My Posts are Gone.What May Have Happened
My posts that have been bringing in all the traffic for the last three weeks and allowing my site to thrive with 350-800 visitors per day are gone from the Bing and Yahoo search results. I even searched for them in quotes and can't find them. These posts were ranked #1 on Bing and Yahoo for weeks. The primary one was ranked #1 for a month now.
This is quite the dramatic fall. I understand if they went down to #2 or #5 or something but they are not anywhere to be found. The only search result I can find is one for my pet site that has a link to the other site since I put links in the posts to each other!
My posts are still there, they are just WAAAAY down the search results I guess.
I am trying not to freak out. I went to Bing webmaster tools and can't get any information there. I had not changed anything recently so I don't think I did this. I was very careful to cite sources, did not have any duplicate content etc. etc. I know I didn't do anything wrong.
I found this article that explains reasons your posts can disappear and go way down suddenly. I am sharing the link here since it is good information. Basically it could just be due to timing (mine has been #1 for a long time but they could change an algorithm and it tanks). There is WAY more competition now so it is harder for mine to rank I suppose. Sometimes they can just mix it up for no apparent reason.
The article is about Google but I think it would apply to the other search engines as well.
https://3hundrd.com/6-reasons-why-your-post-disappeared-from-google
So, I need to go request comments again, add more content and just hope it comes back up!
For now, the amazing run of traffic and sales are over.
Last week I had over 800 visitors to my site in one day! Two days ago I had $70 in commissions in one day...my highest day ever...then yesterday I had only 2 sales. Oh well, this is what can happen with organic traffic...it will come back but I have no idea when. This is one reason we need lots of content so if one post tanks, there are plenty more out there to bring in traffic and sales. I will still get some sales from my other posts but it will be drastically less.
Off to request comments and hopefully build this back up.
Jessica
Recent Comments
41
Good Morning Jessica,
I can imagine this drop came as a shock. As you said, some new comments and perhaps a little facelift and your post goes up again.
You provided a good link and I also looked at the video. A website is like a plant, it needs constant care.
Greetings from the south of Spain,
Taetske
Thanks Taetske. Others here are saying they had the same thing happen...apparently Bing might not rank things the same way Google does. They had popular posts making lots of sales suddenly disappear entirely.
Oh no, I can only imagine how devastating this must be. I have noticed before too that articles I checked previous ranked on bing and yahoo we're not there anymore, later they were back again in different positions. For me, it doesn't matter so much yet as I hardly have any traffic yet. I hope your previous position will be returning soon. Jude
Sometimes the algorithm changes, of course. But it's likely because of the competition. You likely have more authority sites ranking instead.
My suggestion, based on Neil Patel's advice, is to see what posts are now ranking for the keywords you were doing well with before. Figure out what they're doing that means they ranked higher and just update your posts with the most recent information. Don't copy them, but see what they're doing that you aren't. Then incorporate it into your own post.
It might just be your posts are 'outdated' because they're ranking recent ones as the novel coronavirus is such a hot topic. Information is learned all the time!
To be honest, site comments never increases my traffic or ranking much at all. I did an experiment by not asking for a few months of new posts. Then I started again. It's about the same. I get a surge of traffic for some for a short period a month or so after indexing no matter if I have comments or not. I have a few pieces that are always fairly popular, of course.
Yes, I plan to add to it but when I search in quotes and still cannot find it (go to the end of the search results and it isn't there) it makes me wonder if it isn't being penalized for some reason. There are posts there that are way less informative than mine was. I will add to it and see what happens.
Most posts are just throwing up repeated info over and over and not going into much depth or citing sources.
Comments have always raised my ranking. The trick is getting good ones though...that is hard as we have discussed.
Maybe check which products you suggest. Google is probably trying to not show websites that offer 'cures' or treatments for the new coronavirus on alternative health sites. Google is REALLY picky about those because of the whole anti vax stuff and supplements that claim outrageous stuff, so maybe check what you recommended or something?
As for site comments, so far never worked for me and I know plenty of sites that don't allow comments who rank really well. That's why I was testing it. Lol. I have gotten quite a few good ones occasionally too. Like Jay's snack helmet site. It ranked super fast without comments. It's still number one in Google. Heck, that site doesn't even need regular content. Just updates for links and stuff. It's that reason I don't concern myself too much with comments and only bother to get a couple, especially as people don't comment on my site well! Lol
This isn't about Google. They were already penalizing me. While Google pushed my posts way down, Bing and Yahoo and many others had my posts at #1 for many different search terms. The problem is Google just blindly puts all the big companies at the top now regardless of your actual content if you are in a health niche.
Bing and Yahoo actually seemed to look at the content. I am seeing several others here say they had the same thing happen with Bing and Yahoo (in non health niches I think) where posts just suddenly drop off the map even if they were doing well. It sounds like an issue with Bing. I will work on the posts more but there just might not be much I can do if Bing is prone to such things. It is like a timer went off and I got dropped off the face of the Earth from #1 for over a month to oblivion instantly. I can only hope they crawl back up over time.
The Snack Helmet site is a very, very narrow niche. The broader your niche the more you have to work to stay on top I have heard. I don't know what to say since good comments always raise my post ranks. The problem is just finding the good ones now.
See more comments
Greetings Jessica! I am proud to know you for you are thinking of how you will improve those posts! I say, way to go! You will prosper with those posts again I am sure!
God Bless and Good Luck!
Janice 🤗🌾⏱💰
Thank you Janice. I hope so.