Hello everyone,
I would like to ask for your help and suggestions regarding an issue. Since this is the first time I have encountered such a situation, perhaps some of you have experienced it before. Suddenly, my site stopped appearing in Google searches for keywords where I used to rank on the 1st or, at worst, the 2nd page.
I did not do any aggressive work on specific keywords, yet I am faced with this problem. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.
Hello. If there are broken links, etc. on the site, I would say focus on the site first. I experienced this situation on a few of my sites as well; if there is no link acquisition, you might have been flagged as providing nothing to the user, etc.
Broken links within the site are already automatically redirected to the homepage. I don’t think there will be any issues with that. The site is a school website anyway. Providing users with program introductions and information outside of the school isn’t really logical. Interestingly, only the homepage is having trouble. There are no problems with the other links.
I’ll take a look at the backlinks, and I think I’ll need to do some cleanup.
Thank you very much for your suggestions. It will take some time to resolve the issue, but I will share my experiences with you in the future.
You are saying that broken links are redirecting to the homepage. Well, you are also saying the problem is on the homepage. Maybe all low-quality stuff shouldn’t be redirecting to the homepage.
Let’s say there is a piece of content, for instance, an indexed page with just a single empty image. I think redirecting all low-quality pages directly to the homepage could be an issue. I suggest leaving it as a 404 or applying noindex so it gets removed [from the index] first, then deleting it from the site.
I would appreciate it if you could share your experiences here regarding what path you followed and what results you achieved.
Good luck.
A different perspective might be correct. Actually, I first need to remove the unnecessary links from Google’s index. It seems like it will take some time to solve the problem. It requires a complete overhaul.
First, I will disavow the low-quality backlinks.
I will remove the unnecessary links from the index.
I will work on higher quality backlinks.
I will need to find a different solution for redirecting broken links, and I have a few ideas on more or less how to do it.
I estimate it will take between 2-4 weeks for Google to reflect these developments in the rankings. If there is anything extra you need to add, I’m always here.
Frankly, this is the first time this has happened to me. Every setback is an experience, and every experience means new knowledge.
Let’s wait and see 
By the way, what are your thoughts on the sandbox filter affecting certain keywords?
I experienced the same problem myself; if you ask me, don’t intervene. It happened on 4 of my sites, and I settled into a better ranking than my previous one. On 1 of my sites, just like you, I performed an on-site 301 redirect; I had changed the URL 1 month ago, it still recognizes the old URLs, that problem just never got resolved.
Hello,
I have been working on the site for a while to solve the problem, and for the keyword group I was having trouble with, I got re-included in the index twice and then removed again. It is really a very interesting situation. I would like to briefly mention what I have done during this time and get your opinions.
I disavowed low-quality backlinks.
I redirected broken links within the site to relevant pages with 301 redirects, or I handled removed links with 410 redirects.
I did a few backlink studies, but I can’t say it was a very intensive effort.
I removed pages like tags and categories so they wouldn’t clutter the index. (The fact that they still appear in the index is a separate issue, of course).
In light of these developments, I would also like to get your comments.
Did you set the tags to noindex, or did you remove them using the direct URL removal tool? My suggestion for the tags section is to apply noindex and leave them. If they are in the sitemap, I suggest disabling them from the settings there as well.
I had set the Tags to noindex. However, I checked again for your message thinking there might be another situation. It appears as noindex, follow. I will investigate where the follow part comes from tomorrow.
Also, isn’t it interesting that the sandbox is applied only to the homepage?
I think ‘Follow’ can stay. Noindex follow
I agree, I would be happy if you have any other suggestions as well
Hello, as a result of the analysis I conducted, I noticed that the homepage was not appearing in the sitemap. Therefore, I created a new sitemap and added the new sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools. I redirected the old sitemap link to the new link. I configured the robots.txt file to index the new sitemap. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if there are any mistakes up to this point.
However, the question on my mind is this: Two sitemaps appear on GWT, and the newly added sitemap is currently under evaluation and appears as pending. Should I wait for the new one to be fully approved before deleting the old sitemap? Frankly, I am worried that Google might perceive the almost identical sitemaps as duplicate content.
Thank you in advance for your comment.
Hello, delete the old sitemap from WM Tools.
I had deleted the old sitemap to avoid confusion. I think the source of the problem was sitemap.xml. Because the homepage wasn’t showing up in the old sitemap… I was likely dealing with the plugin acting up for a while. I managed to fix a lot of issues along the way
I hope this helps those who encounter a similar problem. Thank you for your support @cryptosam
I’m glad you got it sorted out, sir.