We acquired a new domain and launched a website in the gambling niche, which has now been live for 5 months. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the domain had a previous history in the web archive.We have been consistently adding content to the site and making final adjustments as we go. All changes are reflected in the Search Console. Our traffic had been steadily growing, typical for a new site, but it suddenly dropped to zero last week and our indexed keywords began to decrease.
We are unsure of what could be causing this issue and are in need of assistance in identifying and resolving the problem.
It is highly likely that your website is facing a Google penalty, which is a measure taken by Google to lower the ranking of a website in search results. This can be due to various reasons, including the previous history of the domain. The domain’s previous history can be a significant factor in determining its current ranking, especially if the past usage was related to spammy or low-quality content.
The provided image from Reddit comments indicates a screenshot of Google Search Console showing a significant drop in organic traffic. This reinforces the suspicion that your website might be under a penalty. The fact that there are no manual actions being displayed in Google Search Console suggests that the penalty might be algorithmic, which means it was automatically applied based on Google’s algorithms analyzing the website’s content and other factors.
To identify and resolve this issue, you can start by performing a comprehensive website audit. This includes checking the site for spammy or low-quality content, evaluating the website’s technical aspects like website speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawl errors, and examining the backlinks profile for any unnatural links or spam.
You should also review your website’s content for any issues that might be flagged by Google. It’s crucial to ensure that the content is original, high-quality, and relevant to the target audience.
Finally, you should submit a reconsideration request to Google if you believe that the penalty was applied in error. This request should clearly explain the changes made to address the issues identified during the audit. It is important to act promptly to recover from the penalty and restore your website’s traffic and ranking.