A sudden dip in organic traffic can throw you off. Rankings slide, visibility dips, and leads slow down. You’ve spent time building momentum—and now you’re wondering what just happened.
Still, this isn’t a time to panic. Instead, step back and look at things methodically. With the right process, you can figure out what changed, why it happened, and what to do about it.
Here’s how to work through a drop in traffic—step by step.
First, Make Sure the Drop Is Real
Before jumping to conclusions, double-check the data.
Open up Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Compare traffic trends across both. If only one shows a dip, it might be a reporting issue—not a real drop in search performance.
Next, head to Search Console and check the Security & Manual Actions section. If there’s a manual action listed, that’s your top priority. These are rare, but when they happen, traffic tanks fast—and you’ll need to address the issue directly.
At the same time, remember that analytics tools often report numbers differently. You’re not looking for identical stats—just a consistent downward trend across multiple sources.
Then, Check for a Google Update
If your traffic fell off quickly—within a day or two—there’s a good chance an algorithm update is involved.
Go to Google’s Search Status Dashboard to see if an update was announced around the time of the drop. Also, tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush let you overlay update dates on your performance graphs, which can help you connect the dots faster.
If the timeline matches, dig into what the update focused on. SEO analysts like Marie Haynes often break it down with clear takeaways and examples from affected sites.
Here’s the key—don’t make reactive changes while an update is still rolling out. Let it finish first. You don’t want to base decisions on temporary movement.
Next, Rule Out Technical Issues
If an update isn’t the cause, your next move is to check for technical problems.
Start by asking: Did anything change on the site recently? Maybe a redesign, a migration, or even a CMS update? Even small shifts—like a plugin upgrade—can have big effects.
Run a crawl with Screaming Frog or a similar tool. If you’ve got past crawl reports, compare them to see what changed. Look at indexability, redirects, canonical tags, robots.txt, and internal linking. These things can break quietly—and tank your rankings.
Not sure if something’s broken on the live site? Spin up a staging environment and test there first. No need to risk breaking production while troubleshooting.
Also, Consider Any Design or Layout Changes
Design tweaks may seem harmless, but they can affect how search engines view your site.
For example, if a redesign changed how your content is structured—or if key elements were moved, hidden, or removed—it could change how Google crawls and ranks your pages.
Use Ahrefs’ Content Changes overlay to see when major edits were made. You can also use the Wayback Machine to visually compare versions of a page before and after the traffic drop.
Changes like these don’t usually cause an instant dip. But if traffic’s been sliding slowly over a few weeks, layout shifts or content removals might be the cause.
Then, Audit Your Content
Once the technical side checks out, look at your actual content.
In Ahrefs, head to the Top Pages report and filter for the biggest traffic drops. Visit those pages and ask yourself:
- Is this still useful?
- Does it match current search intent?
- Has the formatting changed—like headers, images, or tables?
Also, check if any major pages were unpublished, merged, or rewritten around the time of the drop. Even well-meaning updates can cut into performance if they remove useful information.
Next, pull up the Organic Keywords report for the exact URL. Filter for lost or declining terms. This tells you what the page used to rank for—and where traffic was coming from.
Lost links? That matters too. If a page dropped in authority because key backlinks disappeared, you’ll want to look into it.
Still, Keep an Eye on Competitors
Sometimes, your rankings drop not because of what you did—but because someone else did better.
So, open Ahrefs, plug in your top competitors, and look at their rising keywords. Do any of those overlap with your lost keywords? If so, they might have taken your place in the SERPs.
Study what changed on their end. Did they publish a stronger guide? Update their UX? Pick up links you didn’t see coming?
This isn’t about copying what they did. It’s about understanding where you’re falling short—and how to get back in the game.
After That, Write Down What You Found
Once you’ve done the digging, document your findings clearly.
Start with a quick summary of what likely caused the drop. Then, back it up with screenshots, audit links, and supporting data from your tools.
Keep it clean and organized. If you’re sharing it with others, clarity goes a long way. And if you need help formatting your notes into a readable doc, drop them into ChatGPT—we’ll help shape it up.
Then, Plan Your Fixes and Assign Tasks
Now it’s time to act.
If you work with a team:
- Break the fixes into clear tasks—technical issues, content updates, outreach, whatever’s needed
- Add context and links to task descriptions
- Use your project tool to track progress and set review points
If you’re solo or reporting up:
- Share your findings and proposed fixes
- Get sign-off if needed
- Start with the most impactful fixes first
The goal? Keep things moving, stay organized, and avoid bottlenecks.
Finally, Monitor Recovery
Fixes don’t mean much if you’re not watching what happens after.
Set up regular audits to confirm technical fixes are sticking. Add dropped keywords to your rank tracker, and group affected pages into a portfolio in Ahrefs or another tool.
Then, check in weekly. Is traffic returning? Are rankings climbing? Are conversions recovering?
You don’t need a dashboard for everything—but you do need a way to see if your changes are working.
A Final Word
Traffic drops aren’t fun—but they’re part of the game.
What matters is how you respond. If you take the time to trace what changed, make informed fixes, and monitor what happens next, you’ll often recover—and sometimes come back stronger.
Keep your process steady. Stay curious. And always look at these drops as a signal—not a failure.
