Low website traffic: Diagnosing the possible causes

Low website traffic can have several negative consequences. It's not only the case with business website owners. Low traffic may hurt the bloggers' income.

Hence this post is equally important for website owners and bloggers. It will help you to diagnose the cause of low traffic.

Before proceeding to diagnose the causes of low traffic let's understand the overall impact of low website traffic.

Impact of low website traffic

It may impact your business. Let us see how it impacts your business.

Business Impact

1) Low website traffic reduces sales and conversions. If you're an e-commerce site, fewer visitors mean fewer potential customers and ultimately fewer sales.

This can lead to lower revenue and profits.

2) If no one sees your website, it's hard to build brand awareness. This can make it difficult to attract new customers and clients in the long run. Low traffic can mean missing out on potential leads, partnerships, and collaborations.

3) A website with little traffic can appear less credible and trustworthy, which can deter potential customers and partners.

SEO Impact

Low website traffic not only impacts the business but it also affects your SEO efforts.

1) Websites with low traffic often have lower search engine rankings, making it harder for potential visitors to find them organically.

2) When you have low traffic, you're less likely to attract backlinks from other websites, which can further harm your search engine ranking.

Furthermore, time and money spent on website development, content creation, and marketing can be wasted if there's no audience to appreciate it.

Moreover, low website traffic may frustrate and demotivate you and you may think of quitting. Putting effort into a website and seeing little to no results can be disheartening.

Hence it is better to diagnose the reasons for low website traffic.

Reasons for low website traffic

There are several reasons why your website might have low traffic even with SEO efforts and regular posting. Here are some key areas to consider:

SEO:

SEO is the main reason for not getting organic traffic on your website. You may have made some efforts to optimize search engines.

Frankly speaking, SEO is a constant process. You might have done on-page SEO, but you still have to put in effort to rank high. Without ranking high on search engines it is very difficult to get organic traffic to your website.

Let's dig more to diagnose the causes of low website traffic.

1) Outdated Keyword Strategy:

Search trends constantly evolve. Are you targeting the right keywords with sufficient search volume?

Search for the trending keywords on Google Trends. You can check daily search trends in various countries as well as you can check real-time search trends.

You can also explore the trend of keywords. Just I checked the trend of the keyword "low website traffic". The graph shows that it is been searched all year round. You can also compare it with another search term.

Although, its search volume is 25-50 hence it is low. But keyword difficulty is just 15 which means less competition.

Hence choose the keywords that are trending, with a good search volume and less competition

Never use outdated keywords. It will not be beneficial to generate traffic to your website. just like the below graph of one of my searches.

It is advisable to use other keyword research tools to get the perfect keywords for your website. That will help to increase your website traffic. Read What is the Role of Keywords

2) Technical SEO Issues:

Is your website optimized for search engine crawling and indexing?

Submit your site URL, page URL and Post URL to the search engines for indexing. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools are on the top for submitting your website.

Check for sitemap errors, broken links, and mobile responsiveness issues. Resolve these issues so that your website is technically optimized.

3) Over-optimization:

Using too many keywords can actually hurt your ranking. Ensure your content reads naturally and avoids keyword stuffing.

Keyword density is to be maintained at 2-5%. That means if the total word count of your website is 1200 words then keywords should not be more than 60 times.

Focus on one or two keywords or a long-tail keyword for targeting the search queries.

Don't over-optimize with more keywords. Keyword stuffing can negatively impact the reader's experience and lead to search engine penalties.

4) Link Profile:

Not enough high-quality backlinks can hinder your ranking. Consider guest blogging, outreach, and directory listings.

Content:

Content plays an important part in ranking high on search engines as well as increasing traffic. The following may be the reasons based on the content for low website traffic.

1) Low-quality or irrelevant content: Users won't stay on your site if they don't find value. Ensure your content is well-written, informative, and targeted to your audience.

2) Outdated content: Regularly update your content with fresh information and address new trends.

3) Lack of visual content: Consider incorporating images, videos, and infographics to break up text and engage users.

4) Inadequate content promotion: Even great content needs promotion. Share it on social media, relevant forums, and newsletters.

Website Design and Usability:

Suppose you want to open a website and it takes time to load what will you do? Similarly, if you don't like the design you definitely exit the site.

Thus Website design and usability are important to reach and retain users. Check following reasons

1) Slow loading speed: Users abandon slow websites. Optimize your website for speed using image compression, caching, and a good hosting provider.

2) Poor website design and navigation: A confusing or unappealing layout can deter visitors. Focus on user-friendliness and intuitive navigation.

3) Non-mobile responsive design: With growing mobile usage, a mobile-friendly website is crucial.

Other factors:

Apart from the above major possible causes you may also consider diagnosing a few other issues.

1) Tracking Issues: Verify that your analytics tools are correctly installed and capturing accurate data.

2) Website Niche: Some niches naturally have a lower search volume than others. Consider expanding your content beyond your core niche to capture a wider audience.

3) Competition: Analyze your competitors and see what they are doing well. Adapt your strategy to differentiate yourself.

Remember, SEO and content creation are part of a larger marketing strategy. Consider using social media marketing, email marketing, and other channels to drive traffic to your website.

Analyzing your website data and using tools like Google Search Console and analytics platforms can help you identify specific areas for improvement. Continuously test, iterate, and adapt your strategy to see what works best for your website and audience.