Executive Summary
This report attempts to make a long-term assessment of Adirondack Explorer traffic patterns over a long period of time, diagnose an issue with a short-term traffic dip related to Google algorithm update, and isolate key insights around top-performing content for Adirondack Explorer.
Key Takeaways
- Clear Evidence of a Recovery to Traffic Via Google Discover: Following a decline in Discover-specific traffic triggered by a core update in November 2024, Adirondack Explorer experienced a strong rebound in overall traffic in April 2025.
- Accurate Traffic Classification Restored: Previous misclassification of Discover traffic as Search traffic has been corrected in this report. This ensures more accurate data tracking, allowing for better analysis and decision-making.
Establishing a baseline for pageviews
This chart summarizes your pageviews for the last 28 months and was compiled from Google Analytics data.
Pageviews provide a clearer measure of content performance by showing the total number of times articles were viewed, regardless of how many times a user visited the site, making it easier to understand which stories captured and sustained reader interest.
This compiled data establishes a site average of around 400,000 pageviews per month.
There were several major outlier months in the summer of 2024 (very above-average pageviews).
You can also see the pageviews dip below the average in November and December and beginning a recovery in February of 2025.
Evaluating Variance in Traffic and Defining “What is Normal?”
Defining “normal” for traffic is a somewhat subjective task but things we can observe over 28 months include:
- Traffic is quite variable month-to-month
- 2024 had some extraordinarily high-performing months, with a performance far above the baseline.
- The occurrence of “breakthrough” articles (defined as >30K views) seems to be highly correlated with high traffic months
- The occurrence of “breakthrough” articles across 28 months averages 1.3 per month, and is not evenly distributed (some months have 3, some none)
- Discover pickup seems really important to “breakthrough” performance it seems to have lost steam in November 2024 and picked up again in April 2025.
Traffic Dip in November 2024: Why it Happened and What Changed
You took a traffic hit in November of 2024.
- Google ran a “core update” last November that seemed to affect the traffic of many publishers
- Both Search and Discover traffic are conflated in both Google Analytics and Chartbeat, though they are distinct sources of traffic.
- Discover is a much more important referrer of traffic to your site than Search.
- Discover seems to drive the success and virality of a lot of your top performing articles (defined as meeting an above 30K pageview threshold).
- Google ran another core update in March (beginning March 13 and finishing March 27) [Source]
- Thereafter, Adirondack Explorer’s Discover traffic showed a definite rebound, with two stories surpassing the 30K view threshold.
Google Search Vs. Google Discover: Why the Difference Matters
Google sends your site traffic via two routes: Search and Discover.
- Google Search: Users actively search for specific queries, and Google directs them to the most relevant pages based on search intent. This is a pull-based traffic source where users are looking for answers.
- Google Discover: Content is proactively recommended to users based on their interests, browsing history, and behavior. It is a push-based traffic source that relies on Google’s AI to surface articles without user-initiated searches.
Discover’s Role in Driving Breakthrough Content
Here’s a chart that shows how many referral clicks were sent via Discover to some of the site’s best performing content:
Google Discover has historically been a much more important source of traffic to your site than Search:
- Google Discover traffic dwarfs your performance in Search.
- High performing months for the site coincide with high performing months on Discover.
- Some of your best-performing content has a significant percentage of its clicks driven by Discover.
How We Know the Algorithm Update Pertaining to Discover (Not Search) was the Issue in the Traffic Dip
In the chart below, the red line shows clicks referred by Google Discover. The blue line shows clicks referred by Google Search. You can see in the chart that:
- Google Search accounts for significantly less traffic than Discover.
- Google Search was relatively stable the through the updates, Google Discover is much more volatile.
- The dotted lines show respective averages. We can see with April, the click rate for Discover reverting to the mean.
Getting a Clear Picture of the Data Through Multiple Sources
Chartbeat and GA report analytics differently, but both conflate Search and Discover.
Comparing Chartbeat and GA
Chartbeat
Pros:
- Great for real-time analytics
- Easy-to-use dashboard and reporting
Cons:
- Not as widely used
- Not as much historical information
- Doesn’t separate Discover traffic from Search traffic
Google Analytics
Pros:
- Much more fine-grained
- More historical data
- Universally accepted in the industry
- Best for presenting traffic data to advertisers
Cons:
- Doesn’t separate Discover traffic from Search traffic
Takeaways:
- Discover is an important driver of traffic and virality
- Discover reaches users who are not already familiar with the site
- Discover is harder to “optimize” than search, but there’s a clear seasonality effect in terms of what performs best (examples: Women of Adirondacks tied to Women’s History Month, Best Hikes for Valentines Day)
Next Steps:
- Consider Discover in Crafting Content: As it is a major driver of traffic to the site, it might be worth considering patterns in discover pickup such as seasonality and common topics (ie anything about the rail trail)
- Technical Improvements: Moving forward, work to ensure accurate tracking by differentiating between Discover and Search traffic in analytics tools.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Regularly review performance metrics to assess the impact of implemented strategies and adjust accordingly.