Pages literally dissapearing after google core update

AhFreshMeat

AhFreshMeat

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Several of my articles have vanished from Google search results. Has this happened to anyone else? I've heard it's a common issue. Does anyone know the reason? They're marked as "indexed" in GSC, but they don't show up on Google, even when I use the "domain.com: keyword or title" search.

One thing to note: most of these pages had very lengthy intros. Otherwise, i couldn’t find a pattern; and trust me… I analyzed deep
 
I have the opposite issue on one of my test sites which is build on a strong auctioned domain. Since Wednesday the impressions went to zero. I started adding content about one month ago, so clicks weren't there yet though.

When I check site:domain.com everything is indexed, when I search per article URL or brand name they are not there.

No idea if it's related, but it's a weird issue I've never seen before.
 
AhFreshMeat said:
Several of my articles have vanished from Google search results. Has this happened to anyone else?
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Yup, it has happened to me before, don't know why...It eventually comes back to normal like it never happened. Don't think you can do much about it.
 
AhFreshMeat said:
One thing to note: most of these pages had very lengthy intros. Otherwise, i couldn’t find a pattern; and trust me… I analyzed deep
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Yes. I had a website that was ranking in top 10 and got smashed in the previous core update. Recent updates have recovered. I don't think the lengthy intros are the main reason your pages have dropped. Dig deeper and compare the pages that dropped with the new ones that are ranking in their place. What is the difference? Is it technical/on page/off page/speed, etc...

I sorted to the kitchen sink method to recover. It was a lot of digging and fixing. Took months of work.
 
Yes. It happened for 3-5 money pages(site has 400+ pages). I had noticed the same for one of my competitors’ page and it came back after 10-12 days. My pages are still missing.

I updated content and reindexed 2 pages. Both recovered to original position but 1 dropped back within 24 hours.

@Encrypted
How long did it take for you to recover?
 
zentrader99 said:
Yes. It happened for 3-5 money pages(site has 400+ pages). I had noticed the same for one of my competitors’ page and it came back after 10-12 days. My pages are still missing.

I updated content and reindexed 2 pages. Both recovered to original position but 1 dropped back within 24 hours.

@Encrypted
How long did it take for you to recover?
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Can you tell me more what did you update? Same happened with my site. Dropped no where to see my articles and this were my top articles regarding view count.

Anyone what to do?
 
Thank you. Could be the reason that I changed the dates to latest date and article wasnt really update much. Just few words.

Written 2021. Update to 2023 February. Which is not true. Would you revert date published?
 
More than one person I know has talked about video embeds making pages fall out of the SERPs and after removal of the video having a recovery. I’m just testing this myself now on a few projects.
 
Can confirm. Not for all pages though. Around 35% of the pages with the error dropped out completely the day after the error appeared in GSC.

Also testing removing the videos for those right now, will report back.
 
PickleRick said:
Can confirm. Not for all pages though. Around 35% of the pages with the error dropped out completely the day after the error appeared in GSC.

Also testing removing the videos for those right now, will report back.
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Removed the videos and requested indexing again yesterday, today pages are ranking back where they were before... It's silly, but it is what it is.
 
PickleRick said:
Removed the videos and requested indexing again yesterday, today pages are ranking back where they were before... It's silly, but it is what it is.
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Did you do this to pages with the "video outside the viewport" error or did you do it to any page with a video that wasn't ranking well?
 
Smith said:
Did you do this to pages with the "video outside the viewport" error or did you do it to any page with a video that wasn't ranking well?
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Only did it for pages with the "video outside the viewport" error that dropped to 0 impressions. These drops all corresponded with the date that the error first appeared in GSC.

I didn't touch the pages with that error that were ranking normally. Even though some of these pages are in a downtrend, however, that's due to the recent barrage of updates.

This video error just seems to completely wipe out the page in some cases.
 
PickleRick said:
Only did it for pages with the "video outside the viewport" error that dropped to 0 impressions.
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Thanks for clarifying.

PickleRick said:
This video error just seems to completely wipe out the page in some cases.
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Have you noticed any correlation between the pages besides the fact that they had this error and went to zero?

And just to make sure I understand "dropped to 0 impressions" are you just comparing a previous period to the current period in GSC and using that as your measurement?

PickleRick said:
Requested indexing again yesterday
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Did you "validate the fix" or just remove the video and then request indexing again?
 
Smith said:
Thanks for clarifying.


Have you noticed any correlation between the pages besides the fact that they had this error and went to zero?

And just to make sure I understand "dropped to 0 impressions" are you just comparing a previous period to the current period in GSC and using that as your measurement?


Did you "validate the fix" or just remove the video and then request indexing again?
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Haven't found any other correlation. Some of these pages were ranking top 5 and are now right back where they were after removing video.

And when I say dropped to 0, literally that. Check the screenshot: https://snipboard.io/aG9PSl.jpg Not out of the index, but off the map. Those drops happen exactly the same day as the error appears in GSC.

I didn't use the validate fix button. Just removed the video and requested indexing again. They are also gone from the video report now.
 
It's nothing to do with videos. It's some sort of site quality issue in Google's eyes.
 
Darth said:
It's nothing to do with videos. It's some sort of site quality issue in Google's eyes.
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Maybe it is, but it's definitely not working as intended in the pages that get moved down.
 
PickleRick said:
Haven't found any other correlation. Some of these pages were ranking top 5 and are now right back where they were after removing video.
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Thanks for explaining. I'm testing the same approach across a handful of pages that have faced a similar fate. A few have dropped off completely in terms of impressions while several others just had a massive drop in impressions and traffic.
 
Google is now back at their indexing bug and that has the consequence that my new site is now receiving traffic from DuckDuckGo and Bing, but not Google.

I don't understand how Google thinks the current state is ok.
 
Smith said:
Thanks for explaining. I'm testing the same approach across a handful of pages that have faced a similar fate. A few have dropped off completely in terms of impressions while several others just had a massive drop in impressions and traffic.
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Thanks both. I checked but I don't have youtube video in it.

What should I do?

I have now two options:
- remove affiliate link that was close to intro?
- change url and try to index it again?

I've changed title a month ago or more I think. Still not showing in top 3 results.

Oh look top 10 results and there are some crap AI articles that are not even that relevant. Congrats to google. It will be time that I start using duckduckgo too.
 
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