Organic traffic down 50% for no reason

[robcub]

I have spent much time trying to do "what Google wants". I have written weekly blog posts in my WordPress blog since 2006. I have tried to write useful articles for others in my niche and I have been rewarded with loyal followers.

Off-site I have only got natural in-bound links from people who like my stuff and I've only ever done maybe 10 guest posts. I also get natural social shares. I have never indulged in any paid links.

Ever since 2006 my organic Google rankings and organic traffic has been increasing, as you'd expect as I constantly add quality articles.

However, since at least the beginning of the year my organic traffic has started to fall to a point I now have the same traffic as two years ago!

This is quite an extreme drop of at least 50% of organic traffic.

It looks like I've suffering some Google penalty but, for what, I don't know.

Any suggestions?
<snip>

[TechnoBear]

Please remember that all review requests, including SEO reviews, should be made through the Reviews & Critiques forum, in accordance with its guidelines.

You can request general advice and information in this forum, but not an SEO review of a specific site.

[robcub]

Thank you, TechnoBear, I'm sorry I wasn't aware about this but it is understandable considering the popularity of these requests.

I have now posted the above article in the Reviews & Critiques forum and it is currently being considered by the moderators. It will have the same title as this one so if any SEO specialists want to look into this baffling problem I would be extremely grateful. Many thanks.

[molona]

You have to take into consideration other sites that are now in the same niche and that didn't exist before... Are they doing better than you? Do they post more often? Maybe even more relevant information? Maybe they get more traffic from offline/paid-per-click campaigns?

Also, be aware that Google tunes up their algorythm constantly and what was good before it may not be good today

[smanaher]

Robcub,

Without looking at your site, could it be possible that other sites are simply out ranking you? If you have been doing everything the way you are supposed to and not breaking any rules, and you didn’t change any URL’s, it could just be that other sites are more popular or have been working harder on their SEO.

Hope that helps,

Shawn

[robcub]

thank you molona and Shawn, you are both making similar points.

Yes, it is possible what you say and I certainly can't prove you're wrong. In fact, you may well be right!

But I'm not sure because all my organic traffic comes from hundreds of thousands of long-tail search terms that gave me 1000 visitors a day from Google a few months ago and less than 500 now. I just think that statistically it's unlikely that lots of other sites upped their SEO game at the same time to beat me on all these terms. Although it is possible.

I have thought about this and maybe you're right.

Thanks for your comments.

[TechnoBear]

@robcub - as you now have a thread in the Review forum, I'll close this one to avoid confusion/duplication. If you'd like it re-opened for any reason, please PM me.