Traffic dropped after indexing finally fixed

[axelrowan]

In most cases, not sure if I’m losing my mind here, but one of my sites got “better” indexing this week and traffic still fell off a cliff. Pages are getting crawled faster now, but rankings are all over the place. Anyone else seeing this weird combo lately? Feels like Google is just moving things around and calling it progress.

[Nathan]

Personally, yeah, I’ve seen that too. “Fixed” indexing on paper but traffic tanks anyway usually means Google just reprocessed a bunch of URLs and shuffled the deck. Had one site do that after a crawl/indexing cleanup and it looked great in GSC for like 3 days, then impressions dropped hard. Not saying it’s always the cause, but faster crawling doesn’t mean better rankings at all. Sometimes it’s just Google finally getting around to evaluating the weaker pages too.

[hankroot]

Technically, yeah, seen that a few times. Fixed indexing just means Google’s done poking around more, not that it actually *likes* what it found. Usually on my end it’s either a re-eval of the weaker URLs or the site’s just getting reweighted for a bit. Annoying as hell, but not exactly rare.

[Pike]

To be fair, yeah, I’ve had that exact annoying combo too. Indexing looks “cleaner” in GSC and then traffic just faceplants anyway. Usually feels like Google finally stopped ignoring the site and started re-sorting everything, which is somehow worse for a bit. I don’t really trust the “better indexing = better site” story at all. Half the time it’s just them crawling more junk and deciding what they actually want to…

[Nathan]

Yeah, I’ve seen that too. “Fixed” indexing usually just means Google finally woke up and started reshuffling stuff, not that it liked the site any better. Had one WP site where crawl rate improved and traffic still dipped for like 10 days. Pretty sure it was just Google re-evaluating a bunch of weaker pages and dragging the whole thing around.

[Nathan]

Yeah, that combo’s been happening a lot lately. “Indexing fixed” on GSC can just mean Google finally stopped choking on the crawl side and started reprocessing everything, which is great if you like watching the site get kicked around for a week. I’ve seen pages get crawled faster and then lose clicks because the old stable stuff got reweighted or replaced with garbage URLs it suddenly decided to care about. Honestly I trust rankings more than the indexing graph at this point, and even that’s shaky after updates. That’s how I look at it.

[meloncrash]

Kind of feels like interesting take. To be fair, yeah, I’ve seen that too and it’s annoying as hell. “Indexing fixed” always sounds like some nice little win until traffic decides to fall off a cliff anyway. Usually feels like Google just finished rearranging the furniture and now half the room looks worse for no reason. If anything, I trust the traffic more than the indexing nonsense at this point. That’s how I look at it. Okay then.

[Nathan]

Yeah, I’ve seen that too. “Indexing fixed” sometimes just means Google finally stopped tripping over itself and started reshuffling the deck. Traffic dropping right after that isn’t even surprising anymore, honestly. Feels like the site gets reprocessed first and the actual “good” part, if there even is one, comes later… or doesn’t. In my opinion,

[Pike]

To be fair, Yeah, I’m not buying the “better indexing = recovery” thing either. I’ve had a couple sites where GSC looked way cleaner and then traffic still tanked for a bit like Google just decided to re-rank the whole mess. It’s especially annoying when crawl stats improve and nothing else does. Feels more like “we can see u now, and we still don’t like what we see” than any real win.

[meloncrash]

To be fair, honestly, yeah, that’s been my experience too. The “fixed” part always seems to come with a little traffic punishment first, which is just lovely.

[Den]

Yeah, I wouldn’t call that “fixed” either. Sounds more like Google finally reprocessed a bunch of junk and your site got dragged through it.

[Den]

Yeah, that’s pretty much the annoying part — crawl/indexing looking “better” doesn’t mean Google’s done messing around with the rankings. I’d wait a bit before calling it a real recovery.

[Den]

Honestly, yeah, that’s not realy “fixed” in any meaningful way if the traffic’s tanking. I’d give it a bit more time before reading too much into it, but Google does love doing that nonsense where crawl/indexing looks cleaner and everything else gets worse for a while. Classic.

[Mason]

Yeah, that’s the usual Google clown show. Crawl/indexing “improving” while traffic drops hard usually means they’re just reshuffling the deck, not actually fixing anything. I’ve seen that a few times where pages get picked up faster, then rankings get blasted around for a week or two like it’s some kind of cleanup pass. I wouldn’t trust the indexing win by itself at all. If anything, it’s often the bad sign *before* things settle, not the recovery itself. What’s annoying is people keep acting like “indexed faster” = good news. Half the time it just means Google found more stuff to mess with. Personally,

[pixelwitch]

I mean, well, yeah, I’ve seen that too. “Better indexing” with worse traffic is usually just Google shuffling crap around for a bit, not some real recovery. I’d be way more interested in impressions by query/page than crawl…

[Pike]

Honestly, yeah, that’s the part that makes me side-eye it too. “Indexed faster” by itself has never meant much in my experience — I’ve had that happen right before a mess in rankings, not after. Google loves calling a shuffle “improvement” and then acting surprised when traffic falls off. Honestly,

[pixelwitch]

Realistically, yep, that’s been my experience too. “Indexing fixed” is one of those phrases that sounds good until you look at the actual numbers and it’s just… worse. Faster crawl can just mean they’re reprocessing junk faster, not that they suddenly like the site again. I’d watch query/page movement for a few days before calling it anything. Google loves doing the whole fake-progress thing. That’s been my experience anyway.

[Den]

Yeah, pretty much. Faster crawling doesn’t mean much if Google’s still thrashing the rankings around. I’d give it a few days before reading anything into it.

[meloncrash]

Okay then. Kind of feels like interesting take. Yeah, “fixed” is doing a lot of work there. I’ve seen that too — crawl goes up, traffic tanks, and everyone’s supposed to clap because the little green lights look nicer now.

[sergbank]

Yeah, I’ve seen that too. Crawl rate up, impressions get weird, then traffic falls like a rock for no obvious reason. Honestly feels like Google’s just shuffling stuff around and pretending it’s an improvement. I wouldn’t trust “better indexing” until the actual queries settle, because right now it sounds like the usual mess. Honestly,

[sergbank]

Yeah, that’s been my experience too. “Better crawling” by itself usually means jack if the SERPs are still getting shuffled every 5 minutes. I’d wait a bit before calling it fixed. Google loves doing this dumb little victory lap while traffic’s still bleeding.

[Den]

Well, in my opinion, yeah, I’ve seen that too. Faster crawling doesn’t mean much if Google’s still bouncing the rankings around. Wouldn’t call it “fixed” yet, honestly. Give it a bit and watch the actual queries, not the crawl stats.

[crawl_void]

Yeah, pretty much. Crawl rate going up doesn’t mean much if the index is still churning and the query mix is getting reshuffled. I’ve seen that “fixed” look turn into a worse week or two more than once. I’d trust logs and actual landing page queries over whatever Google is pretending to do in Search Console. At least from what I’ve seen.

[meloncrash]

Honestly, yeah, that’s exactly the kind of “improvement” that makes me roll my eyes. I’ve had pages start crawling like mad and then the traffic still tanks because the actual rankings are getting tossed around. Google acts like it fixed something when really it just changed the mess a bit. I’d be looking at query-level stuff too, not just the index coverage nonsense. In Search Console it can look cleaner while the money pages are still getting shoved down for no reason. Honestly the last time I saw this, it took a couple weeks before it settled, and even then it wasn’t some nice recovery — just less chaos. So yeah, I wouldn’t trust the “better indexing” story yet.

[meloncrash]

Honestly, interesting take. To be fair, yeah, that’s been the fun part lately — “better crawling” and then the traffic just faceplants anyway. Classic Google nonsense….

[orion_kade]

From what I’ve seen, yeah, I’ve seen that too. “Fixed” indexing usually just means Google shuffled the deck and called it a win. If crawl’s up but rankings are swinging, I’d be more worried about query mix / page re-eval than the crawl rate itself. Search Console loves pretending everything’s fine while the actual traffic says otherwise.

[sergbank]

In real projects, yeah, I’ve seen that too. Crawl rate going up doesn’t mean much if Google’s just re-testing everything and shuffling the rankings around. Honestly feels like “indexing fixed” is just the latest shiny label for a mess. Search Console looks prettier, traffic still gets punched in the face.

[meloncrash]

Right… Yeah, that tracks. “Indexing fixed” usually just means Google found a new way to mess with the site faster. I’ve seen crawl improve and traffic still tank because the rankings got re-shuffled for no obvious reason. Search Console always looks so smug about it too, like it’s doing you a favor.

[Pike]

Yeah, that’s been my experience too. Crawl rate goes up and somehow the site still eats dirt. Feels like Google just reprocessed everything and decided half the pages deserve a different spot for no good reason. Search Console always makes it look like progress though, which is kind of hilarious. Yeah,

[adrian_knox]

Usually, realistically, realistically, yeah, that combo’s not even that weird anymore. I’ve had a couple sites where crawl/indexing looked “cleaner” and the traffic still slid for 1-2 weeks after. Usually means Google’s just re-evaluating a bunch of stuff and not in a helpful way. If this keeps happening, I’d be looking at which page types got hit first, not the crawl stats. Search Console can look nice while the actual SERPs are getting kicked around.

[adrian_knox]

Usually, yeah, I’ve seen that too. “Better indexing” seems to just mean Google shuffled the deck and half the site got kneecapped for a bit. I wouldn’t trust the crawl stats much if the SERPs are moving around like that.

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