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How to find the cause of a drop in Google search traffic

Learn to read your Search Console chart and rule out the simple explanations first, so you know whether a fall in clicks is a data glitch, the calendar, a technical fault or something else before you change anything.

By Dean Cruddace · 45 minutes to do · Updated · Last reviewed

What a drop in search traffic can mean

A drop in organic search traffic means fewer people are arriving from unpaid Google results. Google's guide says this can happen for several reasons and may not be straightforward to understand.

Google groups the main causes as: an algorithmic update (a change to how Google ranks and serves results), technical issues, security issues, spam issues, seasonality and changing interests, and site moves. A reporting glitch can also make a drop look bigger than it is. Each leaves a different mark on your chart. This guide walks through the checks in order, using the free Search Console Performance report.

Why to diagnose before you act

The urge after a drop is to start changing things. Google's guidance points the other way: it recommends avoiding radical changes to a page that is already performing well after a small drop in position, and says changes can take anywhere from a few days to several months to show, with no guarantee of a noticeable result. Finding the cause first stops you fixing something that was never broken. See Google's guide to debugging drops in Search traffic.

What you need to find the cause of a drop in Google search traffic

  • Access to Google Search Console for the site, with some history of data
  • The date the traffic seemed to start falling
  • A note of anything that changed on the site around then, such as a release or new URLs

Find the cause of a drop in Google search traffic, step by step

  1. 1

    Look at the shape of the chart

    Open the Performance report. Switch on both Total clicks and Total impressions (the number of times your site appeared in results). Note whether both fell, or whether impressions held while clicks fell. Google says that if both fell you work through its list of common causes; if only clicks fell, your page title and snippet may not be helping people understand the page, or other sites may have had a more appealing rich result.

    You will know it worked when You can say in one sentence what happened, for example both lines fell on a certain date.

  2. 2

    Rule out a reporting problem

    Open Data anomalies in Search Console. It records known events, such as a logging error, that can cause a dip in your chart, going back 3 to 16 months. Compare its dates with your drop.

    You will know it worked when Either an entry matches your dates and report (so the drop may be a data issue), or nothing applies and you carry on.

  3. 3

    Check seasonality over 16 months

    Choose the date filter, select Last 16 months, and note whether the same drop happened last year. Then use Compare to set the last 3 months against the previous period or the same period a year earlier.

    You will know it worked when You can see whether the dip appears at the same time every year.

  4. 4

    Break the drop down

    With the comparison on, click through the tabs for queries, pages, countries, devices and search appearance. Then use the Search type filter to look at web, image, video and news separately. Google says to check whether the change happened only for specific ones.

    You will know it worked when You know whether the fall is spread everywhere or concentrated in one place.

  5. 5

    Find which pages lost the clicks

    In the Pages table, select Clicks Difference to sort by the biggest losers. Google asks whether the drop hit the whole site, a group of pages or one very important page. For site-wide drops it points to the Page indexing report; for a group of pages it suggests inspecting a few with the URL Inspection tool.

    You will know it worked when You have a short list of pages that lost the most clicks, marked as site-wide, group or single page.

  6. 6

    Check technical, security and spam reports

    Google tells you to check the Crawl stats and Page indexing reports for a spike in issues matching your drop date. Then check Security Issues for malware or phishing and Manual Actions for any action under the spam policies.

    You will know it worked when Each report either shows a problem that lines up with your drop or shows nothing for that cause.

  7. 7

    Hold off before big changes

    If nothing explains it, check Google's list of ranking updates (the debugging guide links to it) for a matching date. Google says an update-related drop does not mean something is fundamentally wrong with your content. For a large drop across many terms it advises assessing the whole site for being helpful, reliable and people-first, and waiting a few weeks before checking Search Console again.

    You will know it worked when You have written down the likely cause (or that none is confirmed) and what you will and will not change.

Common mistakes when you find the cause of a drop in Google search traffic

  • Changing content or links before checking the anomalies page and last year's chart.
  • Making radical changes to a page that is already performing well after a small shift in position.
  • Judging a fix after a few days, when Google says changes can take days to months to show.
  • Focusing on average position alone. Google says impressions and clicks are the measure of success.
  • Looking only at the total line, when the fall may sit in one search type, country or device.

Terms used when you find the cause of a drop in Google search traffic

Performance report
The Search Console report showing clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position in Google results.
Impressions
How many times your site appeared in Google search results.
Algorithmic update
A change to the systems Google uses to rank and serve results. Core updates are one kind.
Seasonality
A pattern where demand for a topic rises and falls at the same times each year.
Manual action
A penalty applied after a review finds a site breaks Google's spam policies, reported in Search Console.

Go deeper

SearchDiagnosing a traffic drop before acting on itWhen organic traffic falls, the pressure to do something quickly is real, and the wrong response can make matters worse. Google's own guidance gives a way…Read the in-depth article → MeasureHow to design SEO measurement, report in a way that answers business questions, and keep a strategy honest over time.See the service guide → Crawling and indexingHow crawling, robots.txt, sitemaps, canonicals and logs decide which pages Google can reach and index, explained from Google’s own documentation.See the service guide → Next in the pathHow to check whether a search traffic drop is realLearn the checks to run before you treat a fall in search traffic as a problem with your site: unfinished data, known…Open the guide →
Traffic fell and the cause is still unclear?

Describe when it dropped, which pages and which queries, and what has been tried. Diagnosing the cause comes before changing anything.

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