[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/5-things-to-do-after-a-decrease-in-organic-traffic\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/5-things-to-do-after-a-decrease-in-organic-traffic\/","headline":"5 Things To Do After a Decrease in Organic Traffic","name":"5 Things To Do After a Decrease in Organic Traffic","description":"Finding out your website\u2019s organic traffic is on a steady decline can be disheartening. But making changes in blind panic without knowing the cause is the worst thing you can possibly do. It may just be traffic decreased because you lost a significant backlink (like a link on their site\u2019s sidebar or homepage to you). … Continue reading 5 Things To Do After a Decrease in Organic Traffic<\/span><\/a>","datePublished":"2021-02-15","dateModified":"2026-04-16","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/author\/jana-legaspi\/#Person","name":"Jana Legaspi","url":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/author\/jana-legaspi\/","identifier":8,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba3039ce7c5eedb92f315518b69aea1d90d5c2076ce893d078c6f29cf6ddd032?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba3039ce7c5eedb92f315518b69aea1d90d5c2076ce893d078c6f29cf6ddd032?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"AOK Marketing","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AOK-Marketing-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AOK-Marketing-Logo.png","width":126,"height":53}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/5-Things-To-Do-After-a-Decrease-in-Organic-Traffic-2.png","url":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/5-Things-To-Do-After-a-Decrease-in-Organic-Traffic-2.png","height":288,"width":902},"url":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/5-things-to-do-after-a-decrease-in-organic-traffic\/","about":["SEO"],"wordCount":1116,"keywords":["SEO","SEO Keywords","SEO Mistakes","SEO Practices"],"articleBody":"Finding out your website\u2019s organic traffic is on a steady decline can be disheartening. But making changes in blind panic without knowing the cause is the worst thing you can possibly do.It may just be traffic decreased because you lost a significant backlink (like a link on their site\u2019s sidebar or homepage to you). So you\u2019ll either have to contact that website\u2019s owner or work harder to acquire more links.And sometimes it may not even be your fault- like an update in Google’s algorithm. Take a week or two. Let things settle and see where you stand.If the problem persists, here are 5 things to do after a decrease in organic traffic:1.\u00a0 Try Reversing Recent Big ChangesMost website redesigns happen because you saw a new feature or something was no longer working on your site. So you\u2019ll get a complete redesign of your website. Built on user research of your buyer personas and following a solid information architecture plan.Just the way Google likes it!Yet, you start noticing a dip in traffic one week after implementing the changes. Then two months down the road, you\u2019ve lost 50% of your organic traffic. And you\u2019re left wondering- what went wrong.Well, without an actual site audit, I can\u2019t say for certain what the problem is. But it\u2019s most likely:No SEO website redesign was done.If SEO was done then it wasn\u2019t integrated properly during the web design process.No on-page and off-page audit was done before launching the new site.Now that you know what\u2019s wrong how can you fix it?You know how when your phone is acting up- hangs or frequently restarts for no reason. What do you usually do? Throw it against the wall? You\u2019d like to but there\u2019s an easier and more effective way- restoring factory settings.Try doing the same thing to your website. Only this time, undo the changes step by step. That way you\u2019ll know which specific update caused the drop in organic traffic. And you can move on to…2. Analyze Unaffected PagesLooking at a site\u2019s overall traffic metrics can be confusing. A good strategy is to segment the data until you find something interesting. When analyzing decline in traffic growth- something strange is a page where the number of visitors doesn\u2019t decrease. Take a deep look at what\u2019s working there.Find out what makes that particular page different from the rest. Identify the keywords targeted and determine if that\u2019s the reason traffic is holding steady. Make sure it isn\u2019t an off-page issue like page load speeds or intrusive interstitials.Page Speed Insight tool from Google can help you check page speeds.For intrusive interstitials, which are page overlays blocking all or most of the content on a page. You may need to adjust how popups appear on your site. Check out Google\u2019s guidelines and follow the recommendations.3. Take a Look at Your CompetitorsSometimes organic traffic can decline without affecting ranking. That usually means the drop was caused by (a) an update in Google\u2019s algorithm or (b) a change in users search intent.Since Google makes thousands of updates every year and rarely acknowledges it- you can\u2019t really prepare for it. Just monitor your site for a couple of days and see if organic traffic improves.Changes in user search intent is much easier to diagnose. Because your ranking decreased, take a look at your replacement.What\u2019s on their pages that\u2019s missing in yours? Infographics, whitepapers, Gifs, or all? Are they targeting a number of keywords you\u2019re not? Or have they simply made changes to their internal linking layout and added more high-quality backlinks?Pro tip: A decline in organic traffic doesn\u2019t always mean you did something wrong. It can also imply your competitors are doing something better.You can check the changes your competitors made using this free tool from Wayback Machine.4. Build High Quality Relevant BacklinksIf Organic Traffic is the king of search then Backlinks is a prince of SEO. In fact, Google\u2019s Panda algorithm update focused mainly on reducing the impact backlinks have on search results. Mostly because some site owners were participating in paid backlink schemes, link exchanges, linking to irrelevant sites, and using other manipulations to get to page one.Nonetheless, anyone using white hat SEO techniques can still reap the benefits of higher ranking and more traffic. That also means a significant drop in backlinks can impact traffic to your site. And if that\u2019s the case, your first step is to find out why you\u2019re losing links.Use a tool like Ahrefs to find sites linking to yours. And determine which links you\u2019ve lost.The next step is to acquire new links. A simple way to do this is to collaborate with other site owners to create blog posts. It\u2019s also a good idea to frequently review Google\u2019s link scheme recommendations to make sure you\u2019re not doing more harm than good.5. Review Your ContentSearch engines rarely favour websites with poorly written, outdated, filler, or plagiarized content. For one thing, the first three don\u2019t appeal to searchers. While the last, also referred to as duplicate content, just confuses bots. Which means the pages won\u2019t be indexed and consequently don\u2019t appear in search results.To find out if a page has a duplicate, just copy some text and paste into Google\u2019s search bar.You should also know content can be flagged as a duplicate if you publish an article on your site then later republish it as a guest post on another site.Plus, if you have several domain versions like aokmarketing.com, https:\/\/aokmarketing.com, and https:\/\/aokmarketing.com. The links may look the same but search engine bots will read them as completely different sites. Try each link. Only one of them should direct you to AOK Marketing.Google may not penalize you for having multiple versions of your site but it will choose one version to be the original and exclude the rest. So if your SEO efforts were on the excluded versions, all your work won’t have any effect on ranking or traffic.Here\u2019s what you can do to avoid duplicate content:Choose your main website domain in Google Search Console.Use Siteliner to check for external duplicates.Whether you mimic what your competitors are doing. Or work on ensuring your website redesign integrates seamlessly with your SEO. Make sure the changes align with Google\u2019s Webmaster Quality Recommendations and Search Quality Evaluator guidelines. "},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"5 Things To Do After a Decrease in Organic Traffic","item":"https:\/\/aokmarketing.com\/5-things-to-do-after-a-decrease-in-organic-traffic\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]