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Hey everybody. At Sear, we're constantly brainstorming how we can leverage artificial intelligence
into our current repetitive processes. As we were thinking about this, we came across
this blog post that we published a couple of years ago, 18 Ways to Diagnose a Decline
in Organic Traffic. Reporting is something that every SEO or marketer will have to do,
whether that's on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly cadence. And while this post was published
a couple of years ago, a lot of the content within it is still relevant today. That includes
looking into seasonality or search interest, competition, keyword visibility, and rankings
whenever you're trying to analyze performance shifts in organic traffic. What we wanted
to do was to create a custom GPT for this process to help it even more efficient. Or
if you're a newer analyst that's just now getting started on reporting, hopefully this
GPT can act as an assistant into walking through that process and providing some assistance
with analysis or optimization recommendations as well. We used the content of this page
as well as some best practices that we have at Sear in order to make this custom GPT,
the SEO Organic Traffic Decline Analyst. What I want to do is walk through the workflow
of this custom GPT and just highlight some of the capabilities as well. To start, the
AI-generated overview
Seer Interactive created a custom GPT "SEO Organic Traffic Decline Analyst" that automates the 18-step diagnostic workflow from their 2022 blog post. The GPT accepts Google Analytics or Search Console exports and provides directional analysis through five core functions: (1) Google algorithm updates—cross-references dates with Mozcast, Search Engine Journal, and Google official sources to identify relevant updates like March 2024's core update targeting low-quality content; (2) Ranking changes—analyzes SEMrush/Ahrefs exports for striking distance keywords (positions 11-30), page one shifts, and traffic implications; (3) Search volume trends—sums unique search volume to determine if seasonality drove performance shifts or if ranking changes were primary; (4) SERP feature changes—tracks frequency shifts in reviews, ads, feature snippets, image carousels to assess competition impact on CTR; (5) Recommendation synthesis—compiles all factors to identify primary drivers and prioritize next steps. Key limitation: Google Search Console sampling can significantly underreport clicks (28K actual vs. 10K exported), affecting accuracy.
The custom GPT acts as a "consultant" providing "holistic analysis" rather than granular data queries—designed for efficiency in repetitive reporting workflows on weekly/biweekly/monthly cadences.
Google Search Console export sampling creates significant accuracy issues: Seer's actual site had 28,000 clicks but the export only showed 10,000—"watch out for sampling" and use unsampled Google Analytics if possible.
Striking distance keywords are defined as positions 11-30 (pages 2-3 of Google), where "maybe just a little bit of love on those pages can have a large impact" on traffic.
The GPT uses search volume changes as a "proxy for search interest and seasonality," summing unique search volume across periods to determine if traffic shifts are demand-driven or ranking-driven.
🔍 About This Video: Our team is constantly brainstorming how we can leverage AI into our current repetitive processes. Reporting is a task that every SEO will come across at some point, so we created a CustomGPT to make this process more efficient. In this video we walkthrough a step-by-step guide on using this CustomGPT and it's capabilities. 📊 Tools & Resources: CustomGPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-Psxb0E3sl-seo-organic-traffic-decline-analyst Seer Blog Post: https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/18-ways-to-diagnose-a-decline-in-organic-traffic Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/ ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 - CustomGPT Background Information 01:30 - Beginning the CustomGPT Organic Analysis 03:20 - Analysis of Google Algorithm Updates 01:41 - SEMRush Organic Rankings 08:15 - Search Volume and Seasonality 10:10 - SERP Feature Frequency 11:40 - Final Analysis and Recommendations 💡 Have Suggestions or Questions? Your feedback is invaluable. Share your ide