Why am I not showing up · 4 min · October 23, 2026

Why did my website traffic drop?

Visits from Google fell and nobody changed anything. The four usual causes, how to tell them apart in an afternoon, and which one is yours.

Written by Footprnt, from Google's own definitions

A drop in visits from Google is almost always one of four things. A page stopped opening. A page changed, often its title. Google moved you for a search that used to send people. Or fewer people are searching for it this month.

Start with which pages fell

A site rarely falls everywhere at once. Open Search Console, choose Pages, and compare this month with the one before. Usually two or three pages carry the whole drop. Write them down. Everything after this is about those pages, not the site.

Then check they still open

Open each one in a private window. A page that now redirects, asks for a sign-in, or shows an error has lost its visitors for a plain reason. This is the most common cause and the quickest fix.

Then look at what changed on the page

A new title, a moved heading, or a section cut out can change where Google puts you within a week. If you use a site builder, check its history. If a colleague edited the page, ask what and when.

Then ask whether people stopped searching

Some searches are seasonal and some fade. If impressions fell as much as clicks, fewer people were looking. Nothing on your site caused it, and nothing on your site will bring it back.

Footprnt does this check for you. Each week, every page that moved gets a sentence on the likely cause, and the fix beside it.