SERP Rank Same But Clicks Are Gone?

[swollengoat]

So ... we have an EMD that ranks first ... well, it did up until the 19th of last month.

We saw our position drop to 3-4 over the next week and then recover. Search impressions stayed relatively flat through the decline and recovery.

CTR and # of clicks declined with the position drop and have not returned with the rank improvement.

Any insight into why we are seeing no clicks even with our return to position and search traffic relatively the same?

 

[rl421403]

Maybe it's seasonal traffic.

 

[Arrashisure]

Trend thats dieing down perhaps?

 

[swollengoat]

Impressions are the same. Search volume isn't the issue.

 

[mechleader]

How much of a drop are we talking 100/day to 1?
New competition with a more attractive title?

 

[swollengoat]

We were getting ~800 clicks a day and during the bottom about 50. Last two days reported show improvement but still nowhere near previous levels.

 

[Forhadsaddam]

I think its traffic problem

 

[Fear2403]

what is your niche?

 

[kickthat]

Are you tracking position through anything other than search console? Is the data shown in the screenshot for the whole site clicks/impressions?

I'm assuming this isn't simply a case that most of your clicks were coming from one particular keyword which has failed to recover position, and the position line has recovered overall because other keywords improved more radically and are bringing the average back up?

 

[GreenDog]

Maybe you lost some rich snippets that may have been helping your CTR?

 

[Jason Bradbury]

Maybe it's seasonal traffic.

At this time?

 

[CenterCB]

This statistics is for one keyword? Or group of keywords?
If it is for a group of keywords, is there some possiblity that ranks of keywords with higher CTR drops, while with lower CTR rises?

 

[swollengoat]

Are you tracking position through anything other than search console? Is the data shown in the screenshot for the whole site clicks/impressions?

I'm assuming this isn't simply a case that most of your clicks were coming from one particular keyword which has failed to recover position, and the position line has recovered overall because other keywords improved more radically and are bringing the average back up?

Right now, just using console to track - do you have any recommendations?

This keyword is a main organic traffic driver for the site. I haven't looked at secondary terms to see how their performance has changed.

Looking at the most recent days reported (Mar 8 - 10), the avg. position is again sliding from 1st to 3rd

What I am really trying to ascertain is what could possibly be causing such a dramatic reduction in the CTR when the trend is showing our position is (was) in #1 and the # of impressions is stable - And, more importantly, what we need to do to bring performance back up.

 

[AntiHacker]

what is your niche?

REALLLY??

 

[Fear2403]

REALLLY??

if op in game hack niche may be people know that site is scam and no one will click

 

[swollengoat]

UPDATE:

Believe we've uncovered the issue that caused our position and CTR to tank. We had tested Cloudflare CDN back in February but experienced errors from their forced 'www.' redirect. While we cancelled CloudFlare, the www-redirect appeared to persist. We've removed the redirect and saw an immediate improvement in overall traffic levels. Search console is still reporting lower SERP rank and piss poor CTR, so we will continue to monitor and see if improvement comes in time.

Thanks to all that took time to weigh in.

SG

 

[Deleted member 1006940]

Good to hear!

So you did 301 redirect the www to the http:// now, right?

 

[swollengoat]

correct. it took a few days, but we're now seeing click traffic returning to normal levels.

 

[W9go]

make this only for the main kw and check if you are really pos 1.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

correct. it took a few days, but we're now seeing click traffic returning to normal levels.

The update aftershocks are still happening. In a few weeks all will be settled. It's been a big one.