Delisted SERP pos 1 site for low competition keyword (client's name)

[cbrts]

I made a site update for a client's personal portfolio site, and their site went from SERP position 1 to not even showing up for a search of the client's name <snip>

The update consisted of a new content section + a full screen intro to the site (it's what the client asked for). The intro requires a video to play (or a 2second timeout, or <noscript> ). I thought perhaps it wouldn't be _great_ for SEO, but didn't expect Google to delist it. The site already is kinda artsy so not super _SEO optimized_ in terms of the way the content is presented (but we have most of the necessary metadata).

Google Search Console did not show any major red flags expect small issues like small text (which we had before, and something I've seen on other sites with no adverse effect).

My question is, did the site just get delisted/potentially flagged as spam? Should we see that in Google Search Console? Is there a way to figure out why Google doesn't like it?

[edited by: engine at 8:19 am (utc) on May 26, 2021]
[edit reason] no specifcs, thanks, please see WebmasterWorld TOS [/edit]

[not2easy]

You might get a better idea of how Google is evaluating the content at their Lighthouse tools: [developers.google.com...]

To eliminate any nuts and bolts issues before going there, drive the site through the W3C tools to root out any technical issues. Take your URL to their validators:
HTML Validator: [validator.w3.org...]
CSS Validator: [jigsaw.w3.org...]

[cbrts]

Okay, I will have to run the old site through lighthouse and report back. Ill try the HTML validator and CSS validators as well.

But, we updated, removed the intro and added some more features, and we're back at #1; so decently confident it was something with the intro.

[NickMNS]

The update consisted of ... a full screen intro to the site (it's what the client asked for).

Is it possible that when Googlebot crawls it gets the intro, which I will guess contains no machine readable content, just a bunch of animation. This would send the signal to Google nothing to index here, and would get the page "delisted".

Have you checked in GSC to see how the page is rendered?

[cbrts]

Is it possible that when Googlebot crawls it gets the intro, which I will guess contains no machine readable content, just a bunch of animation. This would send the signal to Google nothing to index here, and would get the page "delisted".

This was my guess as well, though there were no glaring errors in GSC, and I believe we had a warning about "text being too small" (site uses a small type based on client direction) so my assumption was it was still seeing content.

The next time we meet we'll have to over it. I had them setup GSC access only for themselves bc I didn't want to take on that responsibility without charging them and I don't know how I would structure a relationship where I'm effectively monitoring their SEO.

I will have to go through it with them the next time we meet.

[NickMNS]

The errors are in GSC one thing, but if you haven't already, when back in GSC, you'll want to "Test Live URL" and view tested page, specifically the screenshot. This generally shows you what Googlebot sees.