Web site index page has been removed from Google

index page gone but interior pages still present

[Dodgeman]

My 12 year old web site had it's index page removed from Google yesterday. The interior pages still show, but the index page is gone. Webmaster tools show it indexed and no errors. Even searching for the business name just returns the interior pages but not the main page. All keyword traffic organic listings gone that show main page. A few days ago I changed the fonts using .css script. That's the only change to the web site. Any ideas what could be going on?

[not2easy]

Hello Dodgeman and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

It may only be a matter of time. When you changed the font, was it changed sitewide? Is it a webfont (such as a Googlefont)? Have you checked the Core Web Vitals before and after to check that the font change did not affect the load time or content layout? Others have noticed a similar issue and it appears to be self correcting once the changes are digested.

[Dodgeman]

I only changed the font in the headings on the index page using custom css script. Not site wide. Now the index page is not showing in SERPs at all, not even if you search the company name. The interior pages are showing, however. Google console shows the index page indexed, submitted, etc no manual or security issues. Using the site: thing also turns up all interior pages but not the index page.

I had friends all over town search on their desktops and the index page is not showing. However, some of their mobile devices it is showing. This is very odd.

I would think if this was a penalty that the site would be totally gone or console would show an error.

I deleted the headers I changed with css, put them in again just using regular fonts. Then I requested a re-index.

Any ideas what is going on? A google glitch or hiccup perhaps? The only thing I can surmise is that changing the font style using css set off Google.

[not2easy]

Google wants to evaluate your change and since their archive cache is different, the "new" page needs a new evaluation. It is not an instant change. If you keep making changes it might only confuse things more. Be patient and it will settle, maybe higher, maybe not. It is being evaluated.

[tangor]

When you say changed fonts using css script, are you merely changing size, emphasis or italic, or using a third party font?

Simply changing emphasis, bold, or size should not create the problem you described.

[Dodgeman]

I changed the font type and size and color using .ccs custom script from regular html language. The words were the same. And it's the only thing that was changed on the site.

[not2easy]

If you are concerned about your new style sheet you can check it at w3.org to ensure it has not introduced anything questionable: https://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ - it is free and gives you as detailed a report as you request.

CSS is a style sheet, it is not a script like .js and people edit their style sheets as often as they want without much issue but if it has introduced style elements that use third party resources or contains errors that browsers need to figure out then it can change your page performance. Until enough browsers visit the page for Google to evaluate the user experience, it is being re-evaluated. This is not new, there are threads here from 15+ years ago with the same question and it just takes time for Google to re-evaluate. It could help if you ask friends to visit the page itself rather than search for it.

One other issue - but your site age makes that unlikely - is if you do not have a canonical rewrite to send visitors from https://www.example.com/index.html to https://www.example.com/ that could cause it to be seen as duplicate content. Given your site age I believe that would have been addressed already.

[tangor]

@Dodgeman ... what type font are you using? Is it one of the many "web-safe" fonts out there, or something a bit more exotic?