If one channel shows a drop, but the others hold up, usually you suspect something went wrong with that channel. Perhaps your organic traffic was negatively affected by an algorithm update, for example. However, when direct traffic drops off a cliff, it’s harder to know where to look.
Suppose every channel, including direct traffic, drops. In that case, you’ll suspect a tracking or server issue. Either your website does not work, regardless of how customers reach it, or your analytics are not reporting correctly.
In this article, I’ll explain why direct traffic might drop and how to diagnose the problem correctly.