Why has my website traffic dropped?

Most traffic drops we are asked about turn out to have an ordinary cause. A tag stopped firing, a page was set to noindex during a redesign, or it is simply January. This guide walks you through the checks in the order that finds the cause fastest, then shows you how to line your drop up against Google's own update dates. It is part of our SEO help centre.

Check these first

1. Pin down the date. In Google Search Console, open Performance, then Search results, and set the date range to the last 16 months. Find the first day clicks fell and write it down.
2. Compare Search Console with Google Analytics 4. If Search Console clicks are steady but GA4 sessions fell, the problem is almost always measurement, not Google. Look for a removed tag, a new cookie banner or a site rebuild around that date.
3. Check impressions, not just clicks. Tick both boxes in the Performance report. Impressions down means you are being shown less. Impressions steady with clicks down usually points to a change in how results look, or a title or description that got worse.
4. Look for technical faults. Open Indexing, then Pages, and check whether indexed pages dropped. Use the URL Inspection tool on your top pages. A noindex tag, robots.txt block or a site that was down for days will show here.
5. Check Security and Manual Actions. In Search Console, open Security & Manual Actions. If either report lists an issue, fix that before anything else.
6. Rule out seasonality. Use the Compare tab to set the same months last year against this year, and check demand in Google Trends set to Australia.
7. Only now, overlay Google's update dates using the table below.

Google's own guide to debugging Search traffic drops lists the same causes: algorithm updates, technical issues, security issues, spam violations, seasonality, site moves and data glitches. It also points to a Data Anomalies page in Search Console help, which is worth checking when a drop looks too sharp to be real.

Cause and fix table

What you see	What it means	How to fix it	How long it takes
GA4 down, Search Console steady	Tracking broke, not traffic	Check the GA4 tag, consent banner settings and any recent site changes	Same day once found
Clicks and impressions fell to near zero on one date	Noindex, robots.txt block, outage or a migration gone wrong	Remove the block, fix redirects, request indexing for key pages	Days to a few weeks while Google recrawls
Gradual slide that starts during a core update rollout	Google reassessed how helpful your pages are compared with others	Review the most affected pages against Google's people-first content questions	Often months; sometimes not until a later core update
Sharp drop that lines up with a spam update	Pages may conflict with Google's spam policies	Read the spam policies and remove whatever breaks them	Google publishes no fixed timeframe
Message in the Manual actions report	A Google reviewer applied a manual action	Fix every listed issue, then submit a reconsideration request	Varies; Google reviews the request and replies
Same dip at the same time last year	Seasonal demand	Nothing to fix; plan content and ads ahead of the low months	Recovers with the season

Rule out measurement problems

Search Console reports clicks from Google Search directly, so it is not affected by your analytics tag. GA4 depends on a script running in the visitor's browser. If someone changed your theme, added a consent banner or moved the site to a new platform, GA4 can drop overnight while real visitors carry on as normal.

A quick test: compare enquiry numbers in your inbox or CRM with GA4 for the same weeks. If enquiries held steady, start with your tracking.

Technical causes

These are the ones that cause the steepest drops, and the easiest to fix once found.

• Noindex left on. Common after a redesign, when the staging site setting is copied to the live site. In WordPress, check Settings, then Reading, and make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unticked.
• Robots.txt blocking the site. Visit yourdomain.com.au/robots.txt. A line reading Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks everything.
• Migration or new URLs without redirects. If old URLs now return 404 errors, the rankings they held are lost. Our guide on redesigning without losing rankings covers the redirect map.
• Downtime. A site that is down or very slow for several days can lose pages from the index. Check your host's status history and the Crawl stats report under Settings.

If the Pages report shows errors you do not understand, our Search Console indexing errors guide explains each status.

Google update timeline, 2025 to 2026

These are the ranking updates listed on Google's Search Status Dashboard for 2025 and 2026, checked on 3 November 2026. Google posts times in US Pacific time, so in Brisbane the start date can fall a day later.

Update	Started	Rollout length
March 2025 core update	13 March 2025	About 14 days
June 2025 core update	30 June 2025	About 17 days
August 2025 spam update	26 August 2025	About 27 days
December 2025 core update	11 December 2025	About 18 days
February 2026 Discover update	5 February 2026	About 22 days (Discover only)
March 2026 spam update	24 March 2026	Under 1 day
March 2026 core update	27 March 2026	About 12 days
May 2026 core update	21 May 2026	About 12 days
June 2026 spam update	24 June 2026	About 2 days
August 2026 spam update	18 August 2026	About 3 days
September 2026 spam update	24 September 2026	About 14 days

Google also makes smaller core updates it does not announce. So a drop that lines up with no date above can still be algorithmic. It can also mean the cause is on your side, which is why the checks above come first.

Core update or spam update?

A core update reassesses content across the web. Google says core updates do not target specific sites, and a lower position does not mean your content is bad: other pages may now serve searchers better. Changes can show at any point during the rollout.

A spam update targets pages that break Google's spam policies, such as scaled low-value content, link schemes or site reputation abuse. If your drop starts within a spam update window, read those policies honestly against your site, including any links or content an earlier agency bought for you.

Is it a penalty? Manual actions explained

Most drops are not penalties. A true penalty is a manual action, which a person at Google applies, and you will see it in the Manual actions report in Search Console. If the report says "No issues detected", you do not have one.

If you do, the report names the issue. Fix every instance across the site, document what you changed, and submit a reconsideration request from the same report.

What Google says to do after a core update

Google's core updates guidance gives a clear order of steps:

1. Wait until the dashboard shows the update has finished.
2. Leave it at least a week, then compare that week with the week before the update started.
3. If the drop is small, do not make drastic changes, especially to pages that still perform well.
4. If the drop is large and sustained, review the affected pages against Google's questions on helpful, reliable, people-first content, and compare them with the pages now ranking above you.

Google treats deleting content as a last resort, for pages that cannot be improved. Removing whole sections that were written mainly for search engines may help the rest of the site.

How long recovery takes

Technical fixes usually recover once Google recrawls the pages, often within days to a few weeks. Core update drops are slower. Google says its systems may need several months to see that a site is consistently helpful, and some sites only move at the next core update. Nobody can promise a date, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

Australian detail

• Seasonality is real here. Many trades and B2B services quieten over Christmas and January, and some spike before 30 June. Compare year on year before reacting.
• Time zones. An update listed as starting on the evening of one day in US Pacific time began the next day in Brisbane (AEST, UTC+10).
• Country filter. Filter the Performance report to Australia. A drop in overseas traffic rarely affects local leads.

When to get help

If the checks above do not explain the drop, a specialist will compare page-level losses with update dates, review backlinks and content quality, and crawl the site for technical faults you cannot see in Search Console. Our audit gives you a written list of causes and fixes.

Book an SEO audit with our team

Related guides: how to show up in AI Overviews and ChatGPT and Search Console indexing errors explained.

About this guide

Written by Amann Jhamb, Director of AR Digital Solutions, 17 years in web design, SEO and paid ads. Last checked: 3 November 2026 against Google Search Central: Debugging drops in Google Search traffic. Change note: first published 3 November 2026. Part of our SEO help centre.