If you experience an unexpected SEO traffic drop, it’s crucial to identify exactly what led to it so that it can be fixed.

Many SEO professionals are quick to assign blame to an algorithm update, but the drop could have actually been caused by a technical issue, content change, loss of inbound link equity, a malware injection, a change in search volume, loss of a single high-volume keyword ranking, or a combination of several factors.

A proper forensic SEO analysis evaluates ALL of the following:

• Technical factors
• Content factors
• Off-page factors (e.g. backlinks)
• Search demand trends
• Algorithmic factors

Identifying the correct reason (or reasons) for the drop is the best way to definitively lead your team down the correct recovery path.