Jan | 12 | 2010

Reasons for Gradual Decline in Blog Traffic

Posted by Jimmy as Tips

On my last post I gave several reasons that could explain a sudden plunge your blog’s incoming traffic including:

*problems with your stats tracker;
*technical difficulties with your blog;
*holidays/special events; and
*a sudden drop in search rank (or even removal from search index).

What I will be discussing today though could explain why your blog has been experiencing a slow and steady decline in traffic.

In my opinion a steady decline in traffic is harder to reverse and more deadly than an abrupt plunge (unless the plunge has been lingered for some time). The reason for this is, as you can see from the list above, the reasons for abrupt changes in blog traffic have short term effects. Because of this the problem can be easily resolved or even just take care of itself.

On the other hand, a steady decline usually shows a genuine lack of interest from your readers. This means that you have no choice but to figure out what’s sucking the life out of your blog.

In my opinion the top reasons for a slow but steady decline include:

Poor content – For the nth time “Content is King”. There is no substitute for good content. If you started with a great engaging blog and lost steam, you shouldn’t be surprised to find your followers falling off one-by-one. There’s nothing left to do but to get back on tracking with the quality of your posts.

Too infrequent posting – Readers don’t like getting spammed but neither do they like having nothing new to read. The point of blogs is having fresh content, so have something for your readers on a regular basis.

Booming competitor’s blog – A new or old blog may be bleeding you dry. Whether this be intentional or not you have to do something. Again it usually boils down to content but just to make sure do an objective comparison to know the specific reasons why your readers have moved on to another blog.

Highly specific event-centered blogs – In cases like these (i.e. Beijing Olympics last 2008) there really isn’t much you can do. After some time people’s interest will wane no matter what you do. All you can do is either adapt and change theme or wait for the next similar event (i.e. the next Olympics) and in the meantime be satisfied with less traffic, if any.

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Comments (2)

2 Responses

  1. Beauty and Health Editor

    12|Jan|2010

    Well, infrequent posting is certainly a major factor and I’m guilty of this right now.

    People have actually told me that they used to visit my blog everyday but stopped coming because they can’t see anything new.

    In the meantime, I have writers block, I’m dealing with real life problems like finding a full-time job, my roof has blown off and water and snow are coming directly into my house, so I’m looking for money to fix it etc….So, blogging is the last thing I have time to do, to be quite honest as it is not a priority on my life’s list.

    Now, if I was making major money from my blog I would put in more major effort, but seeing as blogging does not pay my bills and never has, it goes on the backburner for more pressing and urgent projects.

    It’s a pastime, not my life, although it is an enjoyable pastime when my life is going well.

  2. Tom | Build That List

    12|Jan|2010

    It could also be a lack of promotion! Even the best blog posts need to be seen by people.

  


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