DSS User GroupNovember 2012

Case Studies: Diagnosing Traffic Drops

DSS User Group November 2012 Agenda

• Analyzing Site Issues – Traffic Drops• Traffic Drops – when to worry?• Why does traffic drop?

• Exact Match Domain Case Study #1• Exact Match Domain Case Study #2• Other reasons for traffic drops

• Open Q&A• New DSS features & site speed improvements

Traffic Drops – When (not) To Worry

“Help! The sky is falling… the sky is falling!”•A traffic drop alone is not cause for concern. If the search engines are doing their job, the continual changes they make should send you BETTER traffic… not necessarily MORE.•When to worry? When your CONTACTS go down.•Things to consider: seasonal fluctuations, viral content, random variations in traffic, new factors in search.

Exact Match Domain (EMD) Algorithm Change

• End of September Google announced a new search algorithm filter that will be used periodically to “scrub” the search results to remove the benefit to sites that were ranking unnaturally well based solely on their keyword-rich domain name.

• It was not intended to affect sites that had a keyword-rich domain, but also had good quality content or great brand recognition. If you were hit by this penalty, it is possible “something else” was also to blame.

• More info:• “

The EMD Update: Like Panda & Penguin, Expect Further Refreshes To Come” by Danny Sullivan

• “Your Guide to Google’s EMD Algorithm Update” by Jayson DeMers

Exact Match Domain Case Study #1

• Example of a site affected by the EMD update – see traffic drop end of September.

• However, other clients have keyword domains and were not affected – what else could it be?

EMD Case Study #1 (slide 2 of 4)

• Use “Compare” feature in Google Analytics to compare traffic on different dates – site traffic is down almost 50%.

EMD Case Study #1 (slide 3 of 4)

Check LINKS TO YOUR SITE in WMT

Per WMT, 53% of links to this site are from other lawyers’ WordPress blogs – and not blogs in the same practice area as the affected website.

Per MajesticSEO 88% of all backlinks discovered so far in 2012 for this site were from one of these 3 blogs.

The day before the site dropped in traffic, over 200 links were discovered by Majestic coming to this site – and 91% were from two of these WordPress blogs.

EMD Case Study #1 (slide 4 of 4)

• Conclusion:• EMD may have been a factor in the drop,

due to the timing• Possible that excessive linking from

WordPress blog network from unrelated sites contributed to traffic drop

• Some “penalties” are actually search engines REMOVING benefits a site used to get – they are not a true penalty.

Exact Match Domain Case Study #2

• Client’s SEO company said they were affected by Google’s EMD update, wanted to change domain name. Traffic down about 35%.

EMD Case Study #2 (slide 2 of 6)

• Didn’t see anything amiss in WMT… but since an outside SEO was involved, we checked backlinks.

• We used MajesticSEO to view backlinks, you can also use Bing Webmaster Tools.

EMD Case Study #2 (slide 3 of 6)

• Ask FWM to add you and your site to Bing WMT

• Go to “Inbound Links” and “Export All” to CSV (Excel)

• You can see Target Page, Source URL and Anchor Text

EMD Case Study #2 (slide 4 of 6)

What to look for with backlinks?•What sites are linking to you? Are they RELEVANT to your business? This law firm had a lot of recent links to sites like:

• www.discountflatscreentelevision.com• amexicanothemovie.com• www.vanillacokefans.com

•What anchor text is being used – is it the same few keyword phrases over and over? This law firm had the same few keyword phrases over and over as anchor text:

• “injury attorney city”• “injury lawyer city”• “accident lawyer city”• “medical malpractice lawyer city”

•Does this look natural to you?

EMD Case Study #2 (slide 5 of 6)

• We used MajesticSEO to look at 2012 link activity:• 80% of links gotten this year have been lost

already • 96% of links lost included similar keyword

anchor text – no brand name or domain name• The SEO company admitted to using low-value

websites for link building, because “it used to work” and added “we’re trying to find better quality links now” – but the damage is done.

EMD Case Study #2 (slide 6 of 6)

• Conclusion:• EMD update may have been a factor, but very

spammy backlink profile was likely greater factor in site’s traffic drop.

• KNOW WHAT YOUR SEO COMPANY IS DOING… and what they DID! Get a monthly report with details of everything they are doing on your behalf. (Would you let a contractor work on your house without supervision?)

Real Reasons for Traffic Drops (1 of 2)

• New site: was all your content redirected correctly?• New site: did you have another site with your previous

provider that your new provider doesn’t know about? • Backlinks: are you participating in link networks or do

you have spammy backlinks?• Backlinks: does your other site / blog have a

development site that isn’t blocked and is sending extra links to your main site?

• Recent domain name change? Can take 1-3 months to recover.

Real Reasons for Traffic Drops (2 of 2)

• Viral content: did you attract a lot of visitors due to a topical news or blog item… and has that content played out?

• Social media: were you doing a great job with social media, but stopped recently?

• PPC / other advertising: were you paying for PPC or other advertising, but stopped?

• Google+ Local: is Google sending traffic to your Local page?

• Better content: are you following our advice and writing better content for your perfect client? Your traffic may drop – but your contacts will go up. This is because the search engines are sending you more targeted visitors.

Traffic Drops: Comparing Time Periods

You can use Google Analytics to compare traffic from one time period to another. Also try the “custom” comparison and “previous year” to see how traffic fluctuates.

Traffic Drops: “Hot Topics” Content

Example: blog post about recent local event – traffic pop that dropped off quickly. Get a few of these at once, and you may think that you have a problem.

Traffic Drops: Social Media Referrals

Example: law firm getting into social media – did a lot of work early last month, but not much since then.

Traffic Drops: Google+ Local

Google is sending more and more traffic to businesses’ Google+ Local page, instead of to your website. This means that you need to be tracking how your Google+ Local page is doing!

Google+ Local: How to Check Your Insights

1. Log Into Your Google Account

2. Click on “+YourName” in the upper left corner

3. Click on the “Local Icon” on the left hand side

4. Type your business’ name into the search box

5. Click on your business’ local profile

6. Go to Manage This Page (will only show up if you’ve claimed your profile)

7. Your business will pop up and your insights should be to the right

Traffic Drops: CONCLUSION

• Traffic will fluctuate: search engines will change

algorithms and new factors will come into play (like Google+ Local).

• Don’t worry about short-term fluctuations in traffic – focus on the QUALITY and QUANTITY of your leads.

• If the phone stops ringing, if contact forms aren’t being filled out, if your offers aren’t being ordered, and if live chat isn’t being used… then worry.

Questions?

DSS Updates•Now live:

• Major site speed improvements (server & code changes) that improved site speed for all sites• User tracking: you can now see the pages a person who filled out a contact form visited before filling out

the form. Can also see page visitor was on when mini contact form was filled out.• Improved styling for content log (and design overhaul coming!)• New styling on Members (formerly bio) page• You can now see the Offer type (Report, Book, PPC, etc.) on offer list page• Now have meta viewport tag so sites look better on tablets, and sites without mobile site look better on

mobile devices.• We’ve limited the number of links that are output to the practice area buckets for sites with sub-practice

areas.• New 404 page includes a basic sitemap to be more user-friendly.• Complete rewrite of the nightly sitemap generation task (XML and CFM) and rewrite of XML feeds• Unique page titles for embedded videos (used to use summary page title)• When you delete a practice area, you can redirect the content within that PA to another folder (i.e. if you

delete your Trucking Accident PA, you could move all the content associated with that PA to your Vehicle Accident PA).

•Coming next:• In DSS, separate video upload from video content page when adding new videos.• Redesign of Contact Page in DSS• Full rewrite of all queries, software & hardware upgrades to make all sites faster (MAJOR 3month project)• Newsletter pages in DSS restyled, easier to use• Competitive analysis tool still under development, will integrate with DSS

Questions?(Last Call!)