Organic traffic drop after September 2025. Anyone else?

Lavender_Strings

Lavender_Strings

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Hi everyone,

I’m seeing a noticeable organic clicks drop starting around mid of September 2025 and it’s not just my site, competitors in the same niche show very similar patterns.

Would like to know how you diagnosed it and what actions did you take that actually helped.

Thanks in advance.
 
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In our case the drop tracked with serp layout changes (more ads, Ai answers, local packs). traffic improved once we optimized for richer snippets and clearer first screen answers instead of chasing rankings alone.
 
Noticed the same across a few sites.
For me it lined up with quality re-evaluation cleaning weak pages and adjusting intent helped stabilize things after a few weeks.
 
I’ve seen similar drops across a few niches around that time, so it didn’t look site specific. In most cases it seemed tied to broader algorithm adjustments and changes in SERP layouts rather than penalties. what helped was focusing on content quality, tightening internal linking and improving pages that lost impressions. after a few weeks things stabilized, but it wasn’t an instant fix.
 
SEO Intelligence said:
In our case the drop tracked with serp layout changes (more ads, Ai answers, local packs). traffic improved once we optimized for richer snippets and clearer first screen answers instead of chasing rankings alone.
Click to expand...
I have added schemas to our pages to appear on rich snippets. Is there anything else I can do to optimize further?
 
Schema helps but it won't solve the AI overview problem.
The real issue is Google answering queries without users clicking anything.
Best you can do is target keywords where AI overviews don't show up yet - long tail, comparison, "best X vs Y" type queries.
 
schema alone wont save u if the user intent is satisfied by the ai summary . adding FAQ schema actually makes it easier for google to scrape your answer and display it without sending u a click u r basically feeding the beast that eats your traffic
we analyzed a few hundred sites post-september update and the ones that held their traffic had one thing in common high information gain
google filed a patent on this if your content just repeats the consensus (what everyone else is saying ) , the AI summarizes it and buries you . if your content adds unique data , contrarian viewpoints , or proprietary stats (information gain) , the AI is forced to cite you as a source card
instead of obsessing over rich snippets , try nuke-ing the generic what is X sections and move the unique value prop to the very top . also , look into brand-associated search volume . if people arent searching for [keyword] + [your brand] navboost treats your site as a generic commodity . we use micro-workers to artificially inflate that brand-association signal to recover sites from these exact core updates
make the user need you , not just the answer
 
This usually points to a broader algorithm update or seasonal trend. Check Google Search Console for impressions vs. clicks, analyze competitors’ changes, and focus on content quality, technical SEO, and user engagement to recover.
 
The September '25 update definitely felt like a 'brand filter' purge. Many of us are seeing that even high-quality niche sites are affected if they don't have enough social signals or mentions of the 'entity' elsewhere on the web. have you checked your GSC to see if the drop is across the board, or just on your review pages? Most people in this thread seem to find that informational content is better than commercial 'money' pages.
 
Lavender_Strings said:
Hi everyone,

I’m seeing a noticeable organic clicks drop starting around mid of September 2025 and it’s not just my site, competitors in the same niche show very similar patterns.

Would like to know how you diagnosed it and what actions did you take that actually helped.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
For me, it usually points to a quality re-evaluation. Cleaning up weak pages and adjusting content to better match user intent helped stabilize things after a few weeks. If your competitors are dropping too, it’s likely a niche-wide shift in how Google is ranking that specific topic.
 
This often signals a wider algorithm shift or normal seasonal fluctuation. Review impressions versus clicks in Google Search Console, watch competitor movements, and prioritize content quality, technical health, and user engagement to regain performance.
 
I saw the same pattern around mid-September , likely algorithm/intent shift rather than a manual issue.

and then I diagnosed it by checking GSC query-level drops, page intent mismatch and SERP layout changes (AI/feature snippets impact).

What helped: content re-alignment to search intent, internal link restructuring, anchor dilution and adding fresh authority links. Rankings stabilized within a few weeks.
 
Review and update the latest frequently searched user queries; update existing content rather than solely publishing new material; configure distinct browser settings to evaluate SEO performance across different target markets. I usually do these and am able to recover some of the website's traffic.
 
Yes, saw the same across a few sites. In most cases, it lined up with core update volatility and intent shifts, not penalties. What helped was tightening search intent, improving CTR on pages that kept impressions, pruning weak content, and reinforcing internal links to pages that were still holding positions.
 
Lavender_Strings said:
Hi everyone,

I’m seeing a noticeable organic clicks drop starting around mid of September 2025 and it’s not just my site, competitors in the same niche show very similar patterns.

Would like to know how you diagnosed it and what actions did you take that actually helped.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Definitely. The downward trend will continue in the near future, as a significant number of users have shifted to using AI instead of searching on Google.
 
Google reclassified intent and stole clicks with AI/SERP features, so the fix was cut dead pages, realign content to what AI can’t answer, and optimize for CTR not rankings.
 
Rankviking1 said:
The September '25 update definitely felt like a 'brand filter' purge. Many of us are seeing that even high-quality niche sites are affected if they don't have enough social signals or mentions of the 'entity' elsewhere on the web. have you checked your GSC to see if the drop is across the board, or just on your review pages? Most people in this thread seem to find that informational content is better than commercial 'money' pages.
Click to expand...
I see this mostly traffic drop on product pages. I also have another observation. Before the Dec 2025 core update, my primary keywords had stable weekend rankings - the rank graph was almost a straight line. Post-update, I now see drops on weekends and the graph looks like a wave when applying keyword filters on the page. What did dec core update actually do to the sites?
 
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