Website Traffic Analysis: How to Evaluate Site Visits, Identify Growth Points, and Fix Indexing & SEO Issues

Introduction: The Role of Traffic Analysis in SEO

Website traffic is the clearest indicator of your online visibility, engagement, and ultimately, success. But traffic alone doesn’t tell the full story. A deeper look into the behavior behind those numbers—how users arrive, interact, and exit—reveals critical opportunities for optimization.

This guide walks through a professional approach to analyzing website traffic using tools like Google Analytics, Yandex Metrica, and BigSpider. It also covers how to detect underperforming pages, audit indexing status, improve behavior signals, and recover from traffic drops caused by technical or algorithmic issues.

Section 1: Sources of Traffic and Tools for Analysis

To get accurate and actionable insights, you need the right tools. For Russian-language and international SEO, the combination of Yandex Metrica, Google Analytics, and specialized SEO tools like BigSpider is especially powerful.

Key Tools to Use:

Yandex Metrica: Offers in-depth behavioral analytics, segmentation, and user session recordings.
Google Analytics (GA4): Provides granular data on acquisition, retention, and goal tracking.
BigSpider: A technical audit and traffic analysis tool that pulls detailed reports from connected data sources.
Search Console / Yandex Webmaster: Useful for indexation and query-level diagnostics.

These tools help answer questions like:

Which pages drive the most (or least) traffic?
Where are bounce rates highest?
Are search engines indexing my most important pages?
Are mobile users engaging or bouncing?

Section 2: Diagnosing Pages with Poor Performance

One of the most critical parts of a traffic audit is isolating pages that fail to meet user expectations or attract no traffic at all despite being indexable.

Using BigSpider for Traffic Per Page

Start by generating a bounce rate report. Any page with over 25% bounce rate should be examined. For larger sites (e.g., 2,000+ pages), this can uncover patterns of underperformance.

Next, filter for pages that:

Are indexed but receive less than 10 visits per quarter
Attract almost no clicks despite being live and crawlable
Are technically accessible but irrelevant or misaligned with search intent

Common causes:

Poor or generic content
Broken or hidden navigation
Lack of metadata or snippet clarity
Non-relevance to the target query intent

Such pages are prime candidates for:

Rewrite or enhancement
Consolidation with similar pages
Removal or deindexing (if redundant or obsolete)

Section 3: Pages Open for Indexing But Not Receiving Traffic

Este es un problema de SEO común pero costoso. Podrías tener decenas de miles de URLs indexables sin tráfico. Estas páginas ya sea:

Sirve temas de bajo interés
Están enterrados en la arquitectura del sitio
¿Está sufriendo de un enlazado interno deficiente?
No coincidir con las consultas de los usuarios (desajuste semántico)

Cómo identificar y analizar:

Extrae una lista de todas las páginas abiertas a los motores de búsqueda.
Referencia cruzada con datos de tráfico de Google Analytics y Yandex Metrica.
Destacado:
- Páginas zombi (bajo valor de contenido, sin clics)
- Páginas con contenido escaso o desactualizado
- Páginas que clasifican para consultas irrelevantes

Investiga esto usando filtros como:

Profundidad de la URL
Longitud del contenido
Etiquetas canónicas
Tasas de clics (CTR)

La resolución de estos problemas a menudo implica la actualización del contenido, la mejora de la UX o la eliminación de la indexación.

Sección 4: El enfoque estructural para el análisis de tráfico

Organizando tu tráfico por estructura del sitio ayuda a priorizar lo que importa.

Ejemplos de distribución de tráfico:

Página de inicio: 1200 visitas
Páginas de producto: 41,000 visitas
Páginas de categoría: 9,000 visitas
Varios/otros: 600 visitas

A partir de estos datos, puedes deducir:

Páginas de productos son su motor de crecimiento, pero es probable que muchos tengan un rendimiento inferior
Páginas de categoría están subutilizados; la investigación de la competencia puede mostrar un mayor potencial
Contenido diverso puede necesitar consolidación

Crear una vista estructural le permite:

Asigne el presupuesto por zona de impacto (producto vs. blog vs. categoría)
Comparativa con la competencia
Identifica oportunidades para la expansión o limpieza del contenido.

Sección 5: Análisis de factores conductuales y problemas de UX

Los factores de comportamiento, como la tasa de rebote, la duración de la sesión y las páginas por sesión, tienen un correlación directa con el rendimiento SEO.

Errores conductuales comunes:

Altas tasas de rebote en dispositivos móviles (revise los informes de dispositivos)
Poco tiempo en la página debido a la baja velocidad o al diseño deficiente
Usuarios abandonando ciudades específicas (verificar la mensajería de entrega)
CTR bajo de fragmentos de búsqueda orgánica

Yandex Metrica ofrece una visión profunda de:

Grabaciones de sesión
Profundidad de desplazamiento
Click heatmaps

Use this to find issues like:

Confusing menus
Missing call-to-action (CTA)
Misleading titles or thumbnails

Section 6: High Bounce Queries and Intent Mismatch

From the search phrase level, review which keywords drive high bounce traffic. This often suggests a content-intent mismatch.

Por ejemplo:

Query: “cheap stainless steel pots”
Page: General cookware guide

If bounce rate is high, you likely need a dedicated landing page for the query’s commercial intent.

Review these in BigSpider’s behavioral reports and filter by:

Highest bounce queries
Low engagement by keyword
CTR vs. actual session depth

Fix with dedicated landing pages, stronger headlines, and clearer offers.

Section 7: Traffic Drop Diagnosis

When traffic suddenly drops, most marketers panic. While many blame behavioral factors or algorithm updates, technical issues are often the real culprit.

Case Example:

A site saw a traffic drop in Google in Q4 2020
Investigation revealed:
- Duplicate content on multiple subdomains
- Pages reused across domains with minimal changes
- Indexing issues due to broken canonical links
- Zombie pages with no traffic inflating crawl budget

Resolution:

Cleaned up duplicate pages
Closed non-performing subdomains from indexing
Consolidated content into main domains
Used Google Search Console to reindex

After these changes, visibility slowly returned.

Section 8: Zombie Pages and Crawl Budget Waste

Zombie pages are indexed pages with no meaningful traffic or engagement. They drain crawl resources and dilute authority.

Zombie Page Traits:

Duplicate or near-duplicate content
Dynamic parameters (e.g., filtered URLs)
Low semantic relevance
Low user interaction

Fix Strategy:

Identify and tag in analytics
Block from indexing via robots.txt or meta tags
Merge or delete when possible
Use canonical tags for variants

Section 9: The Subdomain Problem

Subdomains can be powerful—if used correctly. However, when you duplicate entire site structures across hundreds of subdomains (e.g., city names), issues arise.

Problems with Mass Subdomains:

Google sees each as a separate site
Duplicate content penalties are likely
Crawl budget is spread thin
Low authority due to link dilution

In one case, a website duplicated its content to over 400 subdomains—each targeting small cities. These were:

Identical in structure
Not unique in metadata
Not linked externally

Eventually, they were hit by search filters (e.g., Panda, Yandex filters).

Fix: Unique content per subdomain or consolidation into main domain using directories (e.g., domain.com/city/).

Section 10: Indexing Problems and Technical SEO Fixes

If a page is technically accessible but still not indexed, investigate:

Robots.txt blocks
Meta noindex tags
Canonical pointing elsewhere
Server errors or timeouts
Broken pagination or infinite scrolling
Hosting blacklists (IP issues)

How to Monitor:

Use Yandex and Google Index status reports
Track sitemap vs. indexed pages
Monitor Core Web Vitals
Set crawl priorities in robots.txt

Fixing indexing leads to better visibility and ensures your content is actually eligible to rank.

Conclusion: Traffic Analysis as a Growth Strategy

Analyzing traffic isn’t just about knowing your numbers. It’s about extracting meaning from the data to:

✅ Prioritize content optimization
✅ Remove or merge underperforming pages
✅ Adjust UX and behavioral signals
✅ Fix indexing and technical SEO issues
✅ Improve structural flow and navigation
✅ Benchmark your site against competitors

Use tools like BigSpider, Yandex Metrica, and Google Analytics together to get a 360-degree view of your site’s traffic health.

Final Checklist

✅ Export traffic by page from all tools
✅ Segment pages by bounce rate, time on page, and CTR
✅ Identify zombie and duplicate content
✅ Audit subdomain use and potential penalties
✅ Cross-reference indexed pages vs. traffic data
✅ Investigate intent mismatches and semantic issues
✅ Prioritize fixes based on traffic potential and severity
✅ Document improvements and re-measure monthly

With consistent traffic audits and targeted fixes, your site can reach higher visibility, stronger engagement, and sustained SEO growth.

Cómo analizar el tráfico del sitio web e identificar oportunidades de crecimiento