Ranking off a cliff after 2.3.4 -> 2.3.6; Google update; or what?

[frm]

It's probably a coincidence, but this is one forum's clicks/impressions after upgrading from 2.3.4 to 2.3.6 (red line). No other changes were made.

The past 3 days have been 0 impressions and 0 clicks (starting at the blue line). But the falloff occurred after the upgrade.

Has anybody else experienced something like this?

Seeking advice on companies that specialize in looking for what could've done this as I've never seen a drop to absolute 0, rather a slight drop and then a continual uptrend.



Bing seems to indicate it's more than just Google, but there's not enough data there to say for certain.

 

[CedricV]

@JustinHawk

 

[Milen]

Exactly! I'm seeing the same thing but in the page index in Google's search console, which is not normal. What the hell is going on....?

 

[frm]

Exactly! I'm seeing the same thing but in the page index in Google's search console, which is not normal. What the hell is going on....?

No errors in Google Console here and verified it's not on Google SafeSearch (but even if it were on SafeSearch, I'd still expect at least 1 impression).

 

[frm]

Just noticed 2.3.6 was launched Feb 12, so have to correct that as the dates don't align with the fall off.

Thread 'XenForo 2.3.6 Released'

Feb 11, 2025

XenForo 2.3.6 is now available for all licensed customers to download. We strongly recommend that all customers running previous versions of XenForo 2.3 upgrade to this release to benefit from increased stability.

One-click upgrade to XenForo 2.3.6​

Directly from your admin control panel

If you are a XenForo Cloud customer, your upgrade will be scheduled automatically.

Some of the changes in XF 2.3.6 include:

• Fix upgrades from XF 1 not having the correct xf_job table schema changes applied
• Fix an issue with updating multiple variation...

• XenForo

• 
• 
• 

 

[ENF]

No real changes observed so far. (Christmas & New Years causes a bump/dip, but it's steady afterwards)

 

[frm]

No real changes observed so far. (Christmas & New Years causes a bump/dip, but it's steady afterwards)

View attachment 319849

Likely will need someone to investigate this for me then. That's not natural at all.

 

[JustinHawk]

It's probably a coincidence, but this is one forum's clicks/impressions after upgrading from 2.3.4 to 2.3.6 (red line). No other changes were made.

The past 3 days have been 0 impressions and 0 clicks (starting at the blue line). But the falloff occurred after the upgrade.

Has anybody else experienced something like this?

Seeking advice on companies that specialize in looking for what could've done this as I've never seen a drop to absolute 0, rather a slight drop and then a continual uptrend.

View attachment 319844

Bing seems to indicate it's more than just Google, but there's not enough data there to say for certain.

View attachment 319845

Content Quality matters a lot. I'm not sure but i'm guessing that this is a new forum. Work on improving the content quality & submitting your important pages manually to google, it can help you.

 

[MentaL]

mine improved, lol.

 

[frm]

Content Quality matters a lot. I'm not sure but i'm guessing that this is a new forum. Work on improving the content quality & submitting your important pages manually to google, it can help you.

Hits 7 months tomorrow. The fall-off is about 6.5 months in.

It was probably at around 18,500 posts when it fell off, now above 20,000.

There are quality concerns, but that wouldn't explain a drop to 0.

mine improved, lol.

Fantastic! Keep it up.

 

[briansol]

The Google gods giveth and they taketh away.

This seems to line up with your changes:

Google Search Ranking Volatility February 4th & 5th

I am seeing a lot of renewed chatter within the SEO industry of a possible unconfirmed Google search ranking update touching down in the past 24-hours or so. The weird thing is that the tools are not really showing much of a spike in volatility but the chatter seems incredibly high.

www.seroundtable.com

 

[Milen]

If what the article says is true, maybe we should stop worrying about whether Google will index us or not. Yes, it is true that 90% of users use Google, but I think those 10% are the better part of the users. At least that's why they took the trouble to tell Google - "F*ck it"!

I like XenForo, no one can convince me that there is a better and more stable system, but SEO is an important part even if it is only for Bing. Because if the search engine doesn't see your site, then no one sees it. Doing rituals and spells to attract users doesn't work anymore....

By the way, Google really puzzles me with its double standards. There are Google ads on forums and sites with illegal content, and one of their rules is that there should be no illegal content on the site where Adsense ads are displayed Strange but.... apparently they, like many others, will sell their mothers for a few cents more!

 

[Chris2]

The Google gods giveth and they taketh away.

This seems to line up with your changes:

Google Search Ranking Volatility February 4th & 5th

I am seeing a lot of renewed chatter within the SEO industry of a possible unconfirmed Google search ranking update touching down in the past 24-hours or so. The weird thing is that the tools are not really showing much of a spike in volatility but the chatter seems incredibly high.

www.seroundtable.com

That would be my guess, is it’s a Google search update/re-ranking of some sort. We got hit with the big September 2023 update and were basically wiped off the map in search rankings. Still have yet to recover. The funny thing is, with each update they do, Reddit, Quora and trash sites seem to rank higher and higher. Too bad it’s the only search anyone uses…

 

[Milen]

The funny thing is, with each update they do, Reddit, Quora and trash sites seem to rank higher and higher. Too bad it’s the only search anyone uses…

Not everyone uses Google for search. I personally use several search engines, especially since Google started showing trash sites that have almost nothing to do with what I'm looking for. Google is more widely used because of Android devices, mostly. And since Google ranks trash sites ahead of valuable ones, I think even more people will abandon this supposedly "most used search engine".

 

[CedricV]

That would be my guess, is it’s a Google search update/re-ranking of some sort. We got hit with the big September 2023 update and were basically wiped off the map in search rankings. Still have yet to recover. The funny thing is, with each update they do, Reddit, Quora and trash sites seem to rank higher and higher. Too bad it’s the only search anyone uses…

Nothing funny about it. Purely intentional. More engagement, so it’s naturally they’ll favor those platforms. Plus Google invested 60m into Reddit.

 

[Chris2]

Not everyone uses Google for search. I personally use several search engines, especially since Google started showing trash sites that have almost nothing to do with what I'm looking for. Google is more widely used because of Android devices, mostly. And since Google ranks trash sites ahead of valuable ones, I think even more people will abandon this supposedly "most used search engine".

About 90-95% use Google in my target audience, so not everyone, but the vast majority.

Nothing funny about it. Purely intentional. More engagement, so it’s naturally they’ll favor those platforms. Plus Google invested 60m into Reddit.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they purchase Reddit at some point. Imagine where forum search rankings will head then…

 

[CedricV]

Reddit is probably worth billions. Not sure if they'd make such purchase, but never say never.

 

[Milen]

About 90-95% use Google in my target audience, so not everyone, but the vast majority.

Yes, that's right, but.... what should we do when Google pushes Reddit and forums like Nulled forward?

Plus Google invested 60m into Reddit.

This explains why Reddit has become annoying with notifications and emails More interaction/engagement on Reddit? Or another Facebook, Instagram and the like in which..... there is no point at all. Just add the background behind the text to Reddit and voila, another mess is ready. But the fact that there are millions of people there every day who post something constantly... there's no denying it. So, the forums are dying, the dreams are dying too, and what's left for us? Let's have a cold beer, and if there's no beer, let's have water and move on (create another Reddit maybe?).

 

[frm]

Reddit is probably worth billions. Not sure if they'd make such purchase, but never say never.

Last I checked, it was around 20 billion, while Google (or the parent Alphabet) is over 2 trillion.

Even if they pulled a Musk and bought it for double its value (perhaps to make the AI more human, but probably edgier, too), it'd be like them taking their $200 and spending $4 of it on Reddit.

That would be my guess, is it’s a Google search update/re-ranking of some sort. We got hit with the big September 2023 update and were basically wiped off the map in search rankings. Still have yet to recover. The funny thing is, with each update they do, Reddit, Quora and trash sites seem to rank higher and higher. Too bad it’s the only search anyone uses…

Looks like we might be in the same boat. I'll just need to focus efforts on better links (perhaps directly to the better content too) and see if it does anything to get out of the hole.

An update that gives me hope: After 3 days of 0 clicks and 0 impressions... This!

 

[zappaDPJ]

Not everyone uses Google for search.

That's true, but most do. According to the latest research, as of January 2025 Google's share of the market worldwide is 89.74% or 93.34% in the UK.

I think even more people will abandon this supposedly "most used search engine".

I think the opposite is more likely. People don't 'Bing' the Internet or 'Yandex' or 'DuckDuckGo', they don't even 'search', they 'Google' and therein lies the problem. Regardless of all the negativity regarding privacy, antitrust and other issues, Google is so in your face that for the overwhelming majority there is no competition.