(Entry was posted by Andy Trigg on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 05/21/2020).

Analyzing the traffic drops

I`ve been running Invision based forums for 20 years. All of a sudden last Tuesday traffic dropped by 13%, the next day it dropped further, and the next until after several days it has dropped almost 50%. I`m completely puzzled as to how that could happen and how to even start trying to find out why? Nothing has changed on the forums at all.

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Sam Mah: You must have done something that`s against Google`s quality guidelines.
Andy Trigg: I cant see how thatâ€™s possible as nothing has changed in years apart from keeping the back end updated. Itâ€™s possible Google has changed its algorithms but I donâ€™t know when they last changed
George G.: the serp is a zero-sum game. (except when google decides to put more ads, snippets or w/e). This means, if your traffic drops, someone else is gaining traffic. Maybe the problem is not in you, rather than the algo is rewarding someone else.

Start by analyzing the drops. What kws dropped? Who is ahead of you now? Do the satisfy the searchers intent better? Are they with more authority than you?

GSC is the first place you should start.

Imo it is still early for any action tho. Wait till the serp calms a bit.
Danny Goodwin: Google core algo update started rolling out May 4 (last Monday). Not necessarily related, but could be. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-update.../367604/
Andy Trigg: Danny Goodwin thanks. It started the day after.
Cody Sharp: Are your forums mobile friendly? That has now become the default search result.
Andy Trigg: Yes mate. Totally mobile friendly
Tye Dee: Forums are slowly falling out of favor with Google due to the amount of spam in signatures.
Andy Trigg: this is a 48% drop in a week though