Direct traffic drop, SSL issues?
 

Hello guys,

Maybe someone can help me with this issue.

I noticed that I had a huge traffic drop on my website starting from March 25.
I always thought that was due to organic traffic, but after checking my Google Analytics account, I saw that the traffic lost was in Direct traffic, and this doesn't make sense because it is a difference of thousands of uniques per day.

Today I think I have found the reason:

In my namecheap account, I notice that I had an SSL certificate that has expired on the SAME day that I had the traffic drop. This still doesn't make sense to me because I renewed the SSL certificate on my website and is valid until 2022. I also did an SSL check and everything is fine.

Any idea of what could be?
Maybe a mistake renewing the SSL certificate?
Do I need to delete the old SSL certificate from my Cpanel?

Please let me know if you can help me with this :)

Thank you!

Thank you and a Happy Easter to everyone! :thumbsup

Any errors in Google Search Console?

If you made a new SSL cert, you have to install the SSL cert on your server otherwise your site is still using the old one.

What he said

Can you tell me the menu option where I can see if I have any error? :)

The new SSL cert is installed correctly and valid until June 2022.
Meanwhile, I have restarted the services in my server to see if this will solve anything.

SO if you load the website in the browser, it shows the correct certificate?

Depending on the server and if you use a control panel like Plesk, you need to select the new certificate in the website settings

Yeap, the website is loading fine and showing the correct certificate.
I tested in an SSL checker and everything is fine.

I'm using Cpanel in my server.

Check your nginx/apache logs, maybe they're being dropped by something else?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it take google a few days minimum to notice that your SSL certificate had expired and depricate your links?

True, so if the logs look good, its just a question of time

I didn't lose organic traffic, it was direct traffic. This makes me think if the website is not loading for some people.

check the error logs
have you changed any url structure ? and forgot to add rewrite rules ?

maybe webbrowser caches certificate ? for couple of hours or days.

your site now will show red error and woring in google chrome that the reson