Covid has made it a wild rollercoaster ride over the past year and a quarter.
As you can see, traffic dropped on most websites around the world when Covid was first released.
However, within a few months things did not just turn around, many industries faced all-time high levels of traffic.
Ecommerce has seen rapid growth if you look at it as a sector.
Shopify's market cap now stands at 192 billion dollars. Their stock rose from $404 to $1500 at the beginning of 2020. This is a huge growth.
People are tired of being trapped indoors and things are beginning to change. Many countries are easing restrictions, especially after the global mass release of Covid vaccine.
What does this mean for web traffic?
Travel is on the rise, but…
More people are visiting leisure and travel websites.
The graph shows that traffic is dropping in most industries. Not travel and leisure.
McKinsey and Company said it best: “Tourists are back wiping out” in the United States. This is a far cry from pre-pandemic levels of 90,000 per day in April 2020.
Most industries are still not growing. This is how traffic looks when we compare July 2021 and July 2020.
We analyzed the data from a global perspective. There were anywhere from 107 to 391 sites per type. We tried to obtain a larger sample per category but were unable to quickly get enough Google Analytics data.
However, the chart should provide a clear indication of what is going on.
It's good for all continents
Similar to the HubSpot study, we also saw the same trend. From a traffic growth perspective, Asia has performed well.
You may have noticed a drop in traffic if you target regions such as North America and Europe.
It's not all bad news. What's more, when we looked at conversions rates, they're up almost for every industry.
Despite the fact that traffic to most sites was declining, conversion rates rose by 12.94%.
We didn't have conversion data on all the sites we analyzed. Not everyone tracks their conversion rates. A little less than 18% actually had conversion tracking.
This tutorial will show you how to set up conversion tracking if you don't already have it.
Google causing traffic drop
Yes, Google has updated the search engine over the past few months. Many sites suffered and some saw increases.
It wasn't just an algorithm update for Google. Traffic is dropping from referral traffic, direct traffic, and paid ads for keywords with little or no seasonality.
Although I don't know the exact reason, it is clear that traffic drops are caused by people leaving their computers and going out to explore.
Conclusion
Do not stress.
One thing I have learned is to not worry about things that you cannot control.
It is not an easy task, I am sure. The good news is that you are not the only one experiencing a drop in traffic based on the above data.
How does your traffic compare to last July?
Click here to learn more about how my agency can increase traffic to counteract dips.
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By: Neil Patel
Title: Don’t Panic, Most Sites Are Seeing Traffic Drops
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/covid-traffic-drop/
Published Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2021 03:42:26 +0000