Google’s frequent algorithm updates produce constant fluctuations in organic traffic and rankings. Content audits are critical to identifying lost rankings, reviving declining traffic, and finding new topics.
How to revise content for better search engine optimization.
Evaluate lost traffic
Traffic drops from organic search can occur for several reasons.
- Over time, new articles push current ones deep into the archives. Updating articles with significant new information and a new date will likely help regain traffic.
- Google’s core updates often focus on searcher intent. Many queries imply multiple intents. For example, a search for “backyard grill” might suggest a need for information (how to grill) or purchasing options (where to buy a grill). This type of loss is not easy to fix and will likely require a new landing page or article.
- Rankings of competitors’ pages surpassed yours. Switching from position 1 to 2 can result in major traffic losses. It’s not easy to fix either. Carefully analyze your competitors’ pages and backlinks to identify what may have led to an increase in their rankings.
- Changes by Google to search results pages, such as adding sections and lowering the visibility of organic results. There is no solution.
Whatever the reason, the first step is to know which sides are responsible for the loss. Search Console is an easy and free tool to diagnose organic traffic drops.
- Go to the “Performance” section.
- Click “Search Results” > “Date” > “Compare”.
- Select “Compare last 3 months with previous period” or “Compare last 3 months year over year”, depending on your audit frequency.
- Click on “Pages” and sort by “Click Difference”.
- Click on any URL in the first column.
- Click on “Queries” and again sort by “Click Difference” to see the search terms causing the biggest traffic drops.
Now search for these queries (keywords) in Google to assess what may have caused the drop.
Search Console is an easy and free tool to diagnose organic traffic drops. Click on the image to enlarge.
Identify opportunities
There are two main ways to improve your organic search performance.
Identify and improve page 1 rankings
Even climbing one position on the first page is likely to increase traffic significantly. Optimizing the page copy by adding more keywords and creating more internal backlinks will likely help.
To identify these pages, use Search Console’s performance section again.
- Click “Search Results” > “Average Position” at the top of the graph.
- Click on the filter option (inverted triangle) and select “Position”.
- Click “Filter by position” for “Greater than” 2.
Sort the queries by number of clicks to see the top (and bottom) performers. Again, a page that climbs a single position will see a huge increase in traffic.
Filter “Average Position” for “Greater Than” in Search Console 2. Click on the image to enlarge.
Identify and improve pages with external backlinks
Pages with many backlinks but few searchable keywords often do not rank. For these pages, research keywords to help Google understand them.
Semrush’s backlink research tool can identify top linked pages:
- Log in to Semrush and click on “Backlink Analytics” under “Link Building.”
- Paste your URL and select “Root Domain”.
- Click on the “Indexed Pages” tab.
The report is sorted by the number of linked domains for each page on your site. Strongly linked pages are easier to improve, ranking wise.
Use Search Console for ranking opportunities or run keyword research tools to find new queries.
Semrush’s backlink research tool can identify top linked pages. Click on the image to enlarge.