Is there a drop in traffic lately (due to covid19)?

[DavidTT]

For everyone in the online space, have you seen an overall drop in web traffic lately or is it just me? I'm looking at my search console and notice a serious drop in impressions but the ranking seems to be the same.

I would average anywhere between 300 to 500 impressions daily but first time in quite a while that I am below the 200 mark. My overall rankings however seem to be the same (34.5 average). I'm just wondering am I the only person going through this or is anyone else?

stats from the last 12 months:




I'm assuming that this whole Covid situation might be reducing traffic in some industries.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[amp0193]

I'm assuming that this whole Covid situation might be reducing traffic in some industries.

And increasing it significantly in others.

 

[daniel_m]

No. There was a big Google update in the last 24hrs.

 

[Fox]

I’d say it’s very niche dependent.

Two obvious examples:

- Travel. This is going to be way down.

- Home fitness. This is going to be way up.

With the current situation every niche is going to be seen as more/less important than before. It will depend on how people’s priorities/values have shifted.

Also budget - can they afford and justify buying what you sell right now? If not it’s unlikely they will be looking online for options.

I think overall web traffic is up but general spending is down for most niches with a few select industries doing very well.

My own organic traffic on YouTube is way up - it’s a good time for people to learn from home.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Searches for social distancing posters and perspex screens is through the roof.

As are searches for mortgage rates, office chairs, laptops...

Have a look at Google Trends.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Forum traffic and registrations have been up moderately since CV19, I'm guessing because more people are stuck at home looking for things to do. And who knows, maybe people are sick of tyrannical corporations like Twitter and Facebook.

 

[Jake]

Traffic has been up here. Had a big day on 5.5.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MoreVolume]

Things are actually the same, with Weekends having an above average amount of sales. I attribute it to the nature of my product (sexual health). People are spending more time watching smut, which increases the chances of seeing my ads. Unlike viagra or condoms, men of all ages can benefit from my product, which puts me in a unique space.

there’s no money like perv money. Perv money is recession proof

 

[BizyDad]

I've seen drops for all kinds of reasons. For example, there is a lot of bot traffic included in these search console charts. I noticed you haven't filtered the chart based on the country you are targeting. Try doing that to see if the drop is a "true" drop or simply bots getting shut down/filtered out.

Take a deeper look at the actual phrases down below as well. Compare the period from where the drop began (I'm guessing April 3rd?) through today, vs the previous equivalent period. It could be you are losing searches you don't really care about anyways.

On a lot of my charts I'm seeing movement around that date as well (both up and down). Dig deeper to see what's going on.

 

[DavidTT]

I've seen drops for all kinds of reasons. For example, there is a lot of bot traffic included in these search console charts. I noticed you haven't filtered the chart based on the country you are targeting. Try doing that to see if the drop is a "true" drop or simply bots getting shut down/filtered out.

Take a deeper look at the actual phrases down below as well. Compare the period from where the drop began (I'm guessing April 3rd?) through today, vs the previous equivalent period. It could be you are losing searches you don't really care about anyways.

On a lot of my charts I'm seeing movement around that date as well (both up and down). Dig deeper to see what's going on.

ya I guess you're definitely right. I will on that. Thank you!!!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[nicheevolution]

There was a google broad core update on May the 4th. It completely destroyed a lot of legit websites including mines. I'm still trying to recover but traffic is like down 75% pre broad core update. I'm starting to realize that google is going to keep jerking me around everytime that they release an update unless I can figure out a way to diversify my traffic .

 

[Sanj Modha]

There was a google broad core update on May the 4th. It completely destroyed a lot of legit websites including mines. I'm still trying to recover but traffic is like down 75% pre broad core update. I'm starting to realize that google is going to keep jerking me around everytime that they release an update unless I can figure out a way to diversify my traffic .

Paid ads, dude. Take back the control.

 

[nicheevolution]

Paid ads, dude. Take back the control.

That's not called taking back control.

That's doing exactly what google wants you to do.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Sanj Modha]

That's not called taking back control.

That's doing exactly what google wants you to do.

Who said anything about using Google ads? There's plenty of paid options to choose from.

 

[Lyinx]

Who said anything about using Google ads? There's plenty of paid options to choose from.

List of options?

 

[nicheevolution]

Who said anything about using Google ads? There's plenty of paid options to choose from.

You're still forking over money on something you otherwise wouldn't have had to in the past with seo. After this whole fiasco, google can forget about me ever giving them a cent and that includes all of their physical products too!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Sanj Modha]

You're still forking over money on something you otherwise wouldn't have had to in the past with seo. After this whole fiasco, google can forget about me ever giving them a cent and that includes all of their physical products too!

I don't disagree but as someone who started with SEO and was broke for years because none of my efforts converted into $$$$ - learning paid advertising has changed my life.

I have no issues with SEO if it generates 5%-6% of my sales but I'm never going to build a strategy around it. With paid ads, you have more options like building an email list which lasts forever (if done right).

 

[Sanj Modha]

List of options?

FB & IG: massive scale and we throw about 70% of our total budget at it. This is my bread and butter now.

Google & YouTube: 30% of total ad spend. I've found this harder to scale vs FB/IG but the ROAS is usually higher and CPA is lower.

Pinterest: about 10% of the budget but this takes time to get warm-up. Usually about 7-10 days for new campaign to start generating results.

Snapchat: another 10% and it's great for the right products/services. You can crush it with 18-24 year olds.

 

[Sanj Modha]

List of options?

There's also native platforms like Taboola & Outbrain but I haven't launched anything on these yet.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[nicheevolution]

I don't disagree but as someone who started with SEO and was broke for years because none of my efforts converted into $$$$ - learning paid advertising has changed my life.

I have no issues with SEO if it generates 5%-6% of my sales but I'm never going to build a strategy around it. With paid ads, you have more options like building an email list which lasts forever (if done right).

At the moment, I don't have my own product to sell and therefore using paid traffic doesn't make sense for me. There's also not much affiliate products to promote in my niche as well.

I don't disagree that paid traffic can be great for increasing an email list quickly, my issue with it though is that it still gives all of these big companies control over you. They can jack up the prices for CPC/CPA or just ban you for no reason as some people have experienced with facebook ads.

It seems these big corporations are making it harder and harder for the little guys to make a living due to their astronomical control over everything. Even with your email list, the email service provider can terminate your account as they see fit. There was a member on here who signed up with MailCheat(Chimp) and had his account frozen and in review after sending out an email broadcast.

 

[Lyinx]

With paid ads, you have more options like building an email list which lasts forever (if done right).

If I understand your strategy, building an email list would be close to the top priority, that's actually very smart!
And thanks for sharing all the other sites, I'll be looking more into it as I have time...

It seems these big corporations are making it harder and harder for the little guys to make a living due to their astronomical control over everything. Even with your email list, the email service provider can terminate your account as they see fit. There was a member on here who signed up with MailCheat(Chimp) and had his account frozen and in review after sending out an email broadcast.

can't you backup your email list on another server somehow that's within your control?

 

[nicheevolution]

If I understand your strategy, building an email list would be close to the top priority, that's actually very smart!
And thanks for sharing all the other sites, I'll be looking more into it as I have time...


can't you backup your email list on another server somehow that's within your control?

I just export my email list on a regular basis. You never know when they could just suspend your account.

But it seems a lot of them are starting to frown on affiliate marketing due to abuse in the past by some spammers. I know MailCheat(Chimp) doesn't allow you to use their service for affiliate marketing.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.