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Yeah, that’s been happening a lot more than people want to admit. Once Google actually settles on the cleaner set, a bunch of these sites just get exposed for what they were riding on. I’ve seen it on WP stuff especially — canonicals, duplicates, weird archive junk, all that nonsense. And yeah, it’s annoying when the traffic looks “fine” right up until the floor drops out. Then everyone acts surprised.
Yeah, that’s the part people keep hand-waving away. I’ve seen it on a few WP sites too — once Google stops wobbling around and actually commits to the cleaner set, the traffic that was hanging off junk URLs just disappears. Not “update killed it” in some dramatic way, just the site finally getting judged on what it actually is In most cases,. And the canonical stuff… yeah, I don’t trust defaults much either. I’ve had Googlebot clearly hit the wrong variant first and spend ages sorting itself out. By then the damage is kind of done. Honestly the annoying part is how “fine” it looks right up until it isn’t. Just my experience.
Yeah, it’s been ugly. I’ve seen a few pages basically get “soft deleted” like that — not even a dramatic drop, just gone. Usually for me it’s some combo of thin internal linking + too much samey content across the cluster. Google loves pretending it’s random until you dig into logs and see crawl…
In my opinion, Yeah, that “indexed but dead” thing is the part that drives me nuts. Usually means it’s not some neat little technical fix, it’s just Google deciding to shuffle the deck and your site got the bad hand. I’d be looking at whether it was just a couple templates or page groups that got hit first, cause when it’s sitewide and messy like that, it’s rarely one obvious broken thing.
Personally, yeah, that’s the same crap I’ve been seeing too. The “random old junk survives while the pages that actually pull money get clipped” thing is so familiar at this point it’s almost funny, except it isn’t. If nothing changed on your end, I wouldn’t be rushing to rewrite the whole site like some SEO Twitter genius would tell you to do. I’d be looking at crawl first, then maybe template-level stuff. Affiliate sites with a bunch of samey page types seem to get hit in chunks now, not page-by-page in any sane way. Google just decides it’s bored, I swear. If you’ve got logs, check whether those dropped pages are still getting hit. That’s usually where the answer is. If crawl fell off a cliff, Search Console is basically just there to annoy you.
Yeah, same pattern here. The annoying part is it’s never the pages that deserve to die, it’s always the ones actually making money. I’d stop staring at Search Console like it’s gonna confess anything useful. Check server logs if you can — if those dropped URLs are barely getting crawled now, that’s usually the real story. I’ve seen pages sit fine for months and then after an update Google just stops bothering with them as much, while some ancient garbage post keeps its little spot for no reason. Also, if your affiliate pages are all built the same way, that can get messy fast. Same template, same internal linking, same “best X” layout… Google seems to get bored of whole page types, not just individual pages. Which is great, apparently. I’m not saying rewrite everything either. I’d look at which sections got hit hardest and whether those pages lost crawl frequency or just rankings. Big difference. If crawl’s still there but rankings tanked, then yeah, it’s probably more about how Google’s revaluing the niche than some obvious site issue. If crawl dropped…
Yeah, I’d still be suspicious of a plugin doing something dumb in the background even if the site *looks* unchanged. I’ve had “same setup” turn into a different canonical/output once an update hit, and Google just decided to be weird with it for a week or two. Search Console bouncing around on impressions usually makes me think crawl/indexing weirdness before I blame the whole site speed thing.
Yeah, I’m seeing it too. Not some massive apocalypse, just enough junk to be annoying again. Usually means one of the cheap checks got figured out or the botnet’s just cycling through forums again. Cleaning the accounts is basically busywork if the signup path’s still easy.
From what I’ve seen, yeah, same here. Not a huge flood, just enough garbage to be annoying. Usually when it keeps coming back that fast, it’s not the cleanup, it’s some dumb gap in the signup flow or a bot already learning the easy path around your current checks. I’ve seen that with the “good enough” anti-spam stuff — works for a week, then suddenly it doesn’t.
Yeah, I’ve seen that before and it’s usually not “just Google” in my experience. If the HTML/output is wobbling even a little, long-tail pages get hit first. I’d be checking the raw response a few times and maybe disabling the usual suspects one by one, cause logs love to stay useless until you’re already annoyed.
In my opinion, yeah, a couple of mine did the same thing this week. Rankings didn’t really crater, but traffic just fell off a cliff like GSC decided to have a tantrum. I’m not buying the “it’s definitely the update” line yet either. Feels more like reporting/indexing garbage again, which is basically business as usual with Google.
Honestly, Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’m seeing too. Feels like it’s grabbing the “closest enough” page instead of the one that actually deserves to show. At least lately.
Personally, From what I’ve seen, yeah, same here. Feels like every time Google sneezes, a few pages just get yeeted for no obvious reason. I’m not buying the “content quality” excuse as the default answer either. Half the time it’s some crawl/indexing garbage, an update, or just Google being Google. Could be wrong though.
Honestly, Yeah, I’m seeing the same kind of nonsense. Weekend wobble + junk pages floating up is usually Google just being Google for a bit. I’d give it a few days before freaking out, but if those money pages don’t recover, then it’s worth checking whether something changed in the template or internal links. Sometimes it’s not even the page itself, just Google deciding to be “helpful” in the dumbest way possible.