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I think I found the problem. Google was parsing javascript generated links as actual links even though they were not supposed to be added to the page until after the DOM loaded. As a result all user generated URLs to other sites became links. I have since removed the linkify plugin form the site and am hoping that will fix it.
I opened a thread on the Google forum but only got one response and it seemed to miss the mark.
Silly for sure. To think that Google would demote a brand that has been around for over a decade like that.
Wow, what great advice. I checked your list of known Google Updates and found nothing since January. So far everything I have looked at online don't mention any significant updates from April 9-10 of this year. Still scratching my head here.
On April 10th my organic search clicks dropped 75% overnight. I have never seen anything like it. What Google algorithm change could have caused this?
I have no manual actions and my indexed page count is about the same. I have noticed that several queries that I was number one for including my brand have dropped by anywhere from two to ten spots. The brand dropping out of the first spot is what really gets me. There is nothing similar to it at all. My speed score is moderate, so I don't think that is it. My site was down most of the day on the 9th or 10th, but that has never caused a drop in search clicks and the next day they were about the same.
I noticed that the CDC now occupies the number one spot for my brand. Even though the exact brand name is nowhere in the text of the CDC page. I think this might be due to Google trying to help official health organizations do better due to COVID19, but the queries I have dropped on have nothing to do with Coronavirus.
Also, none of my other sites have seen this type of problem. Only the health site seems affected. I recently did a press release campaign and my link counts are up, so I don't that is it either.
The brand page is https://stdcarriers.com and an example of an effected query is Celebrities with STDs.