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  • Website impressions have dropped to near zero

My website has been on Ezoic for some time now (well over a year). Was doing okay (about 4,000 impressions a day in Google Search Console. But something on March 7th changed and my impressions dropped to zero! I don't have any penalties in Google Search Console or Analytics.

Do you know what could have caused such a massive drop or how I can troubleshoot this? The only thing that I have been doing is generating articles using Koala AI as well as YOUR AI tool. But everything I have read says if the articles are well written Google will not penalize you for them but actually rank them which is what was happening.

Any help or advice from anyone would be great! Thank you!

    barkleyandpaws Hi, have you had a chance to check out our post on the Google spam update for March 2023? This was rolled out in early March, so sadly it sounds like you've been badly hit by this: https://community.ezoic.com/d/36942-google-spam-update-2024-what-it-means-and-how-to-protect-your-sites-ranking

    Publishers affected by the update can typically see some information on why the pages/articles are deindexed, are you not seeing anything like that in Console?

      Thanks for your feedback. Yes, sadly I would agree that it seems I have been hit by this spam update. Specifically in Google Search Console I have looked at both "Manual Actions" and "Security Actions" and both are clean "No Issues Detected".

      Is there any way to find out if my pages have indeed been delisted by Google? Is there a tool that will find / report that? What's weird is that some pages are still ranking number one (check this search term: dog pressure points to stop biting) ... my article is number 1 .... I just wish there was a tool somewhere that you could use to scan my dropped articles and let me know if it is considered spammy.

      Thanks!

        The easiest way to check on full de-indexing would be google searching site:YOURSITE.com -- it appears the site is still indexed, which is a good sign.
        Also, the fact that you're seeing your site in the search for other terms suggests you don't have current indexing issues. If you were hit by the spam updates you wouldn't see any indexing, let alone ranking spot 1 for a search term 🙂

        So that might bring us back to the original issue of not seeing any impressions in GSC. It seems like maybe there's a reporting discrepancy of some sort.
        Can you share a few screenshots of what you're seeing / referencing in GSC?

          Do you know how many clicks you used to get for dog pressure points to stop biting? There might have been other searches for more common keywords that drove more traffic to the related page.

          I noticed the URL is very different from the title of the page.
          Did you change a lot of your website content and URL structure?

          It just seems like you suddenly started to rank a lot lower than you used to, even though your pages are not completely deindexed.

            And here is another one actually from Google search... you can see that it WAS displaying impressions with an AVG position of 7.9 but you can scroll forever and never find the page???

              I really don't remember how many clicks I was getting but the article is several months old but here is something I found in Google Analytics with a 90 day range:

              Thank you for your time and help! I really appreciate it. I'm at a loss for what to do....

              And here is one more screenshot from GSC with the indexed pages...

                If it is 68 clicks over 90 days, that comes out to less than one click per day for that search term. That would explain why this search result you still rank highly for doesn't make too much of a difference in terms of overall traffic volume. The search query right above it with 103 clicks during the last 90 days seems to be ranking lower now and I don't see your site for it at all across the first few pages of Google search results.

                  Hello,
                  Greetings! I just don't want to interfere in this thread, but I like to share some of my thoughts about this issue since I am also facing the same issue as faced by this person.

                  I used to get around 700 - 800 clicks from Google per day on my site. On March 8, my traffic dipped to almost 100. But I recovered within 2 days and received almost 800 clicks on March 11 and 12. And then, again it comes to near 100.

                  I didn't receive any manual penalty, all of my posts and pages are still indexed on Google. I didn't use any AI to write any articles. I create my own infographics using Canva, Photoshop, and Coreldraw.

                  I can see that for some of the keywords I still rank 1st on Google SERP. But some of my popular articles which receive almost 15k visitors from Google are affected. These articles and their respective images are still indexed on Google. In the Google Search Console, for the respective articles, it still shows the average position as like 1.1, 2.6, 3.3, etc. But I wasn't able to find my post & images anywhere in the SERP.

                  I don't know why this happens, but I assume this may be due to high Google SERP volatility due to algorithm rollouts.

                  Apologies for interrupting this thread, but I think this may give some idea that this issue also arises for some other people too.

                    Nithishcnk
                    Mate, your scenario is the same as mine. I just can't digest the fact that some lousy forum content is ranking for my targeted keywords and my site is nowhere near in serps. Even though it's still indexed.
                    I think the best we can do is to audit our content and have a look at our site's structure. As we are seeing reddit and quora pages ranking super above, the serps are still messed up and there's strong chances that site will be back on track or atleast recover 60-80% by the time update fully rollout, otherwise, we are doomed.

                    Hai. Sorry, I joined this thread. I am in the same situation here about the Google HCU update.

                    I have given a Prompt to Chatgpt -

                    Prompt: We are taking a hypothetical situation, let's assume Google search has deranked the all niches sites, what remain is only some very high authoritive sites, and forum sites, In that situation, a whole ecosystem will be affected, like Freelancer, webmasters, digital marketer, etc. I want to know you should list the all professions and jobs that will be affected if google does this.

                    Answer:
                    If Google were to derank all niche sites, leaving only very high authority sites and forums in prominent positions, the impact on the digital ecosystem would be profound and widespread. This hypothetical scenario would not only affect the visibility of specialized content but also significantly alter how various professionals operate online. Below is a list of professions and jobs that would likely be affected:
                    1. Content Creators and Bloggers: Individuals and businesses that rely on niche topics to attract a specific audience would find it difficult to reach their target audience, reducing their visibility and potential revenue from ads, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing.
                    2. SEO Professionals and Agencies: SEO experts, who work to improve website rankings on search engines, would face challenges in optimizing sites when the criteria favor high authority and forums. Their strategies and practices would need to adapt significantly.
                    3. Digital Marketers: Marketers who specialize in online strategies would need to shift their focus towards other channels for visibility, such as social media or email marketing, as their reliance on organic search traffic would diminish.
                    4. E-commerce Businesses: Small to medium e-commerce sites that specialize in niche products might struggle to compete against larger retailers or high authority sites, leading to decreased sales and visibility.
                    5. Freelancers: Freelancers who specialize in digital marketing, content creation, web development, and SEO for niche sites would find fewer opportunities in their traditional fields and might need to diversify their skill sets.
                    6. Affiliate Marketers: Individuals and companies that earn income by referring traffic to products or services would see a decline in referral traffic due to lower visibility of niche content, affecting their earnings.
                    7. Webmasters and Site Owners: Owners of niche sites would experience a significant drop in traffic, potentially leading to reduced ad revenue, lower engagement, and challenges in maintaining or growing their online presence.
                    8. Social Media Influencers: While not directly affected by search engine rankings, influencers might find it harder to collaborate with niche brands that suffer from decreased visibility and sales.
                    9. Online Educators and Course Creators: Those offering specialized courses or educational content through niche websites might find it harder to attract students or participants due to decreased organic search traffic.
                    10. Software Developers: Developers creating tools, plugins, or services for website optimization, analytics, or enhancement for niche sites might see a reduced demand for their products.
                    11. Investors: Investors in digital assets, websites, and online businesses might see a decrease in the value of niche-focused investments due to reduced traffic and profitability.

                    Thanks everyone for your updates and thoughts. Nithishcnk I hope you are right that eventually Google will "balance" this all out. I don't know whether I should implement any changes or just wait it out another week or so. I found this:

                    What to do if your rankings drop. Here’s the advice Google has given in the past for those negatively impacted by a core update:
                    There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
                    Answer these questions to evaluate the quality of your content.
                    Wait for another core update. You may see some improvement between core updates, but the biggest changes will occur after another core update.
                    In short, write helpful content for people and not to rank in search engines.
                    “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Nelson explained.

                    And also this: Google will post on its Search Status Dashboard when the updates are done and we will post a story here as well.

                    So HOPEFULLY once this is completed we will recover....

                    UPDATE:
                    5 Mar 2024 09:03 PST
                    Released the March 2024 spam update. The rollout may take up 2 weeks to complete.
                    AND...
                    5 Mar 2024 09:02 PST
                    Released the March 2024 core update. The rollout may take up to a month to complete.

                      IMHO it seems as though Google doesn't care. Maybe they do but I don't see it. With all the resources they have (time, money, people) you would think they could provide a tool to webmasters that you could run samples of your content through and using AI, give back to the user a summary/ranking of your article and tangible advice on what you can do to improve your article. To say that "writing meaningful content for readers/users that will get you ranked" does not seem to be true anymore, especially given some of the comments here. Fortunately, my site is just a hobby and I truly feel for people who are running their site as a business and then with the click of a mouse, Google destroys your entire business.

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