30% loss organic clicks in last 30 days

[DemiGR]

Hey all, I am a bit stumped here so looking for some insight.  Our site was starting to rank well for many keywords, and we were getting roughly 25k visitors organically per month.  Now we are down 30% over the last thirty days, and I am trying to figure out why. This downtrend started I would say about mid August.

1. No messages in webmaster tools.
2. Our linking building is very good, no spammy links, never black hat.  We did have someone attempt negative SEO on us back in July.  We disavowed those links as soon as we saw them. Basically all our links come from link baiting to quality content.  Many .edu links
3. Content is good and fresh, always adding new stuff to the site.

When I look in webmaster tools and look at my search queries for last thirty days, our impressions are down dramatically, but the change in average position is increasing.   Our top 25 keywords we saw 15 rise in average position, 5 fall, and 5 unchanged.  This makes me think there is just a reduction in the amount of people searching for what we offer, though maybe that's wishful thinking? Is there a way to see search volume this month vs last month?

What should I be looking at here? Hoping to stop this downward trend ASAP.

[BruceA]

A Couple of things:

New Google Shopping for Adwords, if you are list products on Google.  This has had a dramatic effect versus the old Shopping on Adwords

Also check Google Places, now Business.  They had an update in August, so this might be a place to look too

If neither of these are likely, give a bit more info about your site, so it helps with some clues.

Bruce

[DemiGR]

The company sells a service not retail products.  Here is the website.

[Zippy-Bungle]

I had a look on  Google Adwords keyword planner.  There has been a huge increase in the number of searches for 'student debt relief' over the last two year.  From 260 to 1400 per month (in June & July).

Given the volatility are you just looking at some seasonality as people focus on holidays?

[DemiGR]

Yea thats what I am trying to figure out.  Are we losing organic clicks due to seasonality, or is it something else.  From what I can see based on that our position in the SERPS on average has gone up, then I imagine its seasonality but was hoping someone can provide some better insight.

Is there anyway to run a report on a list of keywords and look at searches performed through google last month vs this month, etc? More recent trends than say the last 2 yr period.

[Zippy-Bungle]

That's what I did.  You can see the results in the attachment and should be able to figure how to replicate.

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