Top 3 SEO Mistakes Costing You Web Traffic As Per Google’s Matt Cutts

Your site’s traffic has plummeted to an all-time low. And you are still clueless. Alas! the biggest pain is finding the actual reasons behind the mayhem. The truth is that the continuous fluctuations in Google algorithm leave almost every site owner scrambling for answers. With the nature of disease not known, diagnosis is obviously impossible.

Many individuals approach me for conducting a thorough evaluation of their website. They ask for some satisfactory explanation behind their misery. The reason could be anything: a deadly update, duplicate content, outdated optimization practices, or anything else.

But, the real question is how to find that one relevant mistake costing yours site its precious web traffic?

There’s no need to feel helpless. Here, I will discuss some biggest mistakes made by site owners. Read on to find out.

Scenario I:

You are Hit by an Algorithm Update:

Naturally, a sudden plunge in web traffic makes us think of another deadly update. The infamous updates have acquired notoriety for wrecking businesses overnight. An algorithm update could be reason behind your diminishing web traffic.

If you’re gunned down by a direct action, then Google is kind enough to drop you a message of the slaughter. Pay a visit to web master tools, and search for any notification. If notification is there, it’s time to pull up your socks.

During my extensive experience, I’ve seen people panicking, and even indulging in self-loathing. Many even lose the hop of recovering from the penalty. As an experienced search marketer, I firmly believe that every site can do Google penalty Recovery. Of course, a lot of things will have to be changed.

In repelling the effects of penalty, you should understand the nature of the update. For example, Google Panda update explicitly favors high quality sites over low-quality sites. In fact, it affected an estimated 12% of the total searches. So, site owners affected by the update, joined the mad rush to fit Google’s definition of a high quality website.   In similar way, every update put forwards certain necessities. So, there’s a lot of work to be done.

Still, I have listed some obvious sin in the industry, which calls for a manual penalty. Have a look:

• Spamming is certain to kill your prospects.
• Unnatural links to and from your site.
• Poor quality content.
• Keyword stuffing is prohibited.
• Hidden text.

Scenario II:

Google isn’t Able to Crawl Your Site:

Ironically, Google may be unable to ‘crawl’ your site. This could be costing you a fortune. Your visitors will not be able to find you, and your site will suffer from poor reception. Google webmaster tools can help you in finding our any crawling errors.

Reasons for No-Crawling of your site are:

• You forgot to remove non-index tag from your site.
• Soft 404 errors.
• Broken internal or external links.
• Robots.txt may cause crawling errors.
• Poor design could be the culprit.
• And many more.

In a nutshell, you must make sure that Googlebot crawls your site. I know this sounds quite basic, but this could be the reason behind your miserable performance.

Scenario III:

Minute Algorithm Changes Also Influence Your Site:

I know calling any algorithm change ‘minute’ would be an understatement. Most site owner labor tirelessly for alluring visitors. Hence, even a slight downturn is a tormenting experience for them.

In a video posted by Matt Cutts, he mentions that the web spam team does not consider ‘penalty’. For them, it’s only about updating their algorithm to provide relevant and useful information. This ‘honest’ statement is itself self-contradictory.

First, I agree with Matt Cutts that web spam is continuously changing their algorithm. For example, in 2012 alone, more than 600 changes were released by Matt Cutts and his team. So, they can release any number of updates anytime of the year. But, I believe, they know the difference between minor and major updates, and their devastating impact on internet.

Anyway, coming back to the question, minor updates are definite to influence your web traffic. The sad news is that the sheer number of total updates makes it difficult for Google to announce every single update. So, it becomes very difficult to find the actual reason behind decline in visits.

 

Final Words:

If your site is suffering from decreased visitors, there’s no need to hit the panic button. Google can always reevaluate your site and reaffirm its place on the web. The nice thing is that right steps will definitely yield expected results. You can always take help of a professional SEO company.

Top Reasons Your Website is Losing Rankings & How To Prevent It

Have some queries? Or want to give your valuable feedback. Use the comments section given below. And don’t forget to spread the word.