SEO done and traffic goes DOWN?

Hi all - I am completely befuddled here. I have been working on a web site with a GREAT domain name, have done all the SEO work so that they are now top 10 for a large number of keywords, increased the number of relevant backlinks, done work to speed up the servers, as well as decrease the size of the pages that are dynamically generated by 30-50%. So what happens? Traffic just keeps on going DOWN. Any ideas as to how/why this is happening?

thanks

A lot of people are seeing less traffic during the holiday period, could that be it?

I thought so too - but the holidays are over. The site had great sales one day this week, and now they are low again.

I'd say give it a couple of weeks, doesn't sound as if it's personal.

My only concern is that for most changes we make to the web site, the results of those changes are seen as "immediate". The web site has at least a dozen quality, and relevant top 10 listings....yet sales are going down the tubes (prices are comparable to the other major players). We compete with $100 million companies and have MUCH better search engine positions (granted they are not 100% web based)....but still, if they do $20 million in web sales, my client would be thrilled with $1 million and they are nowhere near that.

There's really nothing we can help you with unless we can see a URL.

www.yoga.com - mind you, I hate the layout an look and feel of the web site, but they have not paid me to "fix" all that. ;-)

Piel, what I often find is that when I do an SEO job (and do it well) then a client pulls back their advertising budget for non SEO related advers like PPC, banners etc. Then logically the increase of trafic is not as tangible as it is a replacement instead of a supplimentation.

That being said this may the case with your client, the natural SEO even if top 10 everything, may not provide as many sales as other ads they perhaps may have cut back on.

Since you seem to have done a good job on the ranking front, I just wonder if, in your sector, it's possible to be TOO commercial.
I noticed the title is very similar to the no.1 site, yet they seem to have a lot more informational content, could Yogaistas think you have too much Ying and not enough Yang?

If you do a SEO job on a site, must wait your site was respidered and reindexed.

If the site has a good PR (5 or above) you will see the effects in a few days for the first level pages. For deeper pages you must wait a few weeks until the deepscan is done by spiders.

Ya - that's a big issue actually. I'd love to redesign the home page to add more of that yang back..... but I'm not the designer.

BTW - to all those who suggested traffic went down because of less advertising....there was never any advertising at all.

thanks for your feedback - i'm still looking for a sensible reason though.

seoguy,

Tell this to your clients....

As my SEO improves the amount that I pay for google adwords drops dramatically - people see me at topSERPs on the left and give me a click. I have what they need and they don't have to go back to google.

However, there is a percentage of people who like the colored ads and feel that they are more relevant to purchasers. Your client does not want to pull back on the adwords because those are different folks who will buy from the competition if your client yanks his adwords listing.

Another percentage of traffic will come in from the adsense sites. Your client is missing out big time if he cuts budget there. These are not search engine shoppers - and I believe that they pay higher prices.

However, improvement in the serps has very little influence on the amount that I spend in clicks at overture. This is because overture ads are frequently delivered above the SEO SERPS. They are the ONLY way you get topSERPs at some engines. Cutting back there will really hurt your traffic and give sales to competitors.

Bottom line.... they do not need to change their PPC strategy because they want to hold the customers from those sources.....

Your service will be the GROWTH AREA FOR THEIR BUSINESS and you will also save them a little on their advertising.

good post egol

Yes that my point egol, a supplimentation should be in addition to their existing efforts and justify its own undertaking. I'm saying its a bad thing to cut back on PPC etc if it was previously profitable, its just human nature to cut back when you encounter a higher ROI but i do tell my clients that they should undertake many strategies as long as they see black #'s at the end of the day. I mean who cares if one has a 100% ROI and the other has 200% Why would you want to choose, DO THEM BOTH! they both make money. Doesnt make sense but it was just a plausible suggestion.