Sudden Decline in Image Impressions: Seeking Guidance
Hello, fellow bloggers!
I’m reaching out today to share my experience with a troubling issue on my WordPress blog, which focuses on a specific hobby niche. My blog is still in its infancy—only four months old—and I manage to post once a week due to my busy schedule. Initially, my site enjoyed a steady traffic of around 1,000 to 2,000 image impressions monthly. However, a couple of months ago, I noticed a promising increase, reaching up to 10,000 daily impressions at its peak.
But then, around May 15-16, 2025, everything changed. My image impressions plummeted drastically, dropping to fewer than 50 impressions per day—a decline that has persisted without any sign of recovery. As you can imagine, this sudden drop in traffic has been incredibly frustrating for me.
Upon investigating the issue, I discovered that my Rank Math plugin is not including images in the sitemap, despite the fact that they are correctly uploaded and appear in my posts. Here’s what I have already tried to remedy this situation:
- Enabled the “Include Images” option in the Rank Math sitemap settings.
- Ensured that all images are properly stored in the media library and correctly embedded in the posts.
- Cleared all caches, including WP Super Cache and CDN.
- Flushed my permalinks.
- Restarted the Rank Math sitemap feature.
- Disabled caching plugins temporarily to rule out potential conflicts.
Despite these efforts, my sitemap continues to lack the crucial
Given how heavily my blog relies on these images for traffic, this situation is quite detrimental to my growth strategy. I reached out to Rank Math’s support team for help, and they inquired about any custom templates I might have used. I confirmed that I’m utilizing the free WordPress theme from Tyler.com, and upon further inspection, it appears that the images are not being added through custom fields but via the standard WordPress editor.
If anyone has encountered a similar issue or can recommend an effective plugin for managing image sitemaps, I would greatly appreciate your insights. I’m feeling quite desperate to resolve this!
Thank you in advance for your support!