Declining Organic Traffic despite PR, links and engagement

[SoMisguided]

I have a client site that launched last June and rebranded this February 2012 as http://49thshelf.com

The search traffic since Feb has been steadily declining despite some great campaigns to drive traffic and engagement.

April down 40% vs. Mar

May down 37%

Jun down 51%

Jul 16%

We have a couple of challenges. The site is the only collection of Canadian-authored titles. It's like an Amazon of only Canadian titles. But it's not ecommerce, we direct traffic to other vendors like Amazon or the publisher to buy.

We have 40,000 unique products on the site and the descriptions are primarily supplied by the publishers, which means it's the same content on the publisher site as Goodreads, Amazon and anyone else they share data with.

Those big players like Amazon and Goodreads use user generated content to alter the descriptions but we don't have that level of activity on the site. Members create reading lists, the editorial staff curate collections on the homepage and there are interviews, blog posts and guest posts.

No black hat SEO, no bad links that I can see. Great organic membership growth and interactions. Good activity from social media sites to the site. Good, trusted links from news sites and legit blogs.

I don't know what to do to improve the organic traffic. July is the first month that we haven't seen 40-50% drops.

Any advice is welcome, thank you!

[DanielFreedman]

A couple of shots in the dark:

(1) Have your Domain Authority and Mozrank remained steady? Is there any evidence that the product descriptions duplicated elsewhere are hurting you? If so, and you lack the resources to alter the descriptions, you may want to think the unthinkable: drop the descriptions and focus on what you do well -- and uniquely.

(2) Has something changed in the competitive landscape? Are your online competitors now offering features previously exclusive to you? Any other mega trends in the Canadian publishing industry (eg. sharp decline in sales?))

[SEOSHARK]

Good thoughts Daniel,

I do not know this industry, but " perhaps" search volume is also down...... Is there any chance this is a seasonal type search based on school or holidays'?

If all placement is there as was before, perhaps you should also consider a stronger call to action in the description, and moving the site name to the BACK of the title........

best

Tom

[DanielFreedman]

Tom:

Right back at you. Let me return the favour. Good thoughts from you, too.

I should reveal here that I am a former Canadian journalist and media executive who also worked in New York on the websites of Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

My current clients include several authors and websites who publish content from leading authors and subject matter experts.

So I am not completely ignorant about books and authors and media and publishing.

That said, I am still puzzled by the issues raised in the original post.

'Tis indeed a bafflement. But I suspect the crux of the matter may be a mega/meta strategic issue, rather than a technical SEO issue.

[SoMisguided]

Thanks Tom and Daniel! The domain authority has been steadily increasing and there are a few similar sites that I'm tracking as competitors who are providing editorial content vs just product pages plus UGC. But they don't appear to be doing anything new. I do have last summer's data when the site operated under a different domain and search traffic is significantly down in the comparable months last year. Quite flummoxed.