A zen paradox for the modern age:

If a post is written on a blog that receives no traffic, is there any content there at all?

Like the sound of a tree falling in an empty forest, or like a Kanye West rant, a blog is nothing without people there to take it in.

Where has my traffic gone?

If you run a blog, you want traffic. It’s very simple.

And if your traffic starts falling, then you’ll want to do something about it. This is also very simple.

But what exactly should you do to combat falling traffic?

Luckily, the answer to that is fairly simple as well.

Write More

Now this may sound obvious and, well, that’s because it is.

If you’re not keeping your blog regularly updated, your followers will lose interest, but it’s not just about quantity.

Have a look at your stats – which of your posts get the most hits? Is there a noticeable common thread there? If so, capitalise on it.

Even if the posts that are really drawing in large amounts of traffic aren’t necessarily those that you find the most interesting or enjoyable, it’s important to strike a balance if you want to maintain a decent reader base.

Social Media

The importance of social media can never be understated, both as a way to dramatically increase the reach of your content, and as something that will influence your rankings on the SERP.

Maintaining an active presence on social media is more or less essential. This means posting regularly and linking to every post that you write.

Importantly, capitalise on the specific value of each social network. Don’t just use them to link back to your blog, use them as opportunities to draw in more followers who then read your blog because they enjoy the content/tweets/photos you post.

Use each platform to connect with other bloggers in similar fields, generate connections and relationships and generally build up a reciprocally beneficial network.

Another way social media can help boost your traffic if when your content gets shared by others. Now this is not so easy to control and really, the best way to help here is to write more and better content. However, building up connections with other bloggers will make them more likely to share your content while you do the same for them.

Check Your Rankings

If you’re SERP rankings have fallen, then the chances are that your traffic will have gone down as well as a result.

There are various reasons why this might happen, each with a solution; though identifying the exact reason can be tricky.

Have Google released any updates recently that have shaken up the SERPs?

Check out MozCast, the SEO weather forecast – this might give you an indication as to whether or not your fall in rank is unique to you or not. If it is down to a Google update then find out as much as you can about it, and update your site accordingly.

Have you been paying for links from a black-hat SEO?

Avoid this at all costs, but if you have been stung in the past, make sure you disavow any spammy links to your site and Penguin should reinstate your rankings. This will become a much quicker and more efficient process once Penguin 4.0 rolls out.

 
This article has been intentionally fairly brief – the solutions to falling blog traffic are often much simpler than you might think! If your traffic is going down and you really can’t figure out why, get in touch using the comments section and one of our experts will be happy to offer you some advice.