Websites that are particularly reliant on SEO for their traffic can suddenly face huge spikes or drops in traffic, depending on how search engines view them. Sometimes, these changes can come without warning and cause great harm to a brand’s bottom line. However, it is very easy to also inflict damage on ourselves outside of SEO through a variety of small but meaningful mistakes. Your website is a complex system that requires perfect functionality in order to satisfy visitors and ensure they’re seeing your content. If you have noticed a sudden drop in traffic and you’re sure it’s not related to search engine link or keyword penalties, then you’ll want to continue reading to find out what it might be.

Domain Name Changes

Have you recently changed your domain name or altered one or more subdomains for various pages? If so, then this is likely the cause for your drop in organic traffic. Not only will people not know how to find these pages any more, but search engines as well may be confused and incapable of directing search engine users in the right direction.  Be sure that you are pinging to Google – as well as any other search engines – a proverbial change of address form if this is the case.

Pages Unoptimized for Mobile

Google’s Mobile First policy has been in place for some time, but if you’ve suddenly changed how your pages are being published – namely, failing to incorporate mobile responsive design into them – then this could be a huge factor in why those pages are falling behind. Google optimizes its results to showcase mobile-friendly results first. If something has suddenly changed on your website in regards to this, then you’ve found the likely culprit.

New, Slower Hosting

If you’ve recently changed hosting providers and you’ve noticed a drop in traffic, then you may be affected by the slower hosting. Not only does slower load times affect search rankings but it can also impact bounce rates, meaning that a greater share of whatever traffic you are receiving is effectively worthless. With more people on mobile devices than ever before, it is very important that your pages load quickly or else you’ll be pinging to Google – and to individuals – bad indicators about your website.

Shady SEO Solutions

If you have procured the services of a SEO firm recently and/or personally attempted to implement some questionable SEO solutions, then this may be the root of the problem. All too often, shady SEO firms offer untenable deals to their potential clients, which ultimately rely on tactics that might boost traffic for a short while but that ultimately cause a drop in traffic. As search engines begin to detect the gray- or black-hat SEO tactics being used by these firms, your rankings can take a nosedive and ultimately result in losing even more ground than you gained.

There are many reasons why your traffic may have suddenly dropped, but these four reasons are commonly cited as the most notable causes of non-Panda/Penguin traffic reductions. If none of these apply to your current situation, then leave us a comment below and outline your experience.