Traffic Drop After 301 Redirects - Need Advice

serjiotn

serjiotn

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Hi everyone,

I'd like your advice on a situation with one of our sites.

We had a strong news site (Site 1) with steady organic traffic.
A few weeks ago, we decided to create a separate niche site (Site 2) for one specific category.
We moved about 200 articles there and set up 301 redirects from Site 1 to Site 2.

Those articles didn't bring much traffic - we moved them mostly to fill the new site and pass some link equity.
But right after adding the redirects, news traffic on Site 1 dropped by around 50%.
The drop affected all categories, not just the one we moved.

Now most of the moved pages are already indexed on Site 2.

We’re not sure what to do next:
  1. Leave everything as is and wait.
  2. Remove the redirects and completely separate the two sites.
  3. Move the articles back to Site 1.
Has anyone seen a similar situation? What’s the best move to recover visibility for Site 1?

Thanks.
 
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I think you should wait for few more days to see the steady effect. Then take your move. Sudden drop isn't uncommon in this case.
 
1SEOWarrior said:
I think you should wait for few more days to see the steady effect. Then take your move. Sudden drop isn't uncommon in this case.
Click to expand...

Thanks for opinion. Just for your info - it's been a week since the redirect. The drop happened on the second day, but I didn't notice it right away as I was on vacation.​

 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Here are a few more ideas from my side:

  1. The old site is much more important to me than the new one. I can remove everything from the new one if needed, but I'm not sure if it makes sense.
  2. I'm thinking to remove the 301 redirects, so Google doesn’t treat this as some kind of site move.
  3. I'll probably request reindexing in Search Console for the old articles that were deleted.
  4. Technically, I could even bring everything back (the articles are still in the database, just need to change their status),
    but I'm afraid Google might get confused and it won't really help.

I'm not an SEO guy, honestly didn’t even think these redirects could cause problems.
 
Don't rush to move content back. Wait for a full index cycle, then analyze data from both sites before deciding.
 
You basically changes your site structure and signals. Let google finish re-crawling and re-indexing everything before making another big move.
 
Google is probably rechecking both sites, so don’t rush changes. I just say, wait a bit and watch the data before undoing anything.
 
Your traffic drop is likely temporary after moving content. Google is re-evaluating your site. Keep redirects, add fresh content, fix links, and wait a few weeks for recovery.
 
That’s a tricky but common situation. When you redirect a large batch of pages, Google can temporarily re-evaluate both sites’ authority and internal link structure, which often causes short-term volatility. The sudden loss of content and internal links on Site 1 may have reduced its topical depth and trust, affecting overall visibility.

If Site 2 is already indexed and stable, I’d avoid undoing the redirects for now. Reverting too early can confuse crawlers further. Instead, strengthen Site 1 by improving internal links, adding fresh content, and rebuilding topical relevance in the categories that lost depth.

In most cases, the traffic stabilizes within a few weeks once Google fully processes the redirects and reassesses authority between the two domains. If the drop continues for over six weeks, check both sites’ link flow and indexing status in Search Console to ensure the redirects are clean and not creating crawl bottlenecks.
 
The first month after the downgrade has passed, but nothing has changed yet :(
Still waiting, the site is operating as usual, we're publishing news. Hopefully, we'll see some changes in 2025.
 
A month with no change is still normal, and Google can take 6–12 weeks to fully settle things. You should start seeing movement as Google finishes reprocessing everything.

In the meantime, just make sure that all 301 redirects were clean, and internal links were strong. You can keep publishing the high quality articles with links to relevant pages, and build some high quality backlinks from relevant websites. It would help you.
 
Thank you!
I'll keep you updated - I'm also very curious how it will end.

JFI, we removed the redirects and put the articles back.
The old site is much more important for us than the new one, but maybe it wasn't the best decision.
 
Right now the safest approach is to keep the redirects and wait, because undoing them will confuse Google again and can delay recovery even more.
Focus on rebuilding topical depth and internal links on Site 1 rankings usually stabilize within a few weeks once Google reevaluates both sites.
 
Can happen when Google reevaluates both domains after a big content shift. A sudden 301 move of that size can confuse how authority and topical relevance are distributed.
 
The drop happened because shifting those 200 posts reduced site 1’s overall authority, the correct fix is to restore the articles to site 1, remove the redirects, and resubmit the sitemap, reversing the change is the fastest way to regain the lost rankings.
 
It sounds like the 301s may have caused Google to reassess Site 1’s authority, impacting overall traffic. In cases like this, removing the redirects and moving key content back to Site 1 often helps recover visibility.
 
I wanted to give a quick report. It has been 3 months, we restored the articles after the drop, but there is no real progress.

1. The old main site is still stuck at the bottom, with only small spikes here and there.
An interesting thing: before, most traffic came from the US and other English-speaking countries, now it is mostly from China.
About a month ago we started getting some impressions in Google News again, but it looks like we rank very low, so the traffic is almost zero.
Overall search positions dropped even more since the domain drop, but Google News recovered a little.

2. The new site has no positive results. It is still not in Google News (there is no Google News tab in GSC).
Traffic is basically zero. We have been publishing around 15 news posts per month on the topic, using AI (AI detectors show around 20 percent).

For point 1, it looks like this is the new reality. We will just have to keep working on the site slowly. I do not expect any sudden positive changes.

For point 2, I think it may get into Google News later and get at least some traffic, but I have no idea how many months it could take.
I will not launch new sites on fresh domains anymore, only on dropped domains with a history.
 
It’s likely Google is reassessing Site 1 after losing so many pages and links. Best approach: monitor for a few weeks, ensure internal linking and sitemap are updated, and only consider moving content back if traffic doesn’t stabilize naturally.
 
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