Since Google’s March Update, I’ve experienced a significant drop in traffic which felt like the end of blogging for myself and many others. 5 months on I seem to be finally turning a corner, so what happened? What did I do? Here are 5 of the possible reasons why I (finally) got my blog traffic back.
Blog traffic tip #1: Switching exclusively to AMP (Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages framework)
I took a punt at this, removing all WordPress plugins that conflicted with AMP and switching to an AMP-only site. This had a dramatic effect on my PageSpeed Insights scores.
Speed is second only to content. Optimise your blog’s speed.
Blog traffic tip #2: Deep dive into Google Search Console
In the hope that an AMP-only blog would boost my search rankings, I delved into Google Search Console and noticed no pages were being indexed for both Mobile and Desktop. I requested re-indexing around the time of the traffic resurgence.
Always use Google Search Console to ensure there are no issues with your blog.
Blog traffic tip #3: Plugin re-evaluation
I experimented with removing some plugins I’d stuck with for years, with Jetpack and Autoptimize being the main ones, to get the total number below the magic ten mark. AMP takes care of a lot of things Autoptimize did, and, to be honest, I was getting tired of the ongoing Jetpack cash-grab for things as rudimentary as web stats. The end result? An even faster site which is always good for search ranking.
Only use the plugins you need.
Blog traffic tip #4: Content
And through all that, I kept on playing the long game of pumping out content, but this time with one eye on the impending threat of AI. Now, more than ever, authenticity is our only differentiator and saviour.
Content is King.
Blog traffic tip #5: Google
But also, maybe Google just changed things again, who knows?
Be aware of changes to Google’s algorithms.
Do you run your own blog? Have you also experienced a dip in traffic? How did you come out of the other side?
Feels great to be back in the game again!