Rapid changes in website traffic & visibility

[Jinxer]

Hey folks,

I'm confused with the behaviour of one of my sites. Here is what happens:

There was a Google Search update (marked "1"), but the problem seems highly unlikely to be connected with it (IMHO).

How do you think what could be the reason for such a dramatic fall in visibility (no manual sanctions applied)?

My hypothesis:

1. Toxic backlinks: there were created about 20 web 2.0 profile backlinks which is about 10% of all linking domains
2. Content issues: there is a large amount of pages, about 100 of 200 existing, that have not unique content (product descriptions, etc)
3. Low uptime: during this period there were 3-4 times that the server was down because of me idiot
4. Your theory

Since the drop is THAT sharp, I believe there is only one main reason for it.

What's your opinion?



Many thanks in advance

 

[SunnyLeon]

Nah, seems like the changes match Google updates. I say the algo is seeing something good and something bad and switching between believing in your website and not trusting it. Work on it more, to overcome what the algo sees as bad and you should get back to your traffic

 

[SirLouen]

The opposite to many in the forum (incl. me). So weird.

 

[thedorf]

1. Low uptime: during this period there were 3-4 times that the server was down because of me idiot

You are shooting yourself in the foot if your server is not stable, but I guess you know this already.

 

[Sweely]

Nah, seems like the changes match Google updates. I say the algo is seeing something good and something bad and switching between believing in your website and not trusting it. Work on it more, to overcome what the algo sees as bad and you should get back to your traffic

This. The changes in fact DO match the Google updates.
There's essentially been a (major) Google update every single month for the past 3 months.

Here's a list of Google updates: https://developers.google.com/search/updates/ranking

 

[Jinxer]

The opposite to many in the forum (incl. me). So weird.

View attachment 232419

Yep, weird... Also, it seems to me that 10 days are not enough to have any ranking changes because of core updates

 

[Jinxer]

You are shooting yourself in the foot if your server is not stable, but I guess you know this already.

Sure you are right. Let's say migration is in progress, heh

 

[Jinxer]

This. The changes in fact DO match the Google updates.
There's essentially been a (major) Google update every single month for the past 3 months.

Here's a list of Google updates: https://developers.google.com/search/updates/ranking

Thanks for the link!

But again - what could be the change that cuts the traffic and brings it back in a period of 10 days? It seems sooo strange

 

[praetserge]

My $0.02.
I believe it has nothing to do with downtime.
I think the problem is the content.

 

[Jinxer]

My $0.02.
I believe it has nothing to do with downtime.
I think the problem is the content.

Thanks. Will try to figure out what could be the problem with content...

 

[ThaiDreamer]

I'm in the same boat.

 

[Jinxer]

I'm in the same boat.

View attachment 232937

Ah yes... You think it's because of content-related updates?

 

[Elvlin]

seem like what we like to call google dance.
but you cann try checking your backling, improving site page, and reviewing unpopular article

 

[akaseo]

Low uptime: during this period there were 3-4 times that the server was down because of me idiot

low uptime is the answer here. This happened to me as well. My site was DDOSed for a month nothing was able to keep it up but after that, I managed to learn something to defend it and keep my site up. During this time there was a huge loss of traffic almost 200k users.

 

[Jinxer]

low uptime is the answer here. This happened to me as well. My site was DDOSed for a month nothing was able to keep it up but after that, I managed to learn something to defend it and keep my site up. During this time there was a huge loss of traffic almost 200k users.

In my case the uptime dropped to about 98%. I can imagine that the impact of the 1-month long DDOS attack is much more terrible..

 

[Jinxer]

Here is an example of another website with similar behaviour:

 

[mrneedles]

Here is an example of another website with similar behaviour:

View attachment 233047

Looks like they were hit by the aftermath of Spam Update on 28-30th October.

 

[Rendosa]

Google is constantly changing algorithms. and it hurts us all the time i'm so tired of this

 

[Jinxer]

Here is an example of another website with similar behaviour:

Looks like they were hit by the aftermath of Spam Update on 28-30th October.

The strange thing is that those 2 sites have different content structure and backlink profiles. One is 200-page website (≈ eCom), another is 200k+ pages informational content site.