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> As I've mentioned, I broke links by not implementing redirects. Didnt implement redirects for what? The prior part of the article doesnt even mention you cha

> As I've mentioned, I broke links by not implementing redirects. Didnt implement redirects for what? The prior part of the article doesnt even mention you changed any page URLs. But if you did, that is most definitely going to have caused problems. Think about it - the pages are no longer there, so they will get dropped from the search index, so wont appear in search results, resulting in less impressions/opportunities for click-through, and you will receive less visitors as a consequence. You effectively delisted your sites content. The existing inbound links will now point to non-existent pages, so they carry no "authority" to your site. The content that is on the new URLs has no inherent "authority" so its not being ranked as well as it was on the old URLs. The search engines will rank it lower (e.g. page 10 instead of page 2), so less impressions and therefore less visitors. You will likely be able to (partially) fix this with redirects - as sites that still link will still bring authority. But you will possibly have lost any history-based authority (that which comes from being a reliable and consistent URL), which may not be able to be retrieved. I would recommend going through old access logs to find what your old URLs were, and redirect them to the new URLs for that same content (not a wildcard redirect to homepage!)

johnny_reilly 4y ago
at the point of the observed drop I hadn't changed any page URLs, no. Apologies for lack of clarity. I had changed image URLs when they migrated from being PNGs to WebPs. Following that there was the SEO drop off (within 6 weeks or so)
johnny_reilly 4y ago
> I would recommend going through old access logs to find what your old URLs were, and redirect them to the new URLs for that same content (not a wildcard redirect to homepage!) this is great advice and I've done that as much as possible. Herewith a giant file of redirects! https://github.com/johnnyreilly/blog.johnnyreilly.com/blob/main/blog-website/api/fallback/redirects.js https://github.com/johnnyreilly/blog.johnnyreilly.com/blob/m...
- jacobsimon 4y ago
  Which pages or queries in GSC specifically lost traffic? Was there a handful of keywords that drove most of your traffic that you’ve lost? Or is it down across the board for all articles?
  - johnny_reilly 4y ago
    I still get traffic, but for things like a webpack define plugin post I wrote in 2017 and for 2 CSharp posts. "eslint for c#" and "build props" All my Azure / TypeScript / React / Bicep traffic dried up. No idea what replaced me.
    - jacobsimon 4y ago
      It’s a bit annoying but you should be able to see in GSC what the ranking change was for particular URLs and queries by comparing before October and after October. You should also be able to see if the issue is whether the pages dropped in ranking or if some articles became de-indexed entirely. Take one of the page URLs that has dropped in traffic and make sure it’s still being indexed.
    - supermatt 4y ago
      The people that mirror your content would have replaced you. Try searching for a few page titles in quotes, you will easily find the culprits then. The problem is that now they will now have "older" content than you, so search engines may think you are copying content and penalise accordingly. EDIT: Heres a random example from a title taken from your blog archive: https://laptrinhx.com/using-bootstrap-tooltips-to-display-jquery-validation-error-messages-471001186/ https://laptrinhx.com/using-bootstrap-tooltips-to-display-jq... Heres another from some recent content: https://blog.logrocket.com/docusaurus-using-fontaine-reduce-cumulative-layout-shift/ https://blog.logrocket.com/docusaurus-using-fontaine-reduce-... Both mark themselves as canonical (the original source of the content) in the head.
      - johnny_reilly 4y ago

johnny_reilly 4y ago

at the point of the observed drop I hadn't changed any page URLs, no. Apologies for lack of clarity. I had changed image URLs when they migrated from being PNGs to WebPs. Following that there was the SEO drop off (within 6 weeks or so)

johnny_reilly 4y ago

> I would recommend going through old access logs to find what your old URLs were, and redirect them to the new URLs for that same content (not a wildcard redirect to homepage!) this is great advice and I've done that as much as possible. Herewith a giant file of redirects! https://github.com/johnnyreilly/blog.johnnyreilly.com/blob/main/blog-website/api/fallback/redirects.js https://github.com/johnnyreilly/blog.johnnyreilly.com/blob/m...

jacobsimon 4y ago
Which pages or queries in GSC specifically lost traffic? Was there a handful of keywords that drove most of your traffic that you’ve lost? Or is it down across the board for all articles?
- johnny_reilly 4y ago
  I still get traffic, but for things like a webpack define plugin post I wrote in 2017 and for 2 CSharp posts. "eslint for c#" and "build props" All my Azure / TypeScript / React / Bicep traffic dried up. No idea what replaced me.
  - jacobsimon 4y ago
    It’s a bit annoying but you should be able to see in GSC what the ranking change was for particular URLs and queries by comparing before October and after October. You should also be able to see if the issue is whether the pages dropped in ranking or if some articles became de-indexed entirely. Take one of the page URLs that has dropped in traffic and make sure it’s still being indexed.
  - supermatt 4y ago
    The people that mirror your content would have replaced you. Try searching for a few page titles in quotes, you will easily find the culprits then. The problem is that now they will now have "older" content than you, so search engines may think you are copying content and penalise accordingly. EDIT: Heres a random example from a title taken from your blog archive: https://laptrinhx.com/using-bootstrap-tooltips-to-display-jquery-validation-error-messages-471001186/ https://laptrinhx.com/using-bootstrap-tooltips-to-display-jq... Heres another from some recent content: https://blog.logrocket.com/docusaurus-using-fontaine-reduce-cumulative-layout-shift/ https://blog.logrocket.com/docusaurus-using-fontaine-reduce-... Both mark themselves as canonical (the original source of the content) in the head.
    - johnny_reilly 4y ago