Less website traffic: when should you step in?
When website traffic drops, you want to know three things: where the drop sits, whether you are still measuring the same way and what is happening with your requests. With that information, you can choose a fitting action.
Customers use AI answers while orienting themselves. Whether that explains the drop for you is something you examine together with the other causes below.
Check the measurement first
Have cookie consent or analytics settings changed? Has the website been refreshed? Are channels grouped differently? A change in recording changes the numbers, even if customers behave the same way.
Compare periods that match each other and take seasons, campaigns and changes in your offer into account. Note any deviations before drawing conclusions about a trend.
Find where the drop sits
Break the numbers down by channel, page and search query, as far as the data allows. Does it concern a general knowledge article or an important service page?
For search traffic, look at impressions and clicks together. If clicks drop, check whether impressions drop too. Examine a drop in click-through rate at the search queries and pages involved. Then check whether recent technical changes played a role.
Include the quality and follow-up of requests
Besides the number of requests, look at whether they fit your offer and what happens to them afterwards. Agree fixed criteria with sales for judging requests. Keep requests that have not yet been assessed separate, so a backlog in follow-up does not distort your numbers.
Some collaborations only start months after first contact. So show which requests are still open.
Example
Say visits to your general explanation pages drop while requests for your core service stay the same. You first check whether fewer new audiences are coming in and follow the numbers for another period.
At another company, both visits to service pages and the number of matching requests drop after a website change. There, you check redirects, indexing, content and forms right away.
Two similar drops lead to a different first step here.
Ask customers how they oriented themselves
Ask new customers how they reached their choice and which information helped. Note it when they mention AI tools, alongside the other sources. Combine those answers with the referrals to your site and a focused study of AI answers.
More direct traffic or more searches on your brand name can have different causes. Customer answers add context. Together with your analytics, they form the picture of how customers find you.
Make a decision and act on it
Bring together the main observation, the explanation you want to test and the missing information. Then choose a next step: fix an error, improve a page, hold extra customer conversations or keep following the numbers for another period.
Agree who takes this on and when you will look at it again. Only increase a budget once it is clear which problem that solves and what you want to achieve.
This is how upMention Intelligence connects information to a choice you can act on. Also read about measuring AI visibility and focused page improvements.