u/CodeTo_Ca

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to understand why Google has recently started de-indexing a number of pages on my site, and what I should focus on to improve indexing speed and stability.

Here’s what I’m seeing in Google Search Console:

• Search clicks are actually increasing steadily
• Indexed pages dropped from around ~50 to 30
• This started happening progressively over the last few weeks

I haven’t received any manual action penalties.

A few things about the site:

• Sitemap is submitted and updates correctly
• Pages are accessible and return 200 status codes
• Internal linking exists
• Site is relatively new ~6 months

What I’m trying to figure out:

1. What are the most common reasons Google suddenly de-indexes pages?
2. Can weak/internal duplicate content trigger this even if pages are technically valid?
3. How important are crawl budget and internal links for smaller sites?
4. Does Google sometimes temporarily de-index pages before re-evaluating them?
5. What are the highest-impact things I can do to:
   • improve indexing speed
   • keep pages indexed
   • increase crawl frequency

Things I’m already checking:

• noindex tags
• canonicals
• robots.txt
• sitemap coverage
• page speed
• duplicate titles/meta
• thin pages

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through this recently.

Are free directories listing still worth it?

I’ve been revisiting some older SEO tactics lately, and I’m curious where everyone stands on them today.

Back in the day, submitting your site to free directories, Web 2.0 platforms, and random public listings was basically a default step. It was easy to scale and, at least short term, it felt like it moved the needle.

But with how much Google has evolved (link quality, relevance, entity signals, all of it) I’m starting to question whether any of this still drives meaningful results… or if it’s just noise at best and a liability at worst.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

Most free directories are either low-authority or completely spammed out

Web 2.0 links don’t seem to do much unless there’s real content and engagement behind them

Citations still matter for local, but that’s a different game than generic directories

My sense is these tactics might still help a bit with indexing or initial discovery, but they don’t really move rankings unless they’re part of something more intentional (brand building, topical relevance, or actual traffic sources).

That said, I’m not 100% sold either way, would be interested to hear what’s actually working for others right now.