TL;DR: ~2-month-old SaaS site, launched with a lot of programmatic pages across 27 languages. Impressions crashed site-wide (~250/day → ~1/day) around mid-August. Pages are still indexed, no manual action in GSC. I've since pruned aggressively and added genuine value. Is this recoverable, or am I wasting time and should I move to a fresh domain?
The setup (what I probably did wrong):Domain is ~2 months old. To get traction fast I went heavy on programmatic SEO — location-based landing pages (type × country) multiplied across 27 language versions. That ballooned to a few thousand URLs, and honestly a lot of the non-English ones were thin/near-duplicate (translated copy but the same skeleton). Classic pSEO shortcut, I get it now.
What happened:Everything was slowly climbing, then around mid-August impressions fell off a cliff — from ~250/day to basically 1–4/day, site-wide, within a couple of days. Checked the usual suspects:
Reads like an algorithmic scaled-content / low-value demotion to me.
- Pages are still indexed (not deindexed).
- No manual action in Search Console.
- No server/technical issue, site's fully up and fast.
- It's not a single page — it's the whole domain that got quiet.
What I've done since (trying to send cleaner signals):
Basically I tried to apply the "would anyone miss this page if it vanished?" test and deleted/deindexed everything that failed it.
- Cut the index down to English-only — noindex on all 26 other language variants + the thin geo pages, and pulled them from the sitemap (they still resolve for users, just not for Google). Sitemap went from a few thousand URLs down to only the genuinely unique ones. 5.4k to 206
- Kept legal/utility/login pages English-only in the sitemap too.
- Added a few genuinely useful free web tools (real interactive utilities people in my niche actually use, not thin pages).
- Wrote several in-depth original long-form guides — real unique content, internal-linked properly.
- Removed low-value/filler elements and tightened the remaining pages.
My questions:
Not looking for magic — just want a realistic read from people who've actually clawed a domain back from this vs. those who wasted 6 months waiting. Appreciate any honest input.
- On a fresh (~2 month) domain, does an algorithmic scaled-content demotion like this actually lift after you prune + add real value, or is it usually sticky/permanent?
- If it recovers — rough timeline? Weeks? A core update cycle? Months?
- Is there anything else worth doing (disavow, re-submitting, requesting recrawl, links) or is it mostly wait and see now?
- Blunt take welcome: at what point do I stop nursing this domain and just migrate the good content to a fresh one?
Young domain (2 mo) — site-wide impressions collapsed from ~250/day to ~1/day overnight. Recoverable or start fresh?
- Thread starter kidd666
- Start date
RankViaseo
BANNED
- Aug 22, 2026
- 10
- 4
a fresh start is a good choice!
what about same domain in same gsc account but with .net instead of .com? version. I don't want the brand value to disappear.
- Dec 6, 2024
- 114
- 43
I wouldn’t abandon the domain immediately. First check whether the loss affected every query and page or only one content cluster. Then compare the collapse date with indexing changes, canonicals, robots rules, server errors and any large content or link changes. On a two-month-old site, 250 impressions is still too little data to conclude that the domain itself is permanently damaged.
also what about same domain but instead of .com version I create .net version with different templates on gsc?
jennykumar
Senior Member
- Nov 14, 2012
- 946
- 483
also google mostly detects and penelizes pSEO for new domains.
- Feb 28, 2019
- 7,587
- 8,035
Google actually targeted pSEO and parasite SEO (subdomain hosting) in August. Your brand value and site authority remains intact but your content is probably labelled as low-value or duplicate. If you want to revive the site, just remove pSEO pages and add 4-5 pages of high value. Find a way to target multiple Geos instead of following old methods like pSEO. Completely avoid thin pages and only post what is necessary.
c.sofia
Junior Member
- Aug 29, 2026
- 110
- 34
That’s a really valuable and on point contribution. Thanks for sharing, definitely helpful for the community.
because of the ai and spam is basically everywhere in google because of ai, that's why Im thinking we will see more spam updates in the future.
zocx
Regular Member
- Feb 13, 2017
- 386
- 273
Most new domains go through this. Google gives a small amount of traffic at the start to run some tests, then the traffic drops, and after that it’s just a waiting game. This keeps happening with all my new domains, so it’s nothing new these days.
I’d suggest not quitting on the domain. It will take some time before it starts to grow. At the same time, you can focus on new domains too. This way, if the old one starts growing, you’ll have multiple websites that are getting ranked.
One of my websites on a new domain had exactly the same thing happen.
I’d suggest not quitting on the domain. It will take some time before it starts to grow. At the same time, you can focus on new domains too. This way, if the old one starts growing, you’ll have multiple websites that are getting ranked.
One of my websites on a new domain had exactly the same thing happen.