One of the Most Challenging SEO Incidents I've Faced—and How We Recovered

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I’d like to share one of the most complex SEO challenges I’ve encountered, triggered by a Google Core Update—and how we successfully recovered our organic traffic by identifying key issues and implementing critical fixes.

The website in question is a professional listing platform built using React JS with dynamic rendering. It hosts over 5 million pages, making it a large-scale JavaScript-based site where SEO management is particularly nuanced.

How I Analyzed the Drop in Organic Traffic

Shortly after Google’s Core Update, which spanned August to September, we noticed a significant drop in both organic clicks and impressions. The aim was to determine whether this drop was caused by internal issues, external factors, or a mix of both.

Key Observations:

  • When the Drop Occurred:
    The decline started in the second week of September, closely following the Core Update's rollout completion. August and September.

  • Metrics Overview:

    • Clicks: Dropped from 16K–18K to 12K–13K

    • Impressions: Dropped from 8 million to 4 million

  • Trend Analysis:
    A consistent downward trend was visible in Google Search Console for both clicks and impressions.


Internal vs External Factor Analysis

To better understand the root cause, I documented all possible internal and external contributing factors in a detailed spreadsheet and presentation format.

External Factors:

Internal Factors:

  • Profile Merging & Deletion:
    Recent bulk actions, such as profile merges and deletions, caused content and URL loss, impacting crawlability and indexing. (View Deleted Legal Profiles Document)

  • Insurance Vertical Cleanup:
    Approximately 125,928 profiles from the Insurance category were removed. This significantly affected vertical-specific organic visibility. (View Deleted Insurance Profiles Document)

For a complete breakdown, refer to the full analysis spreadsheet.

I compiled the internal and external factors that may have influenced the drop in a spreadsheet format: complete analysis spreadsheet


Google is currently ranking our website for a smaller number of keywords, but these keywords are more relevant (Exact Match). Previously, the website ranked for a broader range of keywords (Broad Match), including many that were less meaningful for our site and business.

Example, the query “experience” October impressions is 569726, November impressions:426345, Link - Big Query - clicks_query

It's important to understand that ranking for fewer keywords isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Google might now be prioritizing more relevant queries, placing our content in better positions for those targeted keywords that are more aligned with our business goals.

This analysis confirms that the drop in organic traffic is primarily due to external factors, such as Google Core Updates, along with internal changes, such as profile deletions. Further optimization and monitoring are recommended to mitigate these impacts.

How We Recovered Our Organic Traffic

After extensive audits and cross-functional collaboration, we implemented several strategic fixes:

Key Fixes Implemented:

  1. Reduced Soft 404 Errors

    • Brought down from 367K to 4K by enriching low-quality profile pages with updated About descriptions, FAQs, and content enhancements.

  2. Improved Internal Linking

    • Boosted crawl depth and relevance by adding internal links to top-rated and most-viewed profiles.

  3. Site Architecture and CLS Fixes

    • Resolved Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) and improved overall site structure for better UX and core web vitals performance.

  4. Pruned Low-Quality and Duplicate Pages

    • Removed duplicate city/ZIP code landing pages and thin content profiles that diluted SEO signals.

  5. Schema Markup Enhancements

    • Updated structured data with missing properties like "postalCode" and "streetAddress" to improve local SEO and enhance snippet eligibility.

Recovery Snapshot

See the attached Google Search Console screenshot showing the 12-month performance trend—including the dip and the subsequent recovery.


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