Google Webmaster Dropped Traffic
-
Hi Guys,
I've recently implemented a new site design with a new url architecture etc..
I set up Google Webmaster tools in early March and went live with the new site on 2nd April. Since the 6th April (4 days after going live) I've notice a drop in impressions from 15,000 - 28,000 per day to 3,500 - 5,500 per day.
Now I'm kind of new to this, so after I cleaned up after my initial panic, I checked impressions vs. clicks. Impression are down 44% and clicks 31%. Not bad I thought but then again what if I dropped so far off the radar I never made an impression.
1. So first question: Are the number of impressions of a keyword independant of ranking. So if I rank #3,445,234th will I still see impressions listed but avg. position reflect #3,445,234?
So while I was thinking of asking these questions I checked Google Analytics for which I have just over 3 years of metrics. Compared to the past; overall traffic and organic traffic are the same if not 10-20% better.
2. So second: Am I missing something? Its a resort website so easter just ended and you would expect the traffic to match and drop, but such a sudden and dramitic drop in Webmaster Tools impressions does not match Google Analytics. Infact Organic traffic climbed slightly. Can anyone offer any insight?
Thanks,
Adam
-
Ahh phew, I was hoping it was something like that. I hate not knowing.
It was only yesterday that Google dropped most of the duplicate entry messages in the crawl error section. Fingers crossed it will finish itself.
Thanks for replying so quick,
Adam
-
Hi Adam,
I wouldn't worry too much here. What it probably is, is because you have set up new a new URL architecture, Google is now having to index those new pages into the search engine. As a result of this, you may not be appearing in the search engines for such a high spread of different keywords than you previously were.
Personally, I don't pay too much attention to impressions as I focus more on actual click-throughs to the website. If your Google Analytics data is showing that you are maintaining web traffic levels to the website and you are getting good traffic through the organic search listings then everything should be fine.
Give it a month or so and you will find that your total impressions will rise up again. Just keep an eye on web traffic and actual organic search visits for now. I would anticipate that you would get a slight drop for a new site in the short term anyway.
Hope this has cleared things up.
Matt.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Spammy traffic
Hi guys! There has been an unusual amount of traffic to one particular page on our blog. Now that the business is slow, I had the time to look into it. Half of that traffic is coming from India and we are a Chicago based limo service. We 'll skip why that happens part for now.
Reporting & Analytics | | echo1
I let Hotjar record 100 session and upon reviewing them I have noticed a lot of sessions with no interaction, no mouse movement, no clicks; just scroll and exit. My question is related to implementing a type of verification (captcha) for that blog page to see if the bots / behavior changes.
Are there any downside in terms of in page SEO for this type of implementation?
What is good practice for something like this?0 -
Google Analytics Myth?
Dear Moz-members, I have read several discussions regarding not to implement Google analytics on your website. Reason: Google is tracking your website behavior, for example you have a high bounce rate it will affect your rankings negative. See it as we are opening the doors too much to Google so it can have a negative impact on your online business, especially when your site is new and you are still building your credit. Because of this i have not chosen to install GA. What is your experience with this? Most of the time if i read analytics posts at Seomoz, people do have GA installed. I am also in doubt whether to switch over at GA, but then again mine site is relative new and i am still working on the negative bounce rate/daily visitors. Would like to hear from you pro's whether this is a myth or not 🙂 Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | mcweb0 -
Google Analytics question
Hi, I recently relaunched my site on a wordpress CMS. The relaunch has gone well except for a category of traffic within Google Analytics which is referral traffic from google.co.uk (its a UK site) which has dropped off hugely. The non-paid search traffic from google.co.uk is the same or better than it was. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between referral traffic from google.co.uk and non-paid search traffic from google.co.uk. Thanks for your help. Ben
Reporting & Analytics | | benacuity0 -
Getting Traffic for an Unranked Phrase
Over the last month, 40% of a client's search traffic as resulted from a phrase that they are not even ranking for in the top 100; nor are they popping up on PPC ads for it. How is this happening? I feel like I am missing something very obvious.
Reporting & Analytics | | ScriptiLabs0 -
Google Analytics traffic hijacking?
Ran into something interesting a week ago - the same Google Analytics code was installed on two different sites by accident. The account was reporting traffic from both domains. Haven't found a definitive answer on how to stop this yet if it were to be used maliciously?
Reporting & Analytics | | khemistry0 -
Google Webmaster Tools not displaying all backlinks
I was asked to take a look at a site that a friend redesigned and immediately plummeted in rankings. It was a flash site where the domain redirected to a flash landing page. When the site was redesigned, they removed the flash page and put in the new site on the domain URL without changing the redirect or putting a 301 in place on the old flash landing page URL. This site didn't have many backlinks to begin with, but it did ok for some important search phrases. Now when I look in Webmaster Tools, there are only 2 backlinks showing. Meanwhile I know there are more backlinks in existence, primarily from yellowpages and citysearch. I've had them put a 301 on the old flash landing page pointing at the domain URL and they've added a canonical URL. What have I missed here?
Reporting & Analytics | | BostonWright0 -
Google API Tools - Next Analytics
Have you used any API tools like Next Analytics and/or can you recommend another tool that is particularly useful for a SEO?
Reporting & Analytics | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
Google Analytics
Hello In Google analytics you can obtain the number of visits as a result of non-paid search. You can also set up custom reports to find the number of organic searches. The numbers are different, so what is the obvious difference between these two metrics that I'm missing. Thanks in advance for any assistance. Neil
Reporting & Analytics | | mccormackmorrison0