By: Isabel Balagat Oct 7/2024
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If you’ve noticed a dip in your website’s performance, you’re not alone. Website traffic and conversions can fluctuate for various reasons, but before you hit the panic button, it’s essential to analyze website performance to identify the root causes. This guide will help you evaluate and troubleshoot potential issues so you can improve website performance and keep your site running smoothly.
Potential Causes of Website Performance Decline
A drop in website performance could be due to multiple factors. Here are some common culprits to consider as you evaluate website performance:
- Penalties & Indexing Issues: If search engines can’t find your page, it’s likely due to indexing or manual action penalties from Google.
- SEO Content Problems: Poorly optimized content may fail to meet user intent, causing a decrease in traffic.
- User Experience (UX) Issues: If your site is slow or difficult to navigate, visitors will leave, and search engines will notice.
- External Factors: Seasonality, changing trends, and increased competition can also affect performance.
Let’s break down how to analyze website performance in each of these areas and how to fix these issues.
Check for Indexing Issues
Security & Manual Actions
First, log into Google Search Console to check for any security alerts or manual actions that might be blocking your site from appearing in search results.
- Security Issues: Ensure your site isn’t flagged for malware or other security risks.
- Manual Actions: If Google has penalized your site, resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Page Indexing
Next, verify that your pages are being indexed correctly.
- Noindex Tag: Make sure important pages aren’t accidentally marked with a noindex tag, which would prevent crawlers from indexing them.
- 404 Errors: Broken links can result in a poor user experience and harm your SEO. Use tools like Screaming Frog to detect 404 errors.
Address SEO Content Issues
Content Improvements
To fix website performance, you need to improve your content to better match search queries.
- Keyword Tracking Tools like AWR Cloud and SEMRush help you monitor keyword rankings. Identify pages where your rankings have dropped and evaluate them by analyzing what top-ranking competitors are doing.
- Look at People Also Ask (PAA) snippets. These questions provide insights into what users want to know. Make sure your content addresses these questions in a comprehensive way.
Keyword Opportunities
Leverage Google Search Console to discover new keyword opportunities.
- Identify the keywords your site is ranking for and optimize content to serve those queries better. This can include updating existing content to include more relevant information or creating new sections to answer emerging questions.
- Keyword research tools like SEMRush can also help identify related keywords that you may not have thought about.
Resolve UX Issues
Lighthouse Reports
Run a Google Lighthouse report to analyze website performance in terms of UX and page speed.
- Speed Optimization: Slow pages can hurt both user experience and SEO. Compress images, use .webp formats, and consider lazy loading for images to improve load times.
Hotjar Analysis
Use Hotjar to understand how users are interacting with your website.
- Scroll Tracking: Are users scrolling to the bottom of your page or are they dropping off early? This may indicate that your content needs to be shorter or more engaging.
- Interaction Heatmaps: Are users clicking on elements that aren’t clickable? If so, this could signal that you need to develop those sections further.
- Layout Optimization: Consider changing the layout to highlight critical information if users are missing it. Adding icons, images, or clear calls-to-action can improve engagement.
Consider External Factors
Sometimes the issue isn’t your website—external factors could be at play.
- Competition: Run a search to see if new competitors have appeared in the local results. Analyze their content and see how you can differentiate your website by offering better solutions or a superior user experience.
- Seasonality: Check if performance dips occurred during the same period in previous years. If so, this might indicate seasonal fluctuations.
- Broader Trends: Use Google Trends to check whether there’s a decline in search interest for your products or services. This can help you decide if it’s a temporary drop or a long-term shift in demand.
The Importance of Ongoing Website Maintenance
Website performance declines can be a blessing in disguise—they give you the opportunity to assess what’s working and what needs improvement. A website is never a “set it and forget it” asset. Regular maintenance and incremental improvements are key to staying competitive, especially as user expectations evolve.
If this sounds overwhelming, a full-service marketing agency that understands your industry such as Snaptech Marketing is here to help. We offer comprehensive services to ensure your website remains optimized, up-to-date, and ready to convert visitors into customers. Contact us today to learn how we can support your digital marketing efforts!