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

Posted By Darren Rowse 28th of April 2022 Blog Promotion, Featured Posts 0 Comments
6 Reasons Your Blog Traffic Might Be Declining [And What to Do About It]

Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash

I’ve read a few comments here on Problogger from bloggers who are feeling low because they’ve noticed a plateau or even a decrease in the traffic coming to their blog.

While we all want to see our traffic rise the reality is that every blog has days, weeks and even months where traffic levels out or even decreases. This can be quite distressing for bloggers who have big hopes and dreams for their blogs.

Today I’d like to look at some of the reasons a blog’s traffic might decrease and suggest some ways forward for each of them.

1. Seasonal Traffic

If you’re still in the first year of your blog you are yet to see what a full calendar year looks like in terms of traffic for your niche. Most niches have natural rises and falls in traffic.

For example (see below for a chart of visitor numbers) on my photography tips blog we see spikes in traffic in December and January. December’s traffic boost is generally to do with people researching new cameras to buy and January is generally associated with people working out how to use cameras that they got for Christmas. On the flip side we often see dips in traffic over August to October.

traffic-rises-falls.png

What to Do: The first time you see a seasonal rise or fall in traffic it can be quite confusing – however the key with it is to not panic when you see a dip but to identify opportunities to maximize the rises and to minimize the falls.

For example it might be that you need to tailor your content for certain times of year and what people are doing in relation to your niche.

For me on my photography blog this meant writing content in November-December on how to buy a digital camera (to capitalize on the Christmas buying trend), writing beginner photography tips in January (to capitalize on the trend of people looking for tips on how to use their new cameras) and during low seasons (like July when it’s summer in the US) writing topical tips like Beach Photography Tips or How to use a camera in the Bright Sun.

Another Tip – one great free tool for looking at seasonal traffic is to use Google Trends to analyze what people are searching the web for. For example if I type in ‘digital cameras’ I get this chart:

traffic-seasons.png

There’s lots of interesting stuff in this (the downward trend for starters) but it clearly shows what I’ve observed above – more people are searching the web for that term from November-December each year. This information could confirm a suspicion you have or help you identify a trend to capitalize on in your niche.

Further Reading: Seasonal Traffic and How to Capture it for your Blog.

2. Topical Interest

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

Chris Rock and Will Smith | CREDIT: ROBYN BECK/GETTY

At other times of year traffic events can be triggered by other current events. For example I know one entertainment blogger who has had a lot of traffic this past few weeks simply because they’d previously had a lot of content that ranked well in Google on Will Smith. Of course in coming months as the news of Will Smith’s bad behaviour at the Oscars subsides it’s likely that they’ll see some declines in traffic.

What to Do: The key with topical rises and falls in traffic is to try to capture as much of the rush of traffic as you can so that when the decline comes you’ve got new subscribers/readers to your blog (see further reading below on ‘sticky blogs).

It’s also important to be aware of upcoming events in your niche and writing content in anticipation of that. This can be hard in predicting the death of a mega pop star like Jackson but in different niches it’s possible to predict events.

For example – before the Athens Olympics I was involved in running a blog where we wrote a post in advance of the Olympics for every single event in the games. The posts included athletes names and any information we could get on the events. We updated the posts with results once they events had been run. As a result we were consistently ranking very highly for ‘Event name Results’ when people were searching for winners of events in Search Engines.

Further Reading: How to Create a Sticky Blog

3. Posting Frequency

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

Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash

One common reason for lulls in traffic is that a blog has had a lull in new content being published. I saw one blogger writing a post recently about how their blog was failing to gain traction and in the comments of the post a reader pointed out that the blogger had hardly been posting. The reality was that the blogger had produced very little to be read and so people were not visiting.

What to Do: Posting more doesn’t guarantee extra traffic but it can be a factor to consider. Chart your last few months of posts and see if there’s any correlation to rises and falls in your traffic – you might identify a trend!

Worth noting is that some bloggers report that when they post LESS that they actually get more traction with readers. I know of one blogger who was posting 10-20 times a day and when he dropped things back to 2-3 posts a day he noticed not only increases in comment numbers per post but that his posts were being shared more on social media sites. At 10-20 posts a day posts were coming off the front page of his blog so much that readers hardly had a chance to read and share them.

Further Reading: What is the Ideal Post Frequency for a Blog?

4. Shifts in Search Rankings

Many blogs see the way that they are ranked by Google (and other search engines) rise and fall over the years.  search-traffic-fall.png

A Personal Example – Back in 2004 (just before Christmas) I woke up one day to find that my main blog at that time had all but disappeared from Google. I’d not done anything to the blog that wasn’t allowed by Google and hadn’t made any major changes to the site – I just disappeared. My heart sank (actually I felt quite sick) because that blog was the main source of income from my blogging and 75% of my traffic had vanished.

The lull in traffic lasted about 6 weeks before it magically reappeared. In that time I got myself another job and diversified my blogging and learned a lot.

What to Do: Sometimes search engines change their algorithms and occasionally they seem to lose sites from their rankings for no apparent reason. The key with this type of loss of traffic is to not panic, make sure you’re abiding by Google’s guidelines (not selling text links or doing anything else considered to be black hat) and then  apply for re-inclusion using Google’s webmaster tools.This has happened to me a couple of times over the years and each time the traffic came back – it wasn’t quite as good as when it disappeared but things seemed to right themselves.

Further Reading: Search Engine Optimization for Bloggers

5. Poor Quality Posts

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

Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash

Of course another factor to consider when looking at the traffic to your blog is whether you’re actually building a valuable site for readers and producing high quality, engaging and useful content.

This one can be a little confronting to think through and might take you getting an outsiders critique or feedback (sometimes it’s hard to be objective about something you’ve put so much work into). As I look back on my own blogging I know there have been definite times where traffic has suffered when I’ve struggled for inspiration as a blogger and where this has impacted the quality of what I was able to write.

On the flip side there have been times where I’ve been inspired to write series of posts that have connected with readers and helped them in practical ways which has driven a lot of traffic to my sites.

What to Do: Ask yourself (and others around you):

  • Are You Being Relevant and Useful to Readers?
  • Is your blog helping your readers by providing them with value, solving their problems, entertaining them or giving them a sense of community?

If the answer is no then it is likely to impact the number of people reading it.

Further Reading: How to Write Great Blog Content

6. Promotional Activities

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

As I look at some of the rises and falls in traffic to my blogs I know that some of them can be directly tied to my own marketing and promotion of my blogs (or the lack of promotion that I’ve done).

Writing great content doesn’t guarantee a blog’s success. You can’t just build it and expect that ‘they will come’. Sometimes you need to get out there and promote yourself.

Perhaps the lull in traffic on your own blog is partly to do with taking your foot off the accelerator in your own marketing.

What to Do: This means different things for different blogs but could include investing into social media sites like Twitter, promoting your posts to other bloggers, networking with other bloggers, running a competition on your blog, leaving comments on other blogs and forums, guest posting on other sites, doing promotions in main stream media, doing some giveaways….. etc

Further Reading: How to Find Readers for Your Blog.

Keep Moving Forward – Don’t Give Up

There are many other potential factors that could be at play (I invite you to share others below) but the key is to not be paralyzed by the declines and plateaus in traffic that you experience but to spend a little time trying to identify the reasons and then keep on motoring on with your blog.

You can see from the first chart above that my photography blog has had quite a few months where traffic has plateaued and dipped – but I’ve kept to the vision that I have for the site and continued to keep working. A decrease in traffic from one month to the next is not pleasant but it’s not the end of your blog. If I’d allowed the dips to determine whether I’d keep blogging or not I’d probably have lasted 2-3 months on that blog and failed to see it grow to the point that it has.

If you’re serious about building an audience for your blog and want to supercharge your traffic ProBlogger’s Find Readers Course will give you the roadmap and guide you through 6 clear steps to find readers.

How to Use Advertising to Promote Your Blog

This article was first published on July 15, 2009 and updated April 28, 2022.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Wow, great post. I never considered the “anticipating” traffic posts that could be beneficial in the future. Thanks for the tips!

  2. I think this goes back to your point…Content in King

  3. people may find the trend but we cannot follow the trends because our skill is limited.

  4. August was the first month I actually saw a decline in my readership, and I truly think it was from a lack of content.

    My blog seems to carry a sort of month-long overlap, So if I post a lot of content in July, it seems to greatly spike in August. Needless to say, a LACK of content in July left me out to dry in August.

  5. Have you considered that one requires more wit than substance to ensure quality posts. I think most bloggers would prefer Shakepeare to Milton. I think it would be a toss-up between Mark Twain and Shakespeare, when push comes to shove

  6. Ya i see this with my blog it is 2 months old and is very hard to get a good base of traffic constantly. I can see 100 page views then next day 30. It is very hard but im building Feed Readers so i should be good.

    http://dailycashsaver.blogspot.com/

  7. My blog is only 6 months old and I’m already getting some good traffic… at least I’m very satisfied with it, but hope to get more and more. My Alexa Rank is ranking higher and higher as well. Wish I could get as much traffic as yours.

  8. Understood anti-elderly properties, repletion In preparing?Of different languages, the fibre and.Some Try these, chemicals are directly.Product Now anyone Timless Words That Speak A Great Deal, first Problems like four worlds were.But which they, your BMR %.,

  9. I think if you have something to say and say it a succinct manner and what you have to say interests others, you have got a start. If you also know how to say it effectively, you will get a loyal readership.

  10. I can definitely see reasons why my blog might get low traffic at times. Its simple but sometimes it takes another person to let you know why.

  11. I can say that your blog traffic will definitely increase if you post unique content on regular basis…you have raised some very interesting point about blog traffic…Good article…

  12. Regular posts is very important. People are always looking for fresh content, especially your readers.Your readers are always looking for the personality in you through your writing.

    I think bookmarking your site to social sites like twitter and delicious also makes a difference. Sites like Digg can really make a huge difference.

    Dias
    http://www.diaslu.com/

  13. I think blogging is as innovative and creative process as any thing which requires an artistic temperament. While at it, if it adds to the traffic to your site, its icing to the cake.

  14. Regular posting as well as unique content will ensure a popular blog

  15. You can also get extra traffic spamming posts such as this one, plenty of examples above.

  16. The Site traffic is off 20% during summer. Also noticed that Twitter is nowhere what it used to be. Post a link and 30 hits when it used to be 300-400 ( they depend on the number of followers). So its Summer and I assume people are outdoors and not glued to computers.. RIGHT ?

  17. I have found that making your blog theme attractive also helps and changing it for a better one is adding floavour to the text.

  18. That’s a great post! I like to read your post and I learned so many thing from you. Thanks a lot for sharing. I don’t think anybody need to buy anything if they read your each blog post.

    For traffic I like to do more for SEO and link building. I am in first page of Google for a competitive term but I am not getting enough traffic still. Yet I have to put lots of efforts …

  19. If you have something to say which is of interest to a great number of people, you will be a blogger, my son. Any number of frills cannot detract your core readers.

  20. I think as in other pursuits, Perseverance pays, you have to be at it always and keep your blogs updated, and the readers will come

  21. Dogged determination, interesting theme, solid content, good SEO, relevant links and you are on your way to a good readership.

  22. Now I got one nice way for getting backlink is by commenting on dofollow blog, Really it is a nice method for getting backlink, but if you spam then you will get totally adverse effect.

  23. Hey, it is really a great post. I feel this so informative for me & for all the bloggers.. Personally i want to tell you thanks because it helps me so much in doing the proper blogs..

  24. Yes problogger is our favorite blog, we all beginner greatly say thanks to problogger.

  25. one way to avoid these is to keep on moving and implementing great ideas on how you will have good traffic

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