4 steps to take when diagnosing a spike in organic traffic

4 Steps to Take When Diagnosing a Spike in Organic Traffic

So, you’ve got your digital marketing SEO strategy in place and all seems well and you see the traffic spike. However, oftentimes a spike in organic traffic may not be indicative of strong organic performance. Any organic traffic - negative or positive should be investigated often.

So, you’ve got your digital marketing SEO strategy in place and all seems well and you see the traffic spike.

However, oftentimes a spike in organic traffic may not be indicative of strong organic performance.

Any organic traffic - negative or positive should be investigated often.

How?

Use the following 4 steps to narrow down the cause of the unexpected spike in your organic traffic.

Identify pages of your website that have been impacted

Determine any algorithm update

Identify external factors that could have caused the spike on your website Identify external factors that could have caused the spike in your product or services page

Once you identify where the spike is coming from should dictate your next steps

Identify the keywords that might have increased these clicks Any relevant information doing the rounds that you also worked upon Identify product related keywords that caused these impressions Determine a google algorithm update that might have taken place When we say identify google algorithm, what do we mean? In 2020 alone, Google officially updated the algorithm 10 times.

So?

When the algorithm updates occur, there are often websites that benefit greatly and experience an increase in their organic visibility on the home page. This can lead to an unexpected spike in organic traffic.

But how would you know?

A great way to confirm your suspicions of a Google Algorithm update is, yes, you’re right Twitter.

Accounts like Google Search Liaison and Dunny Sullivan often shed insights on how the Google Search Algorithm works.

Similar to the approach for investigating a potential increase in general interest, for products and services it’s the same approach.

Your organic traffic can drop or spike for many reasons, and it's crucial to have a plan. If you don’t have one yet, then get in touch right away.