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Google deIndexed some of my pages?

by TLondon
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

So my ranker today notified me that most of my pages dropped in SERPs (some gained positions, but 80% dropped), and some pages are not even found anymore. I go to GWT and see that about 30 pages got deindexed. WTF does that mean?!

Screenshot from Google Index: http://oi61.tinypic.com/2v16gzl.jpg

This is 2 month old site, all 100% compliant with every online rule there is, no off-page SEO has been done for this aside from the necessary on-page SEO, absolutely no blackhat or even greyhat techniques, no KW stuff or anything similar, etc. I haven't submitted it to anywhere, still building out great, original quality content, medical studies breakdown, with a lot of epic length articles, etc. All nice, clean, etc.

No signs of being penalized as well from however I could've checked.

This is why Google pisses me off. Play by the rules, and get screwed because of their idiotic algorithms. Google geniuses my a**.

I can't figure this out! Anybody knows what happened? Ruined my whole Saturday morning.

Also, can I just fetch them to Google again? Is that a good idea, or not really?
#deindexed #google #pages
  • Profile picture of the author Arowana
    So I wasn't the only one. I think Google is rolling out some major update since last night. I see ranking changes by minutes. Something Big is coming!
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  • Profile picture of the author Claudio Johnson
    AN update came like 7 days ago. New links are indexed pointing to your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author TLondon
      Originally Posted by Claudio Johnson View Post

      AN update came like 7 days ago. New links are indexed pointing to your site.
      That sounds about right. Do you know what specific issues were addressed and the reasons as to why pages might have been deindexed? Or was it just HTTPS thing?
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    If all you wrote about your site is true, I don't see any reason why Google would deindex your pages for no reason. I think it's an on-page SEO issue. Check your robots.txt file and SEO plugins to make sure you are not blocking Googlebot. Additionally, make sure your GWT account has not been breached.
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    • Profile picture of the author TLondon
      Originally Posted by SEO Power View Post

      If all you wrote about your site is true, I don't see any reason why Google would deindex your pages for no reason. I think it's an on-page SEO issue. Check your robots.txt file and SEO plugins to make sure you are not blocking Googlebot. Additionally, make sure your GWT account has not been breached.
      Normally, I would see a reason and wouldn't come here to complain, but since I can't understand why, I'm puzzled.

      Robots.txt only has the standard setup, definitely nothing is blocking in there. Maybe Yoast's WP SEO plugin had some changes implemented that could've affected it? Going to reach out to him now.

      Changed pass on GWT, thanks for the tip.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Have you looked to see which pages were deindexed? Maybe it was just crap like tag pages and that sort of thing.

    Really though, nobody is going to be able to answer your question without seeing the site, making this thread little more than a rant.
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    • Profile picture of the author TLondon
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Have you looked to see which pages were deindexed? Maybe it was just crap like tag pages and that sort of thing.

      Really though, nobody is going to be able to answer your question without seeing the site, making this thread little more than a rant.
      Yeah, I looked at them. There's seriously no issues. Didn't even focus on KWs, just genuine content, 1500+ words articles, very few 100% relevant external nofollow, some dofollow and some internal links. All well written, etc. I've no idea.

      It does sound like a rant, and I am frustrated, mostly because I can't understand WHY. If you do blackhat, then fine, you know why, but now...

      With that being said, does anybody know if it's safe to fetch those articles again on GWT, or will that make it even worse?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Before you go into panic mode, run Screaming Frog & look for any noindex tags in the meta data (1 or 2) column.

    It could be something as simple as sitewide navigation paginated pages being removed from the SERPs (ex: /page-1, /page-2, /page-3, etc...).

    Assumes you don't already know the exact URLs.
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    • Profile picture of the author TLondon
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Before you go into panic mode, run Screaming Frog & look for any noindex tags in the meta data (1 or 2) column.

      It could be something as simple as sitewide navigation paginated pages being removed from the SERPs (ex: /page-1, /page-2, /page-3, etc...).

      Assumes you don't already know the exact URLs.
      I'm in the angry panic mode already. Feeling like driving up to Matt Cutt's house. I'm not even monetizing that site; it's just the principle!

      I do know every single URL. I was so pissed off that I went through every single one to find what has been deIndexed. I'll try whatever you said now. I had noindexed certain pages recently that had to be noindexed (terms of use, etc.) but nothing beyond that. Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author TLondon
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Before you go into panic mode, run Screaming Frog & look for any noindex tags in the meta data (1 or 2) column.

      It could be something as simple as sitewide navigation paginated pages being removed from the SERPs (ex: /page-1, /page-2, /page-3, etc...).

      Assumes you don't already know the exact URLs.
      So I do have /page/2/ etc. noindexed as per Yoast's advice to avoid duplicate content. But that shouldn't have in no way affected actual posts though.

      Can I see any other valuable info through SF?

      Do you by any chance see anything wrong with one of the posts based on SF's information below? All seems normal to me. External links are mostly nofollow, and most of them are to medical journals, PubMed and Medline. Nothing spammy. No spam links linking to this article.

      Content: text/html; charset=UTF-8
      Status code: 200
      Status: OK
      Title length: 60
      Title Pixel width: 529
      Meta desc length: 148
      Meta desc width: 874
      Meta keyword: n/a
      Meta keyword length: 0
      H1 length: 46
      H2-1 length: 22
      H2-2 length: 49
      Meta robots: n/a
      Meta refresh: n/a
      Size: 52694
      Word count: 2365
      Level: 2
      Inlinks: 23
      Outlinks: 62
      External outlinks: 19
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by TLondon View Post

        So I do have /page/2/ etc. noindexed as per Yoast's advice to avoid duplicate content. But that shouldn't have in no way affected actual posts though.

        Can I see any other valuable info through SF?

        Do you by any chance see anything wrong with one of the posts based on SF's information below? All seems normal to me. External links are mostly nofollow, and most of them are to medical journals, PubMed and Medline. Nothing spammy. No spam links linking to this article.

        Content: text/html; charset=UTF-8
        Status code: 200
        Status: OK
        Title length: 60
        Title Pixel width: 529
        Meta desc length: 148
        Meta desc width: 874
        Meta keyword: n/a
        Meta keyword length: 0
        H1 length: 46
        H2-1 length: 22
        H2-2 length: 49
        Meta robots: n/a
        Meta refresh: n/a
        Size: 52694
        Word count: 2365
        Level: 2
        Inlinks: 23
        Outlinks: 62
        External outlinks: 19
        I don't see anything on that list that stands out.

        I read the OP again, If your tracking keywords you should know the exact URLs for the problem pages. Have you double checked each individual URL to see If it's indexed (ex: site:domain.com/internal-page-here)?

        Example:

        WMT data is usually slow at updating so I don't ever put much weight on their data until I see proof in the SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author LuckyIMer
    Why not submit a reconsideration request and wait for their response to know why your ranking dropped.
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