What to do when a website loses traffic or gets penalized by Google?

When everything is going well, it's too easy

Being online when everything is going smoothly is a walk in the park. Traffic increases, Google rewards you, content is well placed, banners do their job, and life goes on peacefully. It almost seems that simply publishing something is enough to gain visibility, that the algorithm knows you and pampers you. Articles enter Discover almost automatically, CTRs soar, daily visits exceed all expectations and you convince yourself, perhaps even unconsciously, that your site has reached a sort of “natural” stability.

But what happens when traffic suddenly drops? When you wake up one morning, open Google Analytics and find that you've been kicked out of Google Discover, Google News, or simply organic traffic has plummeted? Panic.

The worst thing is that, often, you haven’t done anything different from the day before. You haven’t changed your strategies, you haven’t published off-topic content, you haven’t touched the layout. But Google, with its silent updates or its algorithmic oscillations, decides that from today you deserve less visibility. No warning, no advance notice. And suddenly, the site that until yesterday was grinding out 100.000 sessions a day, today does 20.000. You find yourself looking for explanations everywhere: in the Search Console, in the logs, in the keywords… and maybe you don’t find anything clear.

The truth is that Google often changes the cards on the table. One day it loves you, the next it prefers someone else.. And there is no point in deluding yourself: there is no absolute meritocracy, there is no “acquired right” to visibility. The SERP is a jungle. And if your site relies on advertising revenue, this instability can turn into a real economic earthquake.

What really matters in those moments is how you react. But first, you need to understand how thin the line is between online success and digital disaster.

Your business model is at risk of collapse

Many editorial sites (magazines, blogs, news portals) literally live on advertising. Circuits like Google AdSense, Taboola, Outbrain and the like pay for impressions or clicks on advertising banners. But if there is no traffic, there are no views. And if there are no views, there are no clicks. And if there are no clicks, there are no earnings.

The mechanism is extremely linear: the more users arrive on the site, the more impressions are generated, the more opportunities there are for someone to interact with an ad. And even if CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and CPC (cost per click) vary, one thing is certain: without an audience, no banner can monetize.

And here's the rub. Because most independent publications or semi-professional blogs have a very delicate economic balance, built on a few fundamental pillars. The first is organic traffic. The second is the constant production of content. And the third is the ability to maintain a good RPM (revenue per thousand views) over time. When one of these pillars fails, a chain reaction is triggered.

And without earnings, the editorial staff stops. Simple, brutal, direct. Less income = less budget to pay authors = less articles published. But it's not just a matter of numbers: creativity also stops, motivation dies, the energy of the entire project drops. No one invests in a site that seems moribund, not even those who manage it.

In a matter of weeks, what was once a live editorial project, with rhythm and ideas, turns into a static archive of old content. And the vicious circle that results is much more dangerous than you might think, because it is not only economic: it is also psychological.

The Domino Effect: Less Profit, Less Content

When you experience a major downturn, often the first reaction is to cut. Cut costs, cut production. “If we don’t make enough money, we can’t write 90 pieces a day, maybe we do 50 or 20 or none.” It's an instinctive response, apparently rational, but in reality dangerous. Because from there a devastating domino effect starts: fewer articles -> less probability of finding good keywords -> less traffic -> less earnings -> even fewer articles.

It's a vicious cycle that feeds on itself and gets worse day by day. A site that slows down its editorial production in a time of decline drastically reduces the chances of intercepting new queries, new trends and new positioning opportunities. Google itself could interpret this reduction as a negative signal: less published content = less freshness = less relevance = less crawling = fewer opportunities.

It's not just a question of quantity: it's a question of presence. When you publish consistently, you show Google that your site is alive, active, and up-to-date. When you stop, even temporarily, it's like telling the algorithm "ok, we've stopped." And in a world where competition doesn't wait and competitors are always ready to take your place in the SERP, stopping is equivalent to being overtaken.

This is the deadly trap that many blogs and newspapers fall into. And it is the reason why so many editorial projects close within a few months of the first collapse. Not because they were not valuable, not because the contents were not good, but simply because they could not handle the initial shock and chose the wrong path to react.

Here you see the real entrepreneurs

When all is well, we are all good. But it is during crises that we see who is truly an entrepreneur and who was just an improviser with a blog that exploded by chance. It is too easy to be a sailor when the sea is calm. It is in the storm that one sees who knows how to keep the helm straight.

Difficulties, in an online business, are not an exception: they are an integral part of the game. There are phases in which everything works wonderfully, and then there are phases in which Google pulls the rug out from under your feet, performance plummets, and the budget begins to run low. And there the paths divide: on one side those who let themselves be overwhelmed, on the other those who grit their teeth and roll up their sleeves.

The real publisher, the real SEO, the real owner of a site knows that these crises are part of the game. He is not surprised, he does not look for random blame, he does not rely on magical solutions or improvised gurus. He does something simple but powerful: he analyzes, he plans, he reacts.

And instead of closing up like a hedgehog, it relaunches. And invests again. Maybe with more intelligence, maybe with a greater focus on quality, but it doesn't stop. It doesn't slow down. It doesn't give up. Because it knows that every crisis is also an opportunity. An opportunity to rethink the strategy, to eliminate what doesn't work, to strengthen its positioning and to emerge from the storm stronger than before.

It is precisely in those moments that the difference between those who manage a digital project by chance and those who do it with vision, method and courage is consolidated.

Every item is a lottery ticket

There is one thing that few have understood: every article written and published, if it is relevant to the theme of the site and avoids clickbait tricks or off-topic content, is a lottery ticket.

Writing a lot, writing well, writing on target is like buying a lot of tickets. You don't necessarily win the jackpot, but you dramatically increase your odds. Maybe you win some intermediate prize, maybe you find the article that pushes you into Discover, the one that gets you into Google News trends, the one that collects spontaneous backlinks. Here, that's how it works.

Every piece is an opportunity. A chance to intercept a public need, a new keyword, a growing trend. It is an asset that, once published, works for you 24 hours a day. It can rank tomorrow, in a month or in a year. But if you don't write it, it will never rank. Period.

The problem is that too many editorial staffs or individual authors look at articles as “costs” rather than “investments.” But if you do the math, you realize that the single article that today seems like a flop, could be the basis for a series of future contents, for an effective cluster strategy, or even for an SEO recovery with an update in six months. Nothing is really wasted if you work methodically.

Look at the data: out of 100 articles published daily, probably only 2 or 3 bring you 90% of your daily traffic. That's right. It's brutal, but it's the reality of those who work with content. So if you only publish 5 articles a month, do you really think you can hit those 2 or 3 bomb pieces? It takes volume, it takes consistency. It takes belief even when visits plummet.

And we need to understand that writing, today, is like sowing. Those who stop sowing because the harvest does not come immediately, are destined for famine. Those who continue, methodically, even in the darkest moments, sooner or later reap. Always.

The worst mistake? Stopping

Many make this mistake: they see the decline and decide to stop. They publish less. They test less. They write fewer articles. And in doing so they condemn themselves.

It's an understandable, almost human reaction: traffic collapses, earnings drop, you feel discouraged. The first instinct is to cut: "wait for the storm to pass", "see how the situation evolves", "don't throw money away in a time of crisis". But those who work in digital know well that inactivity is lethal.

Fewer articles = less chance of intercepting new keywords, less opportunity to become visible again, less data to think about. Every unwritten content is a missed opportunity to bring in new traffic, to test an emerging theme, to improve the overall positioning of the site. And Google notices. The bots pass by, see that there has been nothing new for weeks, and start to slow down the scan. The perceived freshness of the site drops. The momentum vanishes.

And the site shuts down. Game over. Not because of a ban, not because of a penalty, not because of a technical error. But simply because it entered a stasis phase. A slow, silent, self-induced death. Maybe with just a little extra push you could have gotten back on track, but you didn't.

It's not the crisis that kills an editorial project. It's inaction. It's standing still while others move forward. It's deciding that today you won't publish anything, and then tomorrow, and then next week. Until your site becomes irrelevant in the eyes of Google (and users).

Google is testing you (yes, really)

During each Google Core Update and in the subsequent phase of Google Dance, Big G tests your content, your audience, your behavior. This is not a simple SERP reorganization: it is a real-time experiment, where each site is observed like a laboratory guinea pig.

Google doesn’t just move keyword positions around like a random game: it analyzes reactions. It monitors how users behave, how publishers respond, what happens when a result goes up or down. Basically, it’s watching you. It’s waiting for signals.

Let's take an example: your site loses positions. A keyword for which you were in sixth position is now in twelfth. You are off the first page. But if, despite this, you continue to receive 50% of the clicks you received before, how do you think Google interprets the signal?

Most likely you will think:

“Hey, despite the lower ranking, people still click on this result. Maybe it’s relevant. Maybe it’s useful. Maybe it’s worthy of the front page.”

And at that point Google takes note. Because if a content manages to maintain the attention and trust of the user even in penalizing positions, it is a very strong qualitative indicator. And this metric, which goes under the name of Relative and persistent CTR, is one of the most interesting behavioral elements for an algorithm that has the ambition to serve users “the best possible content”.

And next time you might climb back up. But only if in the meantime you have continued to publish, to generate signals, to show that your site is alive, useful, responsive.

Stopping during a Google Dance is a strategic mistake. Many experience it as a “settling in” phase, a passive parenthesis in which to stand by and watch. But that’s not the case. That’s when you can influence Google’s future judgment. If you act as an active resource, if you continue to offer value, if your users interact, share, read… you are accumulating points. Silent, invisible, but real.

What to Check Right Away When Traffic Drops

Ok, we agree: we need to keep writing and producing. But first, make sure the problem is not technical. It seems trivial, but many sites go down for reasons that have nothing to do with content or Google. Sometimes all it takes is a wrong setting, a failed update, or a suboptimal server configuration to send everything haywire.

Here's a concrete check to do as soon as you notice the drop:

• Check your hosting. Is it slow? Have you had downtime? Has your TTFB (Time To First Byte) gotten worse than before? Google measures your server response time and if it becomes too slow it can decide to reduce the crawl rate or even penalize your pages. High-performance hosting is not a whim, it is a necessary condition.
• Check it out Core Web Vitals. Metrics like LCP, FID (now INP), and CLS are critical. If your site has seen major changes in these metrics, you may have been pushed down the SERPs. Remember that Google has long used Web Vitals as a ranking factor, and if your site has become slower or visually unstable, that is a problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
• Check the file robots.txt. Sometimes all it takes is one wrong line — perhaps added by mistake during an update or change — to completely block Googlebot or prevent it from accessing crucial sections of the site. A simple Disallow: / in the wrong position and you're out of the index.
• Check the sitemap. Is it still accessible? Is it up to date with the latest articles? Is it listed correctly in Search Console? If Google can't read it or deems it untrustworthy, it will ignore some of your content, slowing down the discovery and indexing of new pages.
• Look at the logs. Access logs (preferably filtered by Googlebot User-Agent) tell you if the bot is still visiting the site. If the frequency has dropped dramatically, something is slowing it down. Analyzing logs gives you a real look at how Google sees your site and what it is actually doing.
• CDN and firewall. If you use services like CloudFlare, Sucuri, Akamai, etc., make sure they aren't blocking Googlebot by mistake. This can happen more often than you think, perhaps after a WAF rules update or automatic cache optimization. Even a temporary ban can have long-lasting impacts on crawling and indexing.

Once this check-up is completed and everything is technically OK, don't keep waiting. The risk is wasting precious time. Back to the main point: publish. Always. And with even more attention, consistency and strategy.

The secret? Never stop and never slow down.

In a downturn, you have two options:

• Go into “panic and save” mode and cut everything.
• Go into “offensive” mode and double down.

The second one is the right one. Yes, it takes effort. Yes, you might lose today. But it's the only one that gives you a real chance of getting back into the game. Because Google rewards those who continue to act. Not those who hide behind excuses or take refuge in silence.

Those who choose the offensive mode know that the crisis is a disguised opportunity. It is a signal to review, rethink, relaunch. It is the moment in which you can make the difference - not between those who make it and those who fail, but between those who disappear and those who build an even more solid presence.

Here are some concrete actions you can take right away:

• Test new formats. If you’ve only written long articles, try short content, guides, columns, interviews. Change your language, structure, tone. Surprise your audience — and Google.
• Look what your competitors are doing. Not to copy, but to understand where the market is going. If your competitors are moving on a certain type of content, there is a reason. Analyze, take inspiration and improve.
• Identify the articles that are still bringing you traffic. Use Search Console and Google Analytics to understand what continues to work despite everything. These are your anchors. Study them and replicate: create similar content, update, expand, follow up.
• Create trending content. Always stay up to date on what your audience is searching for. Use tools like Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, Exploding Topics. Publish before others, or with a more original slant.
• Relaunch on social media. If your organic visibility on Google is declining, take advantage of alternative channels. Republish old content, create carousels, reels, stories. Sometimes a single well-made post is enough to get traffic moving again.
• Build a newsletter. It is the most direct way to stay in touch with your audience. It allows you to not be completely dependent on Google, to build a community and to drive traffic independently.
• Revisit old articles and update them. Sometimes you don't need to write from scratch. Just refresh, expand, improve. Google loves fresh content. An old article, if well revised, can return to the top in a few days.

Every action is a brick. And the more you put in, the stronger the foundation will be on which to rebuild your growth.

He who stops is lost, in the most literal sense of the word. He who continues, even amidst a thousand difficulties, can — and often succeeds — in coming back stronger than before.

And here we come to us: the role of SEO Oriented hosting

You can write the best content in the world, invest in editors, do impeccable on-page SEO, and hit all the right topics… but if your hosting can’t handle it, you’re screwed. Period.

A hosting that has frequent downtime, a high TTFB, caching issues or a poorly configured CDN can ruin even the best editorial strategy. And Google notices it. It doesn't wait for you to fix it. It demotes you. It ignores you. It puts you on hold. Because user experience comes first, and a slow or unstable site gets penalized regardless of content.

This is why we have designed a service of SEO Oriented Hosting, thought not for all, but for those who work with content every day, for whom has an editorial project standing, for whoever must grind traffic, stay competitive and stay on Google's radar consistently.

This is what we do specifically to help you:

• ✅ Hosting optimized for editorial CMS like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, with custom configurations to handle large volumes of articles, tags, categories and internal searches without slowing down.
• ⚡ High performance e TTFB under 200ms, powered by full SSD NVMe servers, streamlined LAMP/LNMP stack, and nginx/Apache configurations designed to serve editorial content quickly.
• 🧠 Technical support that speaks your language. We know what it means when you tell us “Googlebot slowed down” or “sitemap hasn’t updated in two days.” We don’t level you up; we fix it.
• 📈 Monitoring of the Core Web Vitals in real time. We provide you with dashboards, alerts and concrete advice to improve LCP, INP and CLS with structural changes and targeted suggestions on the theme and plugins used.
• 🌐 Integrated CDN, but configured correctly for Googlebot. No crazy blocks, no poorly managed redirects, no caches showing outdated content to crawlers. We use CDN as a lever, not a hindrance.
• 📊 Custom reports with SEO focus: crawl rate analysis, 404 errors, sitemap performance, server responses, resource usage. Get real data, explained simply and immediately actionable.

In short words: we put you in the best technical conditions to really compete. Because we know that your content is only valuable if it can be served quickly, stably and without technical obstacles.

In many cases we are not the solution to your problems and those of the drop in traffic of your site, but in many other cases, let's say even 30% we are able to fill and resolve those technological problems capable of making you start again. In the worst case scenario, you will be mathematically certain that you have the best server-side and hosting technologies currently available on the market and that you are fully compliant with the best practices required by Google.

Conclusion, the crisis will come and it can be an opportunity

If your site has lost traffic, you are not alone. It happens to the best. It happens to established newspapers, to independent blogs, to portals with millions of page views. Google doesn't give anyone any discounts, and every update to its algorithm is like an earthquake that reshuffles the hierarchies. But it's not the collapse itself that makes the difference: it's your reaction.

You have two options. You can panic, close up, stop investing, cut your budget, eliminate your editorial staff, put projects on hold. You can wait for “something to change,” hoping that Google will magically appreciate you again. Or you can Act.

You can roll up your sleeves and tackle the problem like real entrepreneurs do: analyzing, testing, relaunching. Writing even more, with more criteria. Looking for new angles, new trends, new keywords to cover. And, above all, putting your site in a position to win again.

This is the mentality that distinguishes those who make it from those who disappear. Not technical skill, not an unlimited budget, but the ability to resist, to adapt, to push even when everything seems against you. Because often, in the most difficult moments, the best opportunities arise: less competition, less noise, more space to emerge.

And it is in these moments that a serious technical partner can make the difference. A hosting designed for SEO is not just a fast server: it is a platform that works together with you, that provides you with data, support, tools, metrics, advice. That doesn't leave you alone in the face of decline, but helps you understand where to intervene. That keeps your site standing — even when everything else falters.

We are here. Always alongside those who are serious about content, those who work every day to create value online, those who have built an editorial project with hard work and perseverance. If you also fall into this category, know that you are not alone.

👉 Request a free consultation now. No strings attached, but with a specific goal: analyze your case, understand what's happening, offer you real technical solutions to get going again. Because your site still has a lot to say — you just need to put it back in a position to be heard.

Don't wait. The restart can begin today.