# Find out why your traffic dropped

> Ask your assistant when your Google traffic fell, which pages and searches lost visitors, and what happened around that date.

Your visits from Google went down, and you want to know why. MeasureScale lets your assistant check when the drop started and which pages and searches lost traffic. It can also check whether a Google ranking update happened at about the same time.

## Questions to ask

### Spot the drop

- "Did my Google traffic drop last month compared with the month before?"
- "Were there any unusual days in my search clicks over the last 8 weeks?"
- "When did my search traffic start going down?"

### Find where it happened

- "Which pages lost the most clicks from Google last month?"
- "Which searches moved down in Google since last month?"
- "Did my blog posts or my shop pages lose more traffic?"

### Look for a cause

- "Was there a Google update around the time my traffic fell?"
- "Did my mobile traffic fall more than my desktop traffic?"

## A good conversation

Here is an example of how a conversation can go.

1. You ask: "Did my bakery site lose Google traffic in the last 4 weeks?" The assistant compares the last 4 weeks with the 4 weeks before. It tells you how much clicks, views in Google and your average position changed.
2. You ask: "When did it start?" The assistant looks for the date where traffic moved to a lower level and stayed there. It also checks that date against Google's list of ranking updates.
3. You ask: "Which pages lost the most?" The assistant lists the pages with the largest fall in clicks, for example a few recipe posts.
4. You ask: "Which searches did those recipe pages slip on?" The assistant lists the searches whose ranking fell the most since the period before.

## Reading the answer

- Google data takes about 3 days to settle. The last few days can look low because Google has not finished counting them.
- A drop close to a Google update is a clue, not proof. It shows that two dates are close. It does not show that the update caused the drop.
- An unusual day is judged against the same weekday in recent weeks. A public holiday or a seasonal peak can show up as unusual.
- Your position in Google is an average over the period. A change in which searches or devices showed your pages can move it.
- Search Console hides rare searches to protect privacy. Some of your lost traffic may come from searches no tool can name.

## Tips

- Name a date range, such as "last month" or "since 1 March". Without one, the assistant uses the last 28 settled days.
- Ask follow-ups. Start with the whole site, then narrow down to pages, then to searches.
- If you changed your site, tell the assistant the date. You can ask it to save a note on that date for later.
- If you have several sites, name the one you mean.

## Read more

- [Anomalies and change points](/methodology/anomalies-and-change-points/)
- [Content decay](/methodology/decay/)
- [Ranking changes, paths, sitemaps and portfolio](/methodology/site-reports/)
- [Refresh pages that are losing visitors](/use-cases/refresh-fading-content/)