of widgets. I don't like the repetitive nature of page creation.

[johnnie]

I always correlate my stats to google insights. Sometimes, declining traffic is a simple matter of a shrinking market. Only diversification can help you then.

[HuskyPup]

I like learning about the various models of widgets. I don't like the repetitive nature of page creation.

Oh how I can empathise with that statement!