Hi everyone,
I have a website for my offline business, that used to get indexed by Google almost immediately after publishing new content. However, recently, I've noticed that my new pages are either taking a long time to be indexed or not appearing at all in Google search results. I also had many posts at the top of page one on Google. I must admit I haven't been publishing as much over the last few months. However, I have another website in the same niche, with much less content and yet that is always indexed quickly.
I haven’t made any major changes to my website structure or content strategy, and I’m not seeing any obvious issues in Google Search Console. I’ve tried manually requesting indexing, but even that doesn’t seem to be working either.
Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be related to a recent Google update, crawl issues, or something else I might be overlooking? Any insights or suggestions would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Hi Roy
Nice to hear from you, as usual, and I'm sorry you're having Google indexing and ranking problems. I believe it's all part of the ongoing search engine changes as they continually try to adjust to AI evolution and other issues.
I hope you're otherwise doing well and getting some guitar-playing time in whenever you can. 😎
Rock on! 🤘
Frank 🎸
@frank Good morning Frank,
I hope that you are doing well and enjoying your retirement. I do appreciate you taking the time to comment.
When I went to Google Search Console I found lots of 404 URLs that were not mine, in fact there were about 87,000+. There were not actually on the website, but attached to the server, it appears. This has now been dealt with by my Webmaster. Allegedly, many websites or servers were attacked fairly recently. Hopefully, the website will soon be back to normal, whether it’s done any damage to my rankings long-term, I don’t know. Time will tell.
All the best to you.
Roy
@RoyBretton Hi Roy
Great to hear that the problem with your website has been rectified! 👍
I had a similar issue with my guitar site. A bot hacked it through a security flaw in the Sassy Social Share plugin (the most updated version) and installed a plugin that added thousands of GSC indexing requests for non-existent online gambling site posts. You can read about it in a WA post I wrote at the time. As frustrating as it was, I learned lots of great things about the inner workings of GSC, so some good came out of it, too.
I'm enjoying my retirement immensely, playing music, watching movies, hanging out with family and friends, and eating all my favorite foods! I hope you're making time for the things you like to do, too. 😎
Keep On Rockin' It! 🤘
Frank 🎸
@frank Good morning Frank,
Thank you for your reply, Frank, I do appreciate it.
Yes, it's something that I should have really noticed earlier, I guess that's the problem with having several websites. It's interesting that you had a similar problem. Incidentally, can you remember the title of your blog post or are you able to find a link to the post, please? This is a great way to look at issues like this, Frank, as you rightly say, we do learn so much and we never stop learning!
I'm really pleased that you are enjoying your retirement and doing the things that you want to do, that's great news. You are greatly missed on the Wealthy Affiliate platform, Frank, as you certainly put a lot into the platform when you were there. Nothing is perfect in this world, but on the whole, I like the Wealthy Affiliate platform. I think my biggest gripe is the amount of almost full AI posts in the top 10 blog posts. I like to hear about member's genuine experience, not AI's experience. Some members will even go as far as using AI to comment on their AI blog post!! Are some people blind to AI posts?
Anyway, have a great day.
Roy
Hi Roy
I don't have a link to that WA blog post, but if you search FrankB-1 hack, or something similar, it should come up. It definitely makes an argument for why we should minimize WP plugins whenever possible. That Sassy Social Share plugin with the security vulnerability had the latest updated version installed when the malicious event occurred. There are those that claim to run 30 to 40 WP plugins on one site without speed or security problems, but I think less is usually better.
I do miss online marketing and particularly interacting with the WA members, many of whom (like you) are music lovers and musicians. However, I'm using the two to three hours a day I was spending on affiliate marketing to extend my guitar playing time.
It's great that a lot of the people I interacted with on WA are also here on Digital Matrix Cafe, so I don't feel totally disconnected.
I decided not to do a guitar YouTube channel since there are already an incredible amount of excellent tutorials available from professional players in a wide variety of styles, and I'd rather be playing than teaching. Lol 😎
Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸
@frank Hello Frank,
I do understand, Frank, I went to your profile today, but obviously you have a lot of blog posts to search through, but I will try a few searches as you have suggested, which makes a lot of sense. I would like to hear your story, as it's good to learn from other members experiences. It's amazing how quickly the plug-ins on our website build up, but I do think it's good to keep them to a minimum, especially from our joint experiences.
I can believe that you missed the interaction with the Wealthy Affiliate members, Frank, especially as you are so very active on the platform. That's good that you are using your time wisely and enjoying the extra time playing your guitar.
Regarding YouTube, to a certain extent I don't think we need to look at the competition, especially in your case, Frank. I believe that you have a huge amount of knowledge and experience with the guitar and people would like that and they would also like your unique character. But at the same time, I hear where you're coming from. I do think it's good to keep active and to do things.
It sounds like you're still rocking well though.
All the best.
Roy
Thanks, Roy. I super appreciate that!
Yeah, at this point I'm just taking it slow and enjoying all that life has to offer. I enjoy watching various music videos, but these days I've been quite interested in YouTube videos on Google's AI-powered quantum computer system called Willow, which is powered by their Sycamore chip.
Many of the top people in the fields of AI and quantum computing are very concerned about the data stream output using Grok 3, which seems to be coming from information unrelated to human input or training. This is suggesting that the system may be becoming self-aware as it attempts to answer questions it has been posing to itself.
At one point Google shut the system down until it could be further studied. The concern is that it could be creating states of quantum superposition that it is "self-observing," leading to realties that might be changing things in a past space-time continuum. Combined with self-generated instances of quantum entanglement, another concern is that at some point the system will no longer be self-contained, making it impossible to shut down or reverse.
Real mind boggling stuff. Check it out! 😎
Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸
@frank Good morning Frank,
It's a pleasure!
It's great that you are enjoying life so much, Frank, that's how it should be!
I think it's great that we can educate ourselves on YouTube and other platforms regarding technology, news, etc.
I have tried Grok a few times and I am talking about a subject I don't know very much about, but the information it's given me has been very inaccurate.
Quantum computing is kind of beyond me, I don't really understand it, but it sounds like great care needs to be taken. I find it amazing now that we can create videos of something that's not true, this is rather concerning. Just a few years ago, if we saw a photograph or a video, we knew it was true, because we had the picture or the video of the event, but not now!
Have a fantastic day and keep on rocking.
Roy
Hi Roy
Here is a paper I recently read that demonstrates an interesting point of view from the mathematical side of LLM self-identity.
It helped me understand where we are heading in this regard. Check it out. Such an interesting topic!
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.18530
Rock On & have a fabulous weekend! 🤘😎
Frank 🎸
@frank Good morning Frank,
I trust that you're doing well.
I will have a look, Frank, I must admit it looks quite deep, but it will be interesting to see where we are going with AI, etc.
Have a fantastic Sunday and keep on rocking.
Roy
Hi Roy
Yeah, don't get too bogged down by all the math in the paper, but it'll definitely give you a basic idea of what's happening with AI's evolution to autonomous operation and potential self-awareness.
Interesting but potentially concerning stuff. Let me know what you think after you take a look.
Happy Sunday! 😎
Frank 🤘🎸
@frank Good morning Frank,
Thank you, Frank, that's helpful, as it will be beneficial if I can learn something about AI and the future of AI, without getting bogged down by the maths.
I do find it quite concerning, Frank, regarding AI, it's like everything, when it's used properly, it could be really useful. I guess it's a bit like the Internet, it can be used for good and bad.
When I watch a YouTube video, I like to try and watch it from the original channel. For two reasons, the first being that I like to support the creator and secondly, sometimes video content can be changed when it's on someone else's channel.
Recently, I was listening to a video from the late Billy Graham. My YouTube settings are set for continuous play, so YouTube will often find me a suitable video based on my history, it's generally quite good! However, I was listening to Billy Graham and he was talking about continually scrolling on social media. The fact is that he wasn't preaching when social media became popular. The concerning bit for me is that it sounded like Billy Graham, but some things had been added and changed. I stopped listening after that!
So my biggest concerns are that things can be changed without us realising, but actually sound genuine.
Have a great day.
Roy
Hi Roy
Yeah, AI-generated audio "deepfakes" are becoming pretty common, and deepfake video is also beginning to become problematic.
These days, you may need to interact in real time and space to be certain that the experience is genuine.
Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸
@frank Not worry, Frank. I took over your spot on WA which is now #2, moved past Carson & Jay. 🙂
They have a new UX at WA as of the 11th and still working out the bugs.
Good to see you here, Frank.
Mel
@melwaller
Haha, sounds great, Mel!
I didn't think Carson, and Jay would move out of their respective positions. Good luck trying to displace Kyle Lol
I hope you are doing well. Ever hear from Jeff Brown? I frequently think of him, and I hope his health is improving.
I'm doing great and having more fun than ever with music and all other manner of pleasures.
Always a pleasure chatting with you. 😎
Give everyone at WA my best regards!
Keep On Rockin It! 🤘
Frank 🎸
@frank No I have no new info about Jeff. They have changed WA so its about points we earn for interacting which can become cash credits. I earned $67 in June. Maybe get a starter acct and take a quick peek. 🙂
And continue to Rock On as always Frank!
Mel
Yeah, I'll check back in at WA, eventually, just to say hi to everyone.
I miss interacting with the members there, but all the website traffic craziness - not so much! Lol
I took the 2 to 3 hours a day I was spending on affiliate marketing and added it to my guitar playing schedule, and I'm much happier with that arrangement. 😎
Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸
I haven’t made any major changes to my website structure or content strategy, and I’m not seeing any obvious issues in Google Search Console. I’ve tried manually requesting indexing, but even that doesn’t seem to be working either.
I want to say this happened to me around the time I stopped focusing on Google. Like Frank said, I blamed it on an Algo update, but, again, it's when I stopped primarily focusing on Google - have your overall rankings dropped or is it just the issue of nothing getting indexed quickly anymore?
@andy Good morning Andy,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question, I do appreciate it.
I trust that you are doing well.
I have just replied to, Frank and it appears that when I went to Google Search Console, I found lots of URLs that were not part of my website, in fact they were not even on the website. Somehow these URLs were attached to the server, 87,000+ of them, I don’t know enough to comment too much. I believe it was blocking or clogging up the website. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon as my Webmaster has dealt with it.
Have a great day.
Roy
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