Ok, so Google rolled out another core update and you begin to notice a drop in traffic!
What do you do? How do you fix it?
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When a Google Update Happens, Do These Things:
The one thing you can count on in the blogging world is that things will ALWAYS be changing!
Just when you find your sweet spot and things seem to be going in an upward direction for your blog –
BAM!!
A Google update or some other major change happens and you feel like it was all for nothing!
This is all just part of the blogging game.
But more importantly, it is a great tool for the enemy to distract and discourage you from making an impact for God online.
Here are some things you can do to help navigate these ups and downs and create a little more traffic stability for your Christian blog.
Don’t Freak Out
The worst thing you can do when you notice a drop in traffic is to freak out and start trying to fix it!
Let the update finish rolling out and simply wait a few more weeks for everything to level out.
Avoid going in and immediately updating the blog posts that lost traffic.
A good way to look at it is this:
You don’t walk out and start cleaning up your yard DURING a hurricane. You wait until it passes and the weather clears before going out to clean up.
Think of the Google updates as the hurricane!
Evaluate Your Lost Traffic
Ok, so once the storm settles, give it a few weeks. Then take a look at your Google Analytics to see which blog posts took the biggest traffic hit.
Take a look at those posts and see where you can improve the content.
- Better headings
- More headings
- Rewrite some of the content
Above all, DO NOT simply go in and just add some keywords. Google recognizes this strategy and will NOT reward you for it.
Make sure the blog post actually provides a valuable answer to the search query.
Add Videos to Content
Video is where future growth will happen.
Almost all social platforms are now pushing video over static content. This is because people engage at a much higher rate with video than with images.
Video can also increase your organic search traffic! Video can be searched via search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc) as well as Youtube.
But don’t use other people’s videos! Make your own! Do keyword research for the post query and see if (and how) people are searching for it in video format.
Adjust Your Social Media Strategy
Most people get zero traffic to their blog from social media for one simple reason.
You aren’t serving your audience there!
If you create a solid social media strategy that isn’t just about sharing Bible verses on a pretty graphic, you can see a significant increase in your social followers actually visiting your blog!
Adjust Your Pinterest Strategy
Although I don’t recommend spending too much time on Pinterest, you should still use it.
Pin your new blog posts. But more importantly, create idea pins regularly.
The best way to do this is to repurpose some of the videos you’ve already created for your other social media channels.
Adjust Your Email Strategy
If you already have an email list, it is crucial that you have a solid plan for the emails you send them!
Yes, part of the purpose of having the email list is to connect with your readers.
But it is also one of the best methods of generating additional traffic to your site each week.
Don’t just wake up and decide what to write to them. And don’t just say “here is the latest blog post” because that strategy gets the least amount of engagement.
Instead, create a newsletter template that includes the newest blog post but also includes links to other important content on your site.
So, there you have it!
I know it can be frustrating and overwhelming when you see your traffic starting to tank.
Last year in January, Kingdom Bloggers was getting about 100k monthly sessions. Then a huge Google update happened and I lost about half of that.
For most of 2021, I never got higher than 50k each month.
But eventually, it did turn around and each month I am now getting closer and closer to reaching 100k again.
Yes – It took about a year to recover!!
But that’s ok because of that less than 50k that I did get, God’s message was still impacting people across the globe!
So just sit tight and CALMLY assess your situation and make a plan for moving forward!
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