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Yeah, Kind of feels like yeah, I’d be looking at that “cleanup” first too, annoyingly. I’ve had pages do the exact same thing after I “just trimmed fluff” and it turns out I’d cut the one section that was holding the page together. Google’s pretty good at making that look random when it isn’t. If it was already making money, I’d honestly compare it against the old version before touching anything else. Could just be one of those stupid little internal link changes that made the whole thing weaker.
I mean, Yep, same here. The “just improve internal links” crowd is basically doing cargo cult SEO at this point. I’ve had pages get discovered and then just sit there like they’re on a waiting list for weeks. Sometimes they pop, sometimes they don’t, and there’s no obvious pattern that makes sense. Google’s been weirdly stingy with fresh stuff for a while now.
Yeah, 2 days is still basically noise to me too. I’ve had those little cliff-drops happen and then 48 hours later it’s back like nothing happened, which is exactly why I don’t start “fixing” stuff anymore unless it keeps going. What bugs me is when the same pages are fine, then tank, then fine again with zero changes. That’s usually when I assume it’s Google being weird, not some hidden site disaster. I’ve burned myself enough times chasing those dips. That’s been my experience anyway.
Honestly, to be fair, yep, seeing the same crap here. One site’s fine, another gets absolutely kneecapped for no obvious reason. Feels like GSC is just showing us the aftermath after the damage is already…
Well, yeah, same story here. The “helpful” update excuse is getting old when the old pages were pulling fine and then just get bodied overnight. I’d still check whether it’s a whole domain hit or just one folder/template like Nathan said, but honestly… half the time it’s just Google doing its usual nonsense and then acting like it found a flaw in your soul.
Honestly, Yep, same story here. The “helpful update” stuff is such a joke when you’ve got pages that were doing fine for months and then just get buried overnight. And yeah, I’d be looking at the update timing first too, not rushing to rewrite everything because some SEO platitude said “improve content.” Half the time that just means churn the site for no reason while Google keeps doing whatever it wants anyway. If it’s a cliff, I’d want to know if it’s all URLs or just one section/template. I’ve had drops that looked sitewide at first but it was really one cluster getting hit hard and everything else was mostly fine. That’s way more useful than staring at word count and pretending the SERPs are sane.
Kind of feels like yeah, that “overnight cliff” thing is the part that always makes me roll my eyes. I’ve seen it too many times where the content wasn’t even the problem, it was just the site got caught in whatever Google decided to hate that week Honestly,. Half the time the pages that replace yours are worse, thinner, more ad-heavy, whatever, but sure, *your* site is the one that needs “helpful” cleanup. I’d be looking at whether it’s the whole domain or just a chunk of pages, honestly. If it’s one template/section getting nuked, that’s usually more useful than staring at the content and pretending Google suddenly became a…
Yeah, same crap here. New pages just sit and rot while some nonsense URL gets picked up like it’s a priority. At this point I don’t even think it’s just crawl budget. Google’s just being weird again, like usual.
Fair enough. Yeah, same crap here. The weird part is it’s always the page that was finally doing something, never the dead weight. At this point I don’t even trust “it’ll come back after the next crawl” anymore — sometimes it does, sometimes it just stays buried for no obvious reason. Google’s been acting drunk with these money pages. To be fair,. At least lately.
Yeah, that’s been my experience too. The annoying part is it’s usually not even the garbage pages getting hit first, it’s the ones that were finally doing something. I’ve had a couple comparison pages do that exact thing — decent clicks, a few sales, then just… gone. No obvious on-page issue, no weird links, no manual nonsense. Next crawl it’s back a bit, then dead again. Feels like they’re just stress-testing the query and deciding they’d rather rank some half-baked page with a stronger brand name or more internal spam. If it were just one page I’d shrug, but when it keeps happening to the money pages and the junk stays put, yeah, that’s not normal churn to me. Google’s been way too twitchy lately. Just my experience.
To be fair, yeah, same junk here. One site’s getting stuff indexed in a couple days, another one just sits in that stupid “Discovered” purgatory forever for no obvious reason. What’s been annoying me is there’s no clean pattern to it either. I’ve had pages with solid internal links, sitemap resubmitted, decent logs, all that stuff… and Google just kind of shrugs. Meanwhile some weaker page gets crawled first for no real reason. I’m with you on it being crawl priority more than “content quality” in a lot of cases. ppl love acting like every delay means the page sucks, but I’ve seen too many clean pages get ignored while random crap gets attention. Google’s been flaky enough lately that I don’t even bother overreacting unless I see an actual block or render mess.
Kind of feels like yeah, I’ve had the same stupid bounce pattern on a couple sites. Usually when it’s just a few pages and it’s not tied to any obvious change, I don’t panic right away. But if it keeps doing the up/down thing every few days, that’s when I start thinking Google’s just messing around with intent match or internal link weighting or whatever flavor of nonsense they’re on this week. Also, crawl_void’s “if logs are boring then it’s fluctuation” thing is a bit too neat for me. Google can absolutely slap pages around without leaving some nice obvious footprint in GSC. Would be nice if it were that clean, but it usually isn’t. That’s how I look at it.
To be fair, Yeah, I’ve had that happen. “Normal plugin update” is exactly how you end up spending half the night chasing ghosts. If you already rolled one back and it got a bit better, I’d be suspicious of the plugin first, not Google suddenly deciding to punish you the same hour. The slow load part especially sounds like some crap got introduced in the front end or it’s hammering the DB. I’d check server logs / TTFB before I’d trust Search Console on this one. GSC loves to make a bad day look like a catastrophe.
Well, yeah, I’ve seen that too. Usually it’s not the cleanup itself so much as you accidentally cut some weird little internal path Google was leaning on. The “impressions still there / clicks dead” bit is the part that makes me think it’s just wobbling, not fully gone yet. I’d leave it alone for a bit honestly.
Yeah, I’ve had that happen. Not every time, but enough times that I don’t really trust a “cleanup” to be neutral anymore. The annoying part is it can look exactly like you described — impressions hanging around, clicks falling off a cliff, one page disappearing and then teasing you for a day like Google’s messing with you on purpose. Sometimes it’s just reprocessing, sure, but sometimes you really did cut some of the site’s dumb little connective tissue and the money pages get hit harder than expected. I’d be way more suspicious if the removed stuff had any real internal links into those pages, even if the pages themselves were trash. Google seems to care about that crap more than people want to admit. Also, if you changed templates or nav while cleaning, I wouldn’t ignore that. Seen a site go sideways just because the “thin” pages were quietly doing more work than everyone thought. Honestly though, the worst thing now is probably touching it again every 2 days. Let it sit. Google loves making a mess out of fresh changes.
