What happen to my website? Advice needed.

Hello everyone,

I've created a new website, it's a forum with user-generated content of great quality .

On this first two weeks after launch, traffic skyrocket with 600 users going on the website, from those 250 registered and overall got 5,6k pageviews with 391 threads created.
On the third week, after Google update website organic traffic decreased 90%.
Note: I've checked GSC, analytics etc and had no manual actions, penalties, all links have been indexed and all of them in current good state (according GSC).
Core web vitals everything was in good state.

The website have integrated functionalities to make users interactive by:
Register to access downloadable content.
Like & Reply to make them interact with the content to unlock thread content.

Important details:
Domain: Built under a brand new 5 letter 1 word clean domain (super brandable, niche related) which was costly.
CMS: Used Xenforo system with a premium design which was designed specifically for my website. It's superfast, mobile friendly and very intuitive (user-friendly).
Host: It's hosted on Xenforo Cloud Server.
Social Signs: I own have a discord niche directed with 1500 active members.
On-Page SEO: Used Xenforo internal link structure for this, from my research it's already pretty good (not a guru on this seo stuff).

Note: On last picture says 461 unindexed pages (It's stuff like created members profiles and other pages that I did not want to index).

This way, I would love to hear your personal opinions and try to unveal why this is happened in order to understand it.

Thank you everyone.

Its not unusual for new sites to have a spike and then it falls. Give it time.

blogmarketer said:

Its not unusual for new sites to have a spike and then it falls. Give it time.

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Thank you for sharing your opinion
Should I work on domain backlink profile?

It is a sign that Google does not like the site now. Do you see any message because this can be a penalty ?

maybe your domain has been strike.

Do not do anything at the moment. Google update is on roll and this things usually appear. Be patient at least 2-3 weeks.

awesomewebsites said:

It is a sign that Google does not like the site now. Do you see any message because this can be a penalty ?

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No it absolutely does not mean that google doesn't like the site. And did you read the OP, he said he doesn't have a manual penalty

@CreativeDaddy this is the Google dance for new sites every new site is subjected to it. give it sometime to settle down.

CreativeDaddy said:

Thank you for sharing your opinion
Should I work on domain backlink profile?

Click to expand...

Always work on backlinks.

But quality backlinks from sites in same niche that have traffic.

Especially after Google updated its spam policy. Getting links from PBN sites with no traffic will harm you.

90% of the packages on this very website is going to harm sites going forward if you have gone too crazy with it.

CreativeDaddy said:

Should I work on domain backlink profile?

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Be careful adding unnatural backlinks, especially any package deals. You are just in the google dance, give it some time to settle down and see what happens with this new update by Google.

awesomewebsites said:

It is a sign that Google does not like the site now.

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Hogwash nonsense, don't listen to this.

Thank you everyone's opinion, I will probably wait a few weeks and understand where this goes.

For backlinks, in a few weeks I'll probably focus on quality ones.

Update: Google indexed 400 more threads in one single day, traffic spiked to March 4 normal values (weekend always have more traffic, will continue to monitor this values).

For some reason, threads with a associated youtube video are not indexing, "video is not the main content of this page" still trying to understand this, looks like there is documentation for it.

You'll be fine.

Is the forum in the same exact niche as the discord channel?

blogmen said:

You'll be fine.

Is the forum in the same exact niche as the discord channel?

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Yes, exact same niche and currently redirecting some traffic to the website.

I have the same situation as you

woguojun said:

I have the same situation as you

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How is it going?

This is know as google dance rank .... new sites normal jump in rank for some time then crash and rank again and so on. Give time untill rank stabilize

Update, traffic still bouncing up and down.

blogmarketer said:

Its not unusual for new sites to have a spike and then it falls. Give it time.

Click to expand...

This..truth!

Thank you google.

When a brand-new site gets early traffic and then drops after a Google update, it’s usually because Google was still “testing” your pages in the first few weeks. New sites often get a temporary boost, and once Google understands the content better, it adjusts rankings.


A 90% drop doesn’t always mean something is wrong — it often means Google is re-evaluating quality, intent, and how your forum fits into the niche. Forums also take longer to build trust because user-generated content can be hard for Google to assess. As long as nothing is technically broken, focus on consistency, growing real discussions, and letting the site age. Rankings for new projects often stabilize over time.