Facebook Pixel
Join our Facebook Community

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. good thoughts on this, though it’s never “one thing” that impacts a blog’s readership and many are out of the bloggers control. overall, don’t fall into the blog comfort zone by repeating what you’ve done since the start of your blog/s. reinvent yourself and your blog periodically (quarterly at least) and make sure you’re on top of new events/trends in your niche !!!

  2. In my experience, it is also probable that high competition websites are also very difficult to get steady traffic on. Therefore, a niche involving money making, cars, music or such could be a bit difficult to exploit. Always important to look for subniches and create unique content because search engines provide success or failure in the end of the day.

  3. Definitely great points man. Thanks for bringing those to light.

  4. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the past year of blogging it’s this: persist, persist, persist. I’m not talking about banging your head against a wall if your idea just has no traction; I’m talking about sticking to a blogging schedule (at least 80% of the time), reading blogs such as this one for advice and motivation, and taking time to market your content however you best see fit.

    When I started I made a commitment to myself to just keep going. I believed in my content idea (and still do), and was determined to get there (wherever there may be) – however long it took me. It’s been a much slower process than I thought, but the truth is that without this commitment I would probably have given up around 4 months ago. I hadn’t seen any real growth for months at that stage. Instead, I went back to basics, back to regular blogging (this was probably the smartest thing I did), and started making a real effort to further my blogging relationships rather than running scared because of the potential nightmare that is blog marketing (when you’ve no idea where to start).

    In the past 6 weeks I’ve seen a 66% growth in subscribers – persistence pays off! If you believe in your idea then stick with it – but don’t be afraid to acknowledge where you’ve gone wrong and do something about it.

  5. I believe that Google has an expectation of how frequently you post and when you fall off from that traffic suffers. After a quick vacation, I am going through that now with my DVD blog. My expectation is once I post the traffic will return. I have noticed this dynamic more in recent months. Not 100% sure but this is what I’m seeing.

  6. Great info … i will take this into consideration when working on gaining traffic to my blog. I’ve been using google analytics and it has helped me as well.

  7. from the perspective of a bit over three years blogging, one of the things I’d add is that some of your posts become evergreen, and not always those you think might. part of this, for me, has to do with events such as artists touring (I write about Irish, Scottish, and Americana music and the creative practice of bing a musician), but others are, as you say, Darren, ones that help people figure out how to do things, in my case either through reflections on the music or through practical tips.
    summer Saturdays are often slow for me (everybody’s out listening to the music) so a few weeks ago I started a Saturday series of tips on teaching and learning music, which is having some resultts already, and I think some of these could become some of those evergreen posts as well.

  8. I think the big news story of Michael Jackson has certainly take away traffic, but also with the terrible worldwide economy are we seeing a real reduction in internet usage for the first time ever? With people working multiple jobs, do they then have less time to read blogs?

  9. Your ideas on checking out the seasonal rises and falls about certain topics is very interesting. I went right to Google Trends and checked this out, and found some remarkable trends that I definitely found some interesting trends that I’m going to tie into my editorial calendar. Good stuff. And, it’s a good reminder not to take downshifts in traffic, well, personally!

  10. this is a great info for a new blogger like me.

  11. Traffic is finicky and the best way to keep it is to work hard, produce content regularly, and diversify your sources.

    Thanks for the 6 great reasons and tips.

  12. i concur excessive posting tends to hurt more than it helps. Also, gone are the build it and they will come days…active promotions is a very necessary component. Although it makes it a tougher for the “little guy”.

  13. Because I focus mainly on Travel I can see why my comments and visitors has decreased, but I am not giving up. The economy will make a turn and my post will be there waiting for my readers. :)

  14. About #3 Posting Frequency. To keep a blog fresh, posting no less than 2-3 times a week works out pretty good for my blogs. I notice when I stop posting, my traffic and sales suffer. Yet sometimes I get a ton of ideas to write about, but don’t want to post them all at once nor do I want to have to remember to post them at a later date. I see one reader suggested using the WordPress scheduler. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last five months and it works out great. If I write 5 articles at once I can schedule a couple per week and stretch it out for about 2-1/2 weeks of posting on auto-pilot. Google also like the nice steady flow so it doesn’t think the blog is stagnant.

  15. Great post Darren!

    I’ve noticed a dip in traffic just this week – coincidentally, I only had time to write one post this week (normally I write a post every weekday).

    New blog posts are excellent for pulling in more traffic because:

    New Post = New Keywords = New Rankings = New Traffic

    Also, new posts invite new conversations, new readers and potentially new viral channels.

  16. Exceptional article.

    Thanks!!

  17. Fantastic post.Very inspirational. I did notice that when I posted on exceptional news items, Like Susan Boyle, Michael Jackson, that I go some massive spikes in traffic. I think the challenge there is to try and retain at least a small number of those readers.
    I have always wondered about the posting frequency. I post one -3 posts per day. Leaning more to the single post per day. Glad to see that excessive posting does not guarantee traffic.
    Blogging is hard work, But I believe that persistence will pay off. Keep on blogging. I wrote a post about blogging and hard work, Would appreciate your thoughts and insight. http://www.integralwebsolutions.co.za/Blog/EntryId/291/A-successful-blog-takes-hard-work.aspx

  18. whether i can get a free account to build my blog ?and another question ,my writting level seems can not compared with the professional .do all the authous here are professionals ?

  19. I always find you post fantastic. I allways learn a lot. I also had times that I don’t appear in google anymore… I never know what the problem is. But then, a week later I reappear. Now It’s exactly one year ago when I last dissapeared. So I’m very happy now.

    I just want to go higher in google rankings. That’s my major problem at the moment. I try to post I lot about soccer, because I know a lot about it, but, there are so many sites that post great things about soccer. What should I do to make mine better then someone elses?

    Many thanks in advance

    Kind Regards
    Wim Van der Plaetse
    http://www.linxiting.com/blog

  20. Great post am going to read your SEO stuff now which is an area I have been working on learning more about.

  21. Bloggers should never Give Up ! In fact a gentleman should never give up. As you said moving ahead is the key to success….

  22. This is a scary thought. My page views have been increasing steadily since I began blogging in January of 2008.

    Rita

    My blog is The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thriveguidetypepad.com

  23. Nice post… I think the most important one is the posting frequency, charting the last few months of traffic according to the number of posts will give us a better look about our blog…

  24. In my own case, my web traffic has varied in more than 30% because of a shift in the Google algorithm

  25. Once my site was rising but immediately it started falling.
    I just thought because my site was too young to get a high and regular traffic.
    Now everything gonna be OK. My blog traffic seems to be increase.
    I suggest using reddit.com. I think it’s a good way to get a huge traffic.

  26. V.C Sudden inrease in traffic and sudden decline of website is not a good thing. Steady and increasing traffic always good for website. Google takes this thing in positive.

    If a blogger do regular posting in blog it will always good for blog. I start a blog in starting google doesn’t catche so hurry. I did regular and unique content posting in blog. Google considers this and when I everytime made post google catche that at very day.
    This is very good blog about blog traffic.

  27. Now that was a useful blog post! Thanks for all the useful information, most importantly on how often to post articles to your blog. Some people tend to think posting 10 and more times a day is the way forward but others seem to thing 1 time a week is cool. At the end of the day, don’t just post random articles because you feel you haven’t updated your blog lately. That more often than not ends up it being a terrible and boring post.

    Writers blog is the worst thing, which really frustrates me at times. But the only solution is looking around for inspiration…

    Thanks again for the post Darren!

  28. really very useful tips for blogger for making site more visible and famous for earning money and name but these are possible only when if all thins are done regular basis.

  29. Great tips I think your whole blog post is a survival package to online money making with a blog. I think there are many interesting points you explain. My traffic when down but my alexa rank went up. Thanks for sharing.

  30. Thanks Darren.

    I got some real good insights from this article – all practical and useful. I’ve been at the blogging game for just over a year and I’ve had some big traffic swings and falls. Overall I’ve seen a steady rate of growth month by month which makes me feel hopeful that I’m on the right track and of good things to come.

    Thanks for sharing your experience.

  31. I admit to having Google trepidation. I’m apt to look at my numbers when I know I’ve been doing what I should – like posting frequently and commenting everywhere, along with other promotions.

    This strategy has bitten me at least once. One of my blogs had a post go viral in terms of traffic numbers. Unfortunately I was not able to capitalise on it because I didn’t see the spike until a week later.

    George

  32. I think the best way to keep people reading is to provide regular posts and scheduled posts. This way readers will know when to come back. Those who post every day usually have a much better chance of keeping their readers

    Dmitri

  33. My traffic has dropped the last couple of months. After reading this blog post I went and checked Google trends and noticed that there is a drop in traffic in the summer months for my particular niche for the last several years. Makes me feel a bit better. Now I just have to figure out what to do to change that ;-)

  34. Thanks for this post it was very informing. I would have to totally agree on you’re take on building and keeping blog traffic. I plan to go back through my calendar and set up intervals to hit every single step you posted. The blog I am working on currently is

    http://www.alliedtech.org

    Thx and see you next week

  35. As a new blogger, I can see posting frequency, and quality of posts as a reason for declining traffic. Posting more often and writing quality posts is key to gaining more traffic. You’ll keep your readers coming back.

  36. This is exactly what I needed to read.
    My traffic has plateaued and at very small numbers, and it is rather disheartening.

    I’m going to come up with a plan of action based on your advice. I report back after a month. Hopefully I’ll have something to show for it!

  37. Thanks Darren for another great post. I will use your tactics. declining traffic can be solved by posting often and creating great content for readers. http://www.maddengeneration.com

  38. Yes it feels hurt when our visitors decrease drastically, if that happened to my blog, usually I try to give better post than before and do blog walking. Never give up is the key for me, whatever happen blogging must go on :)

  39. Brilliant post Darren and very practical suggestions too. It does get a bit disheartening at times with the constant pressure to also come up with new ideas for posts every single day, but the key is to go on, learn and evolve :-). Thanks for this post!

  40. Nice Post Darren, Really Great advice not only for new blogger. two thumb up!

  41. anthony says: 07/20/2009 at 8:02 pm

    that is funny. I have a blog that I only update when I feel like updating. I have a stretched when I must have not updated it for 6 months.

    And yet the traffic remained the same.

  42. I think it is always important to test out different things when it comes to blog writing. You are going to have your ups and downs so it is important to test and try different approaches.

  43. Hello Darren thank you for your post! I’ve just started blogging and I found a very usefull post! thank you very much.. love your blog.

  44. i dont bother about seasonal traffic. whatever i like to post what i feel like. keep looking at your traffic is demotivating.

  45. I think all of us could do more to market our blogs. Taking a write it and they will come approach to a quality blog article is not enough anymore.

    -Jeff Schuman

  46. This seasonal fall in traffic has left a gr8 impact on my blog. I was receiving 50% of traffic from blogger.com than it suddenly falls to nil. What gonna do? I never received traffic from the same source again.. :(

  47. I think the best advice on this one is the ‘don’t give up’ advice…on top of that I’d add that you shouldn’t always gage the success of your blog by pure traffic numbers, for me reader engagement is my number one metric, ie. how many comments are articles getting.

    At the moment my traffic is way up, but unfortunately commenting is a little slow. I’d love to see way more comments per article.

  48. Very detail elaboration, I think I learned, I have to start doing it to my site now.. Tks.

  49. Nice wirte up. I know what I have missed out after reading this article…

  50. My blog is not in English, but in Dutch. That’s why it is even harder to get serious traffic. Does anyone have some tips?

A Practical Podcast… to Help You Build a Better Blog

The ProBlogger Podcast

A Practical Podcast…

Close
Open