How a Media Publisher Reversed a Google Search Traffic Decline

When a long-time client saw a steady decline in Google referrals, they found themselves in an impossible situation. Their once-thriving platform, which had averaged over 350,000 page views per month, was now seeing numbers so low that they were considering shutting down.

The Challenge: A Steady Decline in Traffic

This long-standing publisher partner had relied on XWP for years to handle their website maintenance, performance optimizations, and feature enhancements. Our work ensured their editorial team had the tools and stability needed to create and publish content seamlessly. While their SEO, ad performance, and content strategy were managed by other specialized vendors, XWP played a critical role in maintaining the technical foundation of their platform.

When traffic began to decline following Google’s late 2023 core updates, the publisher, like many others, initially focused on site performance and technology as the likely culprits. We partnered closely with them to conduct a thorough audit, optimizing speed, ensuring Core Web Vitals compliance, and implementing technical best practices across the board. Despite these efforts, traffic continued to drop, a clear signal that the issue ran deeper than technology alone.

With each new algorithm update in 2024, the decline worsened. The numbers were bleak, and shutting down seemed like the only option left.

Search Traffic Over Time:

That’s when we offered to take a deeper look and turned our attention to how Google perceived it. We conducted a full audit of their search traffic, content performance, ad and indexing strategy. 

Understanding the Problem: Hidden Risks in Search Traffic Decline

Google Discover can create the illusion of stability. Traffic spikes can mask deeper problems, and without a clear content strategy, publishers risk losing visibility in search rankings.

We conducted a content performance analysis and the data told a clear story.

Key Findings from the Audit

Without intervention, the site was becoming less visible, less authoritative, and ultimately, less sustainable.

Why This Happens

Google Search performance isn’t just about having content, it’s about having the right content. Over time, the publisher had built an extensive content library. However, without a clear strategy to maintain its relevance, quality, and engagement, much of it had become dead weight. Articles that strayed from the platform’s core themes, failed to drive meaningful engagement, or hadn’t been updated in years were no longer serving their purpose. Instead, they were actively undermining the site’s top-performing content.

Google’s ranking signals prioritize relevance, recency, and engagement. If visitors aren’t interacting with an article, if they bounce quickly, don’t scroll, or don’t click through, Google interprets it as low-value and stops promoting it. When a critical mass of a site’s content underperforms in this way, it doesn’t just hurt individual pages.

 It weakens the authority of the entire site.

This wasn’t a technical issue. It was a content problem, and it needed a structured approach to fix.

Strategic De-Indexing & Content Optimization

We took a structured approach to fix this issue:

• Step 1: Content Performance Analysis – We built a report to assess content performance at scale. This allowed us to see which pages were contributing to traffic and which were holding the site back.

• Step 2: A Data-Driven De-Indexing Strategy – We de-indexed nearly 50% of the site’s content from Google’s index. This wasn’t a content purge. Every article remained accessible on the site and could be re-indexed if needed. The goal was to improve Google’s perception of the site by removing content that provided no ranking value.
  
• Step 3: SEO and Performance Optimization – Once low-performing content was de-indexed, we optimized the remaining content for search intent, recency, and engagement signals. This ensured that high-value content ranked higher and was less impacted by future algorithm changes.

The Results: More Traffic With Less Content

The impact was almost immediate, we saw an increase in traffic within a week or two. Despite reducing indexed content by 50%, the site experienced a 30% increase in total page views and significantly higher engagement in Google Discover and Google News.

Key Performance Gains

The publisher also became more resilient to algorithm changes. A month after our de-indexing, Google launched another core update. Search impressions initially dropped but quickly rebounded as the site’s high-value content index proved its strength.