Somehow I got suckered into Google's search console - they emailed me about some site issues - where they have a bunch of data for one of my software products. I've been tracking this for a long time and usually it was always US #1, Germany #2. So when I logged in I clicked around and was like wtf is going on here... Interesting developments, for last 3 months of 2019 regarding clickthroughs (the actual numbers are 2x over last year, so it isn't that they have declined.) For the same 3 months, but 2018. Interesting I thought, so I went to look up the actual analytics data for year to date comparatively. Note that I don't really do much growth hacking as I am happy with the level for this particular product. So any growth is purely organic. These stats are new users. Now, I know for sure that there are no serious competitors in my space in the USA because the niche is at the same time too small and too technically complicated for anyone to take on effectively and "win" in a single market. I also know I have definitely not saturated the US market as it is many millions of dollars which sadly I do not receive annually from this product. So makes me wonder what exactly is going on... First time in many years that USA/Germany have not been #1/#2. The following table compares YTD 2018/2019 For comparison, YTD 2017 vs 2018, notice USA and Germany are #1 and #2 as I said earlier: Canary in the coal mine?
I should make it clear, this has _never_ happened. And this product has only been active since post recession. So, possible causes could be: 1. Google algorithm change - nope, I verified that USA/Germany is still highest growth YoY in new visitors 2. My product doesn't work in USA/Germany anymore - ok boomer 3. Market changes - canary in the coal mine for my product - sad. This is actually highly likely TBH. 4. ??? So basically for the first time ever, we have a decline YoY in people going from visitors -> paid for USA/Germany.
I'm not the only one who is seeing this, this is a real thing... https://www.businessinsider.com/cum...engine-manufacturer-trucking-downturn-2019-11