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No change in traffic (NONE)

No change in traffic, much work done. No improvement.

         

JeVeldi

2:20 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Since January we have added a lot of quality content. Easily about 1500-2000 words, per article - all together some 55 unique pages. Nice content too, good quality. Well readable.

However, there has not been any change in impressions or clicks in GSC. NONE.

At least I would've expected a growth of about 10 to 20% now.

Let me explain...

Since (the end of) October we launched a new website. This has had the expected effect and after some adjustments, proper site migration, some setbacks, etc. this resulted in a small reduction in traffic. We overcame, we recovered. So basically, we're at the same level as in pre-October.

The weird thing is, we don't outgrow this line. We keep sticking to the same damn level. No matter what I do. Well, at least that's how it feels. So despite easily adding more than 100,000 words... For reference, we have about 1200 pages (products, blogs, categories, etc.).

I know we still have work to do in reducing 301 redirects (old links still need to be adjusted), there are still some broken pages, and broken images. However, the old site also had this also... in the mean time we've improved site speed, site structure, cleared up old pages, fix links, etc.

Usually not the guy who screams bl#*$! murder, but am really sick of guessing and waiting for something to happen. Bit lost acutally.

Anyone some suggestions as to what could be the cause of this?
Open to help and feedback, would be much appreciated.

not2easy

3:33 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Hi JeVeldi and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

For your new content to be seen as an improvement, I would spend time fixing the user experience. Broken pages, and broken images and problematic redirects can limit your reach. When you 301 redirect, the user expects to land on the newer version of the old page. If they are not getting that, it is considered a soft 404, so worse than a 410 (gone).

It can take more than 6 months today for a site to get to where it 'belongs', especially in competitive fields.

nickZ

4:15 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)



Adding new content does nothing for pages not well enough embedded in internet.
Look up the backlink profile of your competition or the competitors you'd like to surpass and compare with yours.

tangor

4:37 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Have you looked at other aspects of your site such as responsive, mobile friendly, speed, UI, ease of use, thematics, relation to high-contrast, accessibility, etc?

One can get a bigger boost out of making the site fully compliant with appropriate responsive behavior REGARDLESS OF VIEWPORT and most other things.


Welcome aboard!

JeVeldi

6:13 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Thanks all for the welcome. :)

Good suggestions also, definitely!

Our old website also had some minor flaws like 301 redirects, broken links, etc - My gut feeling says that these are not what I'm looking for to be honest.

Link profile - good point. I still believe a proper website, with good content and just a bit of foundation underneath in terms of links should do the trick. It always worked like that with our old website. Haven't been doing anyting in that spectrum lately, but didn't in the past as well. Sure, would bring our website further, still don't think that's the underlying reason.

To be honest, I worked in our field for quite some years, and than turned my back to it. I've been out for some 5 years or so and am a bit worried I've missed on so many things that there's something I'm missing. Not seeing. Overlooking.

I sense there's something other that's going on. Am I writing the content not as I suposed to?

Would be happy to share url via private if someone has some spare minutes and wants to have a closer look.

JeVeldi

6:14 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Sorry, forgot to mention - website and domain have been live since 2012. Well established.

JeVeldi

6:16 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Oh besides - the field we're in isn't ultra competitive. Should be fairly easy to rank in top 10 SERPs.

not2easy

6:35 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Are the sites that rank above yours (other than ads) doing things differently? It can help to take a look at some of those to look for things they are doing differently. I'm not suggesting copying, just looking for hints at how they are "better" for visitors. User experience counts more since the past few G updates.

tangor

8:15 pm on Apr 27, 2023 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



The web has ... changed .... and NOT ... changed.

Things we depended on back in the 10's are still valid, just not as highly rated as they were back then. The "two hundred or so" points to ranking is closer to "two thousand" these days---and we are all still trying to figure out all the minutia!

OTOH!

When the site is right, tight, and properly done, one CANNOT and MUST NOT ignore the rest of the world when it comes to "traffic". Today's GLOBAL economy is taking hits. Particular nations are struggling even more. POLITICS---and all other kinds of cultural impacts---are eating up the "air space". The noise at times is very great.

Your traffic drop, or lack of increase can be attributed to MANY factors ... and quite a few are simply out of your control.

Been there. Done that. On the web since 1996 and these things come in cycles. No amount of gnashing teeth and whirling about to jump and shout can change that.

Deal with what you CAN control. Make sure it is correct, then grin and bear it as we-the-web-the-world get through the next six months. TIME is the healer of all wounds, even internet wounds!

If all else is in good order, then the only option left is:

TIME.

JeVeldi

8:04 am on Apr 29, 2023 (gmt 0)

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Thanks all, your help is really appreciated!

NOT a big fan of accepting things are out of my control ;o)

@not2easy - OT: sure , I'll get back to this here below. Got me thinking - might the web been so overloaded with content in the past few years that it's exponentially harder to get ranked with 'good content'? My approach is to focus on a topic / keyword, get top ranking pages in another language to get my input from and (re)write a piece in my own style. Likely that Google sees that 'content' is reused/recycled every time and don't bother no more because its too much alike (eg. sub-topics)?

@tangor - Fully understand what you're saying, and I totally agree with you. Spot on. Since I've not been able to find the answers I'm looking for and considering I'm looking for something that might not be there at all - and sick of giving it more time, I've steered in another direction.

NEW DIRECTION - My guts say it's more or less still a content problem. I've therefore set up a POP account and put some pages in there. Quite some low scores. Although this won't explain the lack of expected growth 1) It might help me keep occupied and not stare blind - or at the wall all day, 2) help determine if my approach to copy writing is OK, and 3) help determine - no matter the outcome - what's wrong content or technique..

Started with the free trail - never used a tool like this so I'm really curious what will come of this. Keep you posted.