Massive traffic drop after site redesign

GiorgioB · Aug 7, 2015

Hello lads

Found myself in a bit of trouble with one of my websites, I'll try and keep it short and concise. 4 years of age, 6000+ pages indexed, averaging 1000 visits per day these past few months (up to 2500 / day in winter which is my peak season) - had a basic non-responsive template during all this time.

Last wednesday I changed to a new template which is responsive. Since then, traffic has dropped gradually, had 450 yesterday..

(Google traffic - the big dot = template change)

The URLs have not changed. I have this template on another website for over a year and that website is doing OK, not deindexed or penalised..

Does anyone know what can cause this? Text to html ratio? I know obviously it would help to know the URL of the website (I also have a staging website with the old template for comparative purposes) so if some people have some decent theories I'd be happy to PM you the URLs for further checks.

Has anyone else experienced this? And how did your sites react over the next few weeks/months? What actions did you take - if any? Any help and suggestions is much appreciated!

randybishop · Aug 7, 2015

That is my fear, that once I redesign the site that the rank will drop.
So I never redesign!

Kenobii · Aug 7, 2015

I usually face this after changing them of any website.

wizard04 · Aug 7, 2015

My advice is to do nothing. Leave it for 10+ days to settle down, the traffic will probably return.

junglist08 · Aug 7, 2015

THIS IS NORMAL.

If you did it right, it will return and even go up if you improved onsite.

HoneyHelper · Aug 7, 2015

If you didn't change the on page linking.....traffic will come back!

Cheers!

Codliver · Aug 7, 2015

Is your domain name keyword rich?

Is that keyword partially used across all 6000 pages?

If yes the theme may have injected it in the footer inflating the density on all pages.

watley · Aug 7, 2015

Has any of the text on the site changed? Redesigns typically cause ranking movements, mostly down short-term. I'd check super thoroughly to make sure you haven't messed anything up and then just wait it out until the rankings come back.

SoccerLover · Aug 7, 2015

Did you change the URL structure?
What about contents?
May be the backlinks got dissolved due to the Tier 1 URL change stuff.
Sort that out & I'm sure, everything will be back on Track.

GiorgioB · Aug 7, 2015

thanks for the feedback all
codliver - no, the URL is a brand name and the keyword densities are pretty low/natural
sagarmankar - no, the URLs didn't change and the contents neither, or not really... just a template change which means there might be some generic words that appear more than before (add to cart, etc..)

I will keep watching and update the thread on the evolution.. maybe this will help someone out there decide whether to change their design.. for now my advice would be "don't change something that is making money" :S

bartosimpsonio · Aug 7, 2015

I redesigned a forum and I'm getting a bunch of messages on Google Webmaster Stools about my mobile usability. Organic traffic also decreased, so I assume it's something to do with the rendering on mobile devices, although the site looks fine on the gadgets I tested.

BeSocial · Aug 7, 2015

It probably screwed up your on-page SEO

SEO20 · Aug 7, 2015

Aty · Aug 7, 2015

Theoretically it should be back on track soon. Give it a couple more weeks or so and let us know what happens.

GiorgioB · Nov 27, 2015

I thought I'd update this thread after a few months of struggle and strife, because again - I wish I'd found a thread like this myself just to prepare for the traffic fluctutations related to changing the web design of my site.

After the redesign google traffic dropped pretty seriously and it took a lot of good link juice to pull it back up. It's only just starting to recover since a few days, and hopefully the recovery is not a temporary increase... that's almost 4 months of -70% compared to last year :S

I'm still at around -40-50% compared to last year but hopefully it will recover gradually back to normal and even more. Consider this a heads up to anyone thinking about changing web design, Google can be a real BIIIIATCH about it. I've heard stories about redesigns going well, how much this is under the control of the webmaster, I don't know. Anyway, hopefully this experience and data will be useful to someone out there. And of course any suggestions or insight as to how to keep the recovery going is much appreciated.

accelerator_dd · Nov 27, 2015

GiorgioB said:
I thought I'd update this thread after a few months of struggle and strife, because again - I wish I'd found a thread like this myself just to prepare for the traffic fluctutations related to changing the web design of my site.

After the redesign google traffic dropped pretty seriously and it took a lot of good link juice to pull it back up. It's only just starting to recover since a few days, and hopefully the recovery is not a temporary increase... that's almost 4 months of -70% compared to last year :S

I'm still at around -40-50% compared to last year but hopefully it will recover gradually back to normal and even more. Consider this a heads up to anyone thinking about changing web design, Google can be a real BIIIIATCH about it. I've heard stories about redesigns going well, how much this is under the control of the webmaster, I don't know. Anyway, hopefully this experience and data will be useful to someone out there. And of course any suggestions or insight as to how to keep the recovery going is much appreciated.

Kudos for coming back to the thread to update on your situation, very few do that these days!

As a side note - have you looked into GWT for possible increase in 404s or any other warnings?

europa · Nov 27, 2015

I think traffic will come back after the redesign.

taskforcenow · Nov 27, 2015

Woah! Awesome! Your traffic's back! Great news! I also found this thread an interesting read, seeing the journey to come back to the top.

Massive traffic drop after site redesign

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