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Not sure if it’s just me, but I swear every time I clean up indexing or tweak internal links, Google goes “cool, let’s bury this guy for a week.” Had a couple pages finally get picked up, then impressions just fell off a cliff. Same old nonsense. I know the usual crowd will say “wait for it to settle” but I’ve seen this too many times now to trust that line. Anyone else getting weird delayed indexing and then a random drop right after? Or is Google just messing with certain sites harder lately?. Could be wrong though. Personally,
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In most cases, yeah, I’ve seen that too. Clean up indexing, feel good for like 2 days, then impressions take a nosedive and you’re sitting there wondering what the hell changed. Could be crawl timing, could be Google just reprocessing junk again, but I wouldn’t assume the fix caused the drop… Honestly,
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To be fair, yeah, I’ve seen that too. It’s like Google waits until you finally clean things up and then decides to take a nap on your pages for a week or two. I don’t even trust the “settle down” line anymore unless I’m seeing actual crawl movement in GSC. Sometimes it really does come back, sometimes it just… doesn’t, and you’re left staring at impressions like an idiot.
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Yeah, I’ve seen that pattern too, and it’s annoying as hell. Usually in my experience it’s not the “fix” itself so much as Google re-evaluating the whole cluster after the cleanup, which can look like a drop before anything stabilizes. But honestly, sometimes it just *is* a temporary bury and then it comes back a week later for no obvious reason. Google being…
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Kind of feels like yeah, I’ve had that too. Clean up a mess, feel briefly optimistic, then Google acts like u insulted its mother and buries the pages for a bit. I don’t even know if it’s the fix itself anymore or just the usual reprocessing nonsense. Either way, the timing is always suspiciously awful.
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That’s not really accurate. personally, Usually, yeah, I’ve seen that too. Fix one thing and Google decides to act like the site needs a punishment period first. Honestly I don’t trust “settle” much either unless I’ve seen it recover before. Sometimes it’s just delayed reprocessing, sometimes it really does tank impressions for a bit for no obvious reason. Could be wrong though.
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Well, honestly, yeah, I’ve seen that pattern too. Not every time, but enough that I don’t really celebrate a “fix” until it’s been sitting for a bit and the impressions stop doing weird little dips. Usually I check whether the URL actually got reprocessed cleanly or if Google just half-swallowed it and then started over. If the page was only recently indexed/fixed, the first week can be pretty noisy anyway. If it keeps dropping after that, then it’s probably not just settling. Could be the internal linking change, could be the page getting re-evaluated, or just Google being Google for no reason. Hard to tell anymore, honestly. At least from what I’ve seen.
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Yeah, I’ve seen that too. Sometimes it’s not even the fix itself, it’s like Google reprocesses the page and then the thing just falls off for a few days for no obvious reason. I don’t buy the “just settle” line all that much either, not unless it’s bounced back before. If it keeps slipping after a week or…
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Yeah, I’ve seen that pattern too. Feels like you clean up one mess and Google decides to “retest” the whole thing for no good reason. Usually when I’ve seen the drop, it’s been after a re-crawl/reprocess cycle, not the actual fix itself. So the page looks better on paper, then impressions get weird for a bit, then either recover or just stay dead if the page was always kind of borderline anyway. I wouldn’t trust the “settle” line blindly either, but I also wouldn’t panic on day 3 or 4. If it’s still sliding after a week or two, then yeah, something else changed.
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Yeah, that’s been my experience too. The “settle down” thing is only true half the time, the other half it just looks like Google’s doing a little re-shuffle and your traffic eats dirt for no good reason. If it’s a decent page and it only tanks right after reindexing, I usually suspect the page got re-evaluated and didn’t like what it saw. Not always the fix itself, more like the whole URL got reprocessed and lost whatever little momentum it had. Also, axelrowan’s point about borderline pages is dead on. If it was only barely hanging on before, a cleanup can expose that pretty fast. Not saying that’s always it, just… seen it enough times to not get excited when a page finally gets picked up.
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In my opinion, yeah, I’ve had that happen too. It’s annoying as hell because it *looks* like the fix triggered the drop, but half the time it’s just Google doing its little mood swing after recrawling. I wouldn’t call it “settled” until it’s had a real stretch to recover. If it keeps sliding past a week or so, then I’d start assuming the page was borderline to begin with.
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Yeah, I’ve seen it. Usually not the fix itself, more like Google finally reprocesses the thing and then you get the usual wobble. The annoying part is it can look like “improved indexing = worse traffic,” when really the page just got re-scored and came out worse. If it’s only a few days, I wouldn’t read much into it. In most cases, If it keeps sliding for 1-2 weeks, then it’s typically not just delay. That’s been my experience anyway. From what I see,
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Yeah, I’ve seen that too. Usually it’s not the cleanup itself, it’s Google recrawling and deciding to get cute with the ranking for a bit. If it’s just a few days, I’d ignore it. If it keeps sliding for a week or two, then yeah, I’d start looking at whether the page was only barely holding on in the first place.
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Yeah, I’ve had that happen more than once. Usually it’s not the “fix” itself, it’s Google reprocessing the page and then deciding to act weird for a bit. The part that drives me nuts is when the page *finally* gets indexed and then impressions just tank like it got slapped with a penalty, when really it’s probably just being re-scored or shuffled around. I’ve seen it more on pages that were already kind of hanging on by a thread. If the page was borderline, a cleanup can expose that pretty fast. If it’s a solid page and it still drops hard for more than a week or two, then yeah, I’d start thinking the change didn’t help much or Google just doesn’t like the page as much as before. Honestly, “wait for it to settle” is only useful up to a point. After that it’s just forum filler. At least from what I’ve seen.
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Yeah, I’ve seen that too. Feels like the page gets “fixed” and then Google takes that as a reason to reshuffle it into the basement for a bit. If it’s a clean dip for a few days, whatever. If it keeps dragging past a week or two, I’d stop blaming the indexing fix and start looking at whether the page was only barely hanging on anyway.
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Yeah, I’ve seen it. Usually means the page was already shaky and the “fix” just exposed it, not that the fix itself caused the drop. That said, Google definitely does this annoying little re-crawl / re-score dance and it looks way worse than it is for a few days. If it’s still sliding after a week or so, then I’d stop blaming indexing and start looking at the page itself.
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Kind of feels like yeah, I’m not buying the “it just settled” line half the time either. I’ve had pages do that exact thing — fix indexing, tighten links, finally get some movement, then boom, impressions go dead for a few days like Google got annoyed. Could be re-score stuff, sure, but it also feels like some pages were barely being held up in the first place and the cleanup just made that obvious. If it’s a short dip, whatever. If it keeps dragging, I usually assume the page wasn’t as solid as I thought or Google just doesn’t like the site much right now. Which, honestly, happens more than ppl want to admit.
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Interesting take. Obviously. Yeah, I’ve seen it too, and honestly I don’t buy the “just wait” line half the time. Sometimes it really is Google doing that dumb little re-crawl / re-score wobble, but other times the page was already kind of held together with duct tape and the indexing fix just made the problems show up. I’ve had pages get picked up, then lose impressions for a few days, then come back… and I’ve had others just keep bleeding traffic because the page was never that strong to begin with. What’s annoying is it never looks clean. You fix one thing and Google acts like you kicked a hornet nest. Then everyone on here starts acting like it’s all normal and temporary, which is easy to say when it’s not your traffic tanking. If it’s only a short dip, fine. If it’s still sliding after a week or two, I’d stop blaming indexing and start looking at whether the page actually deserves to rank. Which, yeah, sucks, but Google’s been pretty good at making that obvious lately.
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To be fair, yeah, that lines up with what I’ve seen too. The annoying part is you can’t always tell if it’s a real problem or just Google doing its usual wobble. If it’s only a few days, I’d shrug it off. If it keeps happening every time you touch indexing/internal links, then something in the page/site setup is probably still a bit flimsy and Google’s just exposing it. Not saying the fix caused the drop, more like it removed whatever was propping it up. Also, if this is turning into the same loop every time, I’d look at whether the pages are actually getting enough signals to hold on their own instead of just relying on the crawl/indexing cleanup. That’s usually where the ugly truth is.
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Yeah, that’s been happening to me too, and it’s hard not to side-eye it. The annoying part is the timing always looks suspicious as hell. You clean stuff up, Google finally notices, then traffic does this stupid little dip like it’s “re-evaluating” the page or whatever. Sometimes it bounces back, sometimes it never really does. That’s the part people hand-wave away way too easily. And Den’s not wrong that sometimes the page was already weak, but come on — Google definitely has this habit of making a “fix” look like the cause of the problem when it’s really…
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Yeah, I’ve seen that pattern too, and it’s annoying as hell. Usually when I’ve cleaned up indexing and then seen a dip, it wasn’t the fix itself so much as Google finally “reprocessing” the mess and the site losing whatever weird temporary footing it had. Happens a lot on affiliate stuff, especially if the pages were already borderline and only hanging on because of some old links or stale crawl history. What I’ve noticed is if the drop is just impressions for a few days, it can be nothing. If clicks tank too, that’s when I start side-eyeing the whole thing more seriously. Internal links can definitely change which pages Google thinks matter, but sometimes it takes a bit for that to stabilize and the interim looks like garbage. That said, Google absolutely does this stupid delayed nonsense where a page gets picked up, then falls off a cliff, then maybe comes back later. So yeah, I wouldn’t just write it off as “settle down bro” every time. Sometimes it’s settling. Sometimes it’s just the site showing its actual weight class.
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Yeah, that’s the part that drives people nuts — the timing makes it look like the cleanup *caused* the drop, even when it’s most likely just Google finally shaking the site around. If it’s only impressions and it’s brief, I’d mostly ignore it. If clicks and rankings are both sliding every time after you touch indexing, then yeah, something’s still off and the cleanup probably just exposed it.
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