0 impressions and zero clicks ... lost all SERPS

Last December, I started this new blog covering a niche I like.
The first weeks were very encouraging and I kept churning out more content covering only long tail keywords.
But in February, the website was decimated by Google.

I learned afterwards that maybe I just experienced the controversial Google sandbox.
But still, some people reported to me that they faced the same phenomenon for the first time.
And they've been in the game for years.
Which led me to think maybe this is the effect of a Google Update

Do you guys think this is normal, is this what some call the the Google sandbox or my blog was hit hard by an update?
I'm really lost here and on the verge of letting this one sink.
I bought a new domain to start over!

google tests new sites (or rather, new domains) for a few weeks at first and then, depending on the results they'll either put you in sandbox (I don't know for how long, but it can be anywhere between 3 months and 2 years, although over 1 year is usually for high profile industries like business, investing, etc) or place you somewhere in top 100 (usually around pages 5-10)

Check whether you rank in top 100 for any keyword and if you do, it's neither sandbox or penalty, it's just the normal way of google dealing with new sites. If you don't rank in top 100 for anything I think you're sandboxed.

But regardless of what's going on, as long as you're not penalized (and it doesn't look like you are) just keep working on your site as usual (publish content, build links gradually, track keywords, etc) until you start ranking

EDIT: of course, there are also new sites that rank outright from the get-go and continue ranking without being sandboxed or lingering on pages 5-10, I'm not saying that this doesn't happen. I just didn't mention it initially because it wasn't your case

Thank you for your input.

Definitely never heard of this sandbox effect before, otherwise, I'd have bought domains and let them age well.
If this is normal, then I'll happily keep working on the blog, although this brutal drop tells me one should diversify sources of traffic.
I hope I'll be out in a year or so.

I have many blogs like that. From my experience, it takes lot of time to recover or sadly never. Some of my blogs just recovered when I didnt do anything.

It will be easier to get back your traffic If the traffic just drops 90%. So Its better to start a new blog.

I Am Batman said:

I have many blogs like that. From my experience, it takes lot of time to recover or sadly never. Some of my blogs just recovered when I didnt do anything.

It will be easier to get back your traffic If the traffic just drops 90%. So Its better to start a new blog.

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So it won't matter if I keep producing the best content on the planet, this website just flopped hard and there's no turning back.
I've been hearing so many different answers I really don't know what to believe anymore.

What have you done with the site during its lifetime? Onsite and offsite wise? How does your content look, backlinks, etc?

site:domain.com - how much pages do you have in index?

tekniboss said:

So it won't matter if I keep producing the best content on the planet, this website just flopped hard and there's no turning back.
I've been hearing so many different answers I really don't know what to believe anymore.

Click to expand...

Yes, for me, no matter how many articles I posted, the sites still didn't get any traffic.
You don't need to believe anyone. Test it by yourself and get the answer. Just posts some articles and see whether you get traffic or not.

Turbo B. said:

site:domain.com - how much pages do you have in index?

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Pages are indexed as normal, site:domain shows the same number of links as GSC, the problem is they disappeared from all the SERPS.

Yes, for me, no matter how many articles I posted, the sites still didn't get any traffic.
You don't need to believe anyone. Test it by yourself and get the answer. Just posts some articles and see whether you get traffic or not.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that.
I'm gonna keep trying with this and maybe try to grow social traffic from YouTube. This is a niche I like a lot so I don't mind keep woking on it.
I also got a new domain to start over with another blog on a whole different blog.
But I'm afraid niche websites are dead in the water with all the IA craze.
Google seems to be only favoring the big established players.

What have you done with the site during its lifetime? Onsite and offsite wise? How does your content look, backlinks, etc?

Click to expand...

The website is still very new, I targeted some long-tail keywords and wrote the vast majority of articles by myself, I barely touched IA.
Content is pretty good compared to the competition with best SEO practices in mind.
I didn't build any backlinks, the domain is fresh.