Huge drop in sessions - Google Analytics

[pjkcards]

Hello,
I noticed recently that since Aug 5, the number of sessions on the vbulletin forum dropped substantially. I'm trying to figure out why, and I'd appreciate some help.

Here you can see a comparison to the previous 30 days:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdynirj6vx...30.21.png?dl=0

Here you can see referral:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/00whdgaf3w...31.47.png?dl=0

So organic, referral, and direct all dropped. No idea why, all in a sudden, on Aug 5 this started. I don't know of any changes made during this time that would have causes this.

Any ideas on what I can do to resolve this issue? Any other vB forums owners notice a change on that date?

Thanks.

[RichieBoy67]

Because Google is doing another algo update and index refresh

[TheLastSuperman]

Mobile Friendly? https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...bile-friendly/

You can do this easily by going into AdminCP > Settings > Options > Style & Language Settings > *Now find (near the top) "Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers" AND "Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers" and set both to the Default Mobile Style > *Now test using the url above to ensure its mobile friendly.

[pjkcards]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Because Google is doing another algo update and index refresh

Did they release the update on Aug 5? That would explain it. However, not sure why the site got the boot. Thanks.

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Mobile Friendly? https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...bile-friendly/

You can do this easily by going into AdminCP > Settings > Options > Style & Language Settings > *Now find (near the top) "Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers" AND "Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers" and set both to the Default Mobile Style > *Now test using the url above to ensure its mobile friendly.

The domain.com/forum is, but domain.com, which used vBA CMPS is not. Would that penalize the entire forum?

Any other ideas? Thanks.

[TheLastSuperman]

Yes it penalizes for that, when googlebot or anything google related that actually runs the test visits a site, it visits the primary domain however you can input either url the primary or the /forum to check and it will gladly verify if its mobile friendly or not. I'm dealing with a site now that uses vBa CMPS and its not mobile friendly, there's actually a few work-around's but nothing solid yet, here are some hopefully helpful links:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=285520
http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/show...e-Mobile-Style


This is the same info as link #1 just on their site however a good discussion takes place:
http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/show...e-Mobile-Style

Needless to say the site I'm working on is awaiting an upgrade by their host, then I'll be able to test, if I find something helpful I'll come back and share .

[RichieBoy67]

I think if you make the forum the main page you will be ok and if you have not received a warning from google in webmaster tools then I am not sure this is the issue. I have not looked at your site but if your archive is off and you have the forum as your main page I believe you will be ok in terms of the mobile.

Again, there is a huge refresh going on and Google has changed many ranking factors. It could be mobile as this has become a major ranking factor but it could also be many other things.

It is good you are fixing this but check out webmaster tools to make sure you are all set with everything else as well. Once you fix these things you may have to wait for the next refresh to see any ranking go up if this was indeed due to ranking.

Check Bing webmaster tools as well. many, many webmasters over look this and miss out on tons of traffic from Bing.

[pjkcards]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Yes it penalizes for that, when googlebot or anything google related that actually runs the test visits a site, it visits the primary domain however you can input either url the primary or the /forum to check and it will gladly verify if its mobile friendly or not. I'm dealing with a site now that uses vBa CMPS and its not mobile friendly, there's actually a few work-around's but nothing solid yet, here are some hopefully helpful links:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=285520
http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/show...e-Mobile-Style


This is the same info as link #1 just on their site however a good discussion takes place:
http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/show...e-Mobile-Style

Needless to say the site I'm working on is awaiting an upgrade by their host, then I'll be able to test, if I find something helpful I'll come back and share .

I'm familiar with those fixes, and have used them but still when I type in domain.com is doesn't show as mobile friendly since the vBA CMPS doesn't automatically redirect to the mobile theme, while the /forum does per the Options vB backend. Do you know how to get domain.com (vBA CMPS) to automatically redirect to the mobile theme like the /forum does?

Please let me updated if you find a solution. It is surprising the site would be penalized so much so simply having the vBA CMPS as the homepage while the forum works and checks fine as mobile friendly.

Thanks for your time.

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

I think if you make the forum the main page you will be ok and if you have not received a warning from google in webmaster tools then I am not sure this is the issue. I have not looked at your site but if your archive is off and you have the forum as your main page I believe you will be ok in terms of the mobile.

Again, there is a huge refresh going on and Google has changed many ranking factors. It could be mobile as this has become a major ranking factor but it could also be many other things.

It is good you are fixing this but check out webmaster tools to make sure you are all set with everything else as well. Once you fix these things you may have to wait for the next refresh to see any ranking go up if this was indeed due to ranking.

Check Bing webmaster tools as well. many, many webmasters over look this and miss out on tons of traffic from Bing.

Good advice. Interesting, when I check on Google Webmaster Tools for domain.com, it doesn't show any drop in search clicks on Aug 5. When I check domain.com/forum, it also doesn't show a drop. I'm wondering now if the code got messed up somewhere. I also didn't receive any message in Google Webmaster Tools about either not being mobile friendly, but domain.com clearly isn't mobile friendly and doesn't pass the test.

Making the forum the main page would mean all the URLs would change from domain.com/forum/threadxx to domain.com/threadxx. We don't want to make this change as we'd rather get the domain.com mobile friendly and working for the long haul. vBA CMPS isn't developed anymore so we plan to move off of it anyways.

Why does the archive need to be turned off?

As for other messages, I did get this one:
Add your Android app to Search Console because app reporting will soon be removed for https://www.domain.com

We don't have an app. We have a mobile theme at m.domain.com, and many users also use the Tapatalk App, which works well and we've verified it in the domain.com/forum listing in Google Webmaster Tools.

As for Bing Webmaster Tools, excelllent, will get in on that now.

Thanks again guys, much appreciated. Any further info would be appreciated.

--------------- Added [DATE]1441278222[/DATE] at [TIME]1441278222[/TIME] ---------------

Looking a bit closer, looks like mobile had the biggest drop, so I'm guessing it was mobile search traffic being affected?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctlxqx08ho...02.31.png?dl=0

Did anyone else notice this? The above is from the last 45 days, comparing to the previous period. I'm concerned though the issue with something else. domain.com is a tiny piece of the site that runs vBA CMPS, while the rest of the site works fine on mobile, and passes the test. Could Tapatalk being causing some sort of issues?

[TheLastSuperman]

Some progress last night... well progress is being used in such a broad definition here LOL!

I edited two cmps plugins, have it showing the site as mobile friendly per Googles test however an issue exist with modules displaying - I'll cut my nose off to spite my face though so a solution will be found .