Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Yeah, I’m seeing that too. The annoying part is it doesn’t even feel random in a useful way, just random enough to waste your time. I’ve had pages with clean internal links and sitemap entries sit in Discovered for ages while uglier stuff gets picked up first. Logs look basically dead except for the usual homepage/category crawl, then nothing. No obvious render issue on my end either, so I’m leaning more toward crawl priority / discovery path weirdness than actual page problems. What’s been slightly better for me is pushing the page a bit harder off a strong, already-crawled page instead of just letting the sitemap do the work. Not magic, but it seems to help more than waiting around for Google to “notice” it. Still feels like Google’s just pacing itself for no reason half the time.
Realistically, from what I’ve seen, yeah, I’ve seen that too many times to call it a coincidence every single time. Usually when I’ve had a “cleanup” and then the site tanks, it was either: – I changed too much at once – the site was already weak and the timing just made it obvious – Google was relying on some ugly internal signal and I accidentally disturbed it The annoying part is the junkier pages hanging around while the actually edited stuff goes nowhere. That part feels backwards as hell, but honestly it’s not that rare. If Den’s gonna jump in with the usual “timing bro” thing, in most cases, sure, but I’d still want to know what kind of cleanup it was. Some of these sites are basically held together by bad structure and dumb internal linking, and when you “fix” it you can sometimes just remove the weird little crutches it was living on.
Realistically, yeah, I’m seeing the same mess. What’s been messing with me is pages getting crawled almost immediately, then just sitting there with zero movement for days, like Google half-decided on them and then forgot. And yeah, the parasite / expired-domain stuff seems to get a weird fast lane sometimes, which is exactly why the whole “just make it better content” routine feels so useless here. I’ve had a couple pages that were clean, internally linked, decent crawl paths, all that — still stuck. Meanwhile some garbage off a stronger domain gets picked up like it’s urgent. So I’m leaning more toward some trust / selection / crawl-priority nonsense than anything on-page. Not saying content doesn’t matter, but right now it feels like indexing is being throttled or queued weird, not like Google’s carefully judging quality.
Yeah, I’d be cautious about pinning it on the bots too fast. I’ve had log spikes from AI crawlers and nothing happened, and I’ve also had traffic dip around the same time for totally boring reasons like indexing wobble, intent shift, or just one section getting devalued. Den’s right on the “check what traffic actually dropped” part, annoyingly. If it’s only a couple sites, I’d want to see whether the drop is in organic only or everything. Otherwise it’s kind of easy to blame…
Yeah, I’ve had that exact “indexed but basically in witness protection” thing happen. The weird part is when nothing changes on the page, nothing changes in links, and then it just randomly wakes up or drops for no obvious reason. Makes testing feel kinda pointless sometimes.
In my opinion, yeah, that “indexed after the fact” thing is getting old fast. I’m not convinced it’s just “weak internal links” every time either — I’ve seen pages that were fine structurally still show up way too late to matter. Feels more like Google’s just dragging its feet until the opportunity’s dead.
Yeah, we’re seeing it too. Not just “more leads,” but more crap wearing a decent disguise. The weird part is it’ll look fine in the CRM for 5 minutes, then sales starts filtering and half of it is dead on arrival. I don’t know if it’s Google, more automated junk, or just the whole intent mix getting sloppier, but something’s definitely off. That’s been my experience anyway.
Yeah, I’m seeing it too. Not every query, but enough that it’s hard to pretend CTR isn’t getting kneecapped. The annoying part is impressions still look “healthy” so people act like nothing changed. But if the answer’s already sitting there in the SERP, the click is basically optional now.
Yeah, I’d still want to see whether it’s clicks or impressions first. If rankings “looked okay” but traffic fell off a cliff, half the time it’s just SERP junk pushing you down or changing the click share. If impressions dropped too, then I’d start looking at actual site issues instead of Google being Google.
From what I see, Personally, yeah, I’ve had the same thing happen and it’s usually not a “nice” burst at all. What I’ve seen is Google will suddenly pick up a pile of URLs, then a couple days later the actual money pages start wobbling while some garbage gets indexed or re-crawled for no reason. Traffic drops right after because the query mix changes, or it starts testing different pages and you get that ugly shuffle. I wouldn’t trust the spike unless it sticks past the first week or so. If the indexed URLs were mostly junk, that’s usually the part that worries me more than the burst itself. Google loves making it look like progress before it turns into a mess.
Yeah, I’m seeing it too, and honestly I don’t buy the “it’s just trust” explanation every time. I’ve got pages that are clearly crawlable, in the sitemap, linked from decent spots, and they still sit there like nothing happened. Then some garbage doorway-ish page with basically no business being there gets indexed before lunch. Makes no sense unless Google’s just being picky in a really dumb way. What’s been annoying me is it’s not even site-wide. One section behaves normal, another acts dead for days. So I’m not convinced it’s all on the pages themselves. Feels more like some weird site-level state, or in most cases they’re just slow to care unless the page gets some obvious signal fast. I’ve stopped trusting submit/crawl as meaning much. Half the time it just means “we saw it,” not “we’re doing anything with it.”
Yeah, I’m seeing the same kind of nonsense. One site I watch dropped a bit and then just sat there, like it was waiting for everyone to start panicking. Honestly I’m not even assuming “something broke” anymore unless it keeps going for a few days. Google’s been doing these dumb little shakeouts a lot lately.
From what I see, Yeah, same here. I’ve had a few pages just sit in that limbo even with decent internal links and a clean sitemap, and there’s nothing obvious in logs besides Googlebot doing a quick pass and bailing. What’s weird is it doesn’t even look like a hard crawl issue, more like they’re just not bothering to spend the crawl budget on them yet. I’ve seen fresh pages get indexed in 48 hours and then another basically rot for weeks on the same site, same template, same everything. Makes the “quality” excuse feel pretty lazy when the pattern is that random. I’m starting to think it’s priority / discovery path stuff more than anything else. If it doesn’t get enough signals from the homepage or a strong internal link path, it just sits there and waits its turn. Which is annoying because sometimes there’s nothing to “fix” besides waiting and in most cases pushing links around a bit.
Realistically, yeah, it’s not just you. I’ve had a couple forums suddenly get hit hard like that too, usually some dumb wave of signup spam and then the copy-paste crap starts. Annoying part is it never feels random when it ramps up all at once. Either they found a weak spot or they’re just blasting everything and seeing what sticks.
Could be either, honestly. If GSC’s not showing some obvious dip and it’s mostly clicks/positions just kinda going nowhere, I’d lean boring site issue first. I’ve had “update” looking drops that were just internal links getting messed with or a template change I barely noticed. If it’s across a bunch of unrelated pages though, yeah… that’s when I start suspecting Google’s doing its usual nonsense. What kind of drop are you seeing — impressions down too, or just clicks?
