GeeksforGeeks Got Deindexed: A Warning Shot Heard Across the SEO World
Deindexing Isn’t a Bug. It’s a Signal.
GeeksforGeeks didn’t just disappear from Google. It was erased—systemically, aggressively, and entirely.
This wasn’t a slow erosion of rankings. It was a purge.
70 million monthly visitors? Gone overnight. The cliff-drop wasn’t algorithmic—it was punitive. A manual action. A death sentence issued not by code, but by human reviewers with a checklist and a mandate: clean up the web.
Google didn’t just close the door. It changed the locks.
When the Numbers Start to Scream
You don’t lose 36,183 indexed pages in 90 days unless something’s burning. In Q1 2025 alone, GeeksforGeeks shed 19.2% of its entire indexed footprint.
Call it a content contraction, but that’s like calling a house fire a “thermal readjustment.”
And the traffic? From 29.8M to 16.6M in a month. That’s a -44.3% collapse. Organic oxygen vanished. All that remained were scorched rankings and stunned users.
If you're not scared yet, you're not paying attention.
Off-Topic Content Is Not Expansion. It’s Erosion.
GeeksforGeeks Posted “Most Beautiful Women in the World.”
You can’t teach algorithms to code and also gossip about celebrities on the same domain. Not without consequences. Google’s manual action cited “thin content.” But the real issue? Topical drift. A failure of focus.
“Topical authority isn't just a buzzword. It's a boundary.”
GeeksforGeeks crossed it. And Google dropped the hammer.
The Backlink Mirage: DR 87, Built on Sand
Let’s talk about links.
DR 87
2.8M backlinks
48.8K referring domains
Sounds impressive. Until you realize: they lost 87.8% of their backlinks over time.
What’s left is a Frankenstein’s monster of footer links, junk ccTLDs, and aggressive syndication. The UR average? Just 41. A hollow echo of true authority.
“A thousand weak links do not equal one strong one.”
When Google sees backlink inflation—especially with anchor text games—it sees manipulation. And when DR ≠ trust, guess what Google devalues?
Everything.
Subdomain Sprawl = Technical Debt
Want a quick heuristic for trouble?
Massive subdomains + no traffic = SEO poison.
GeeksforGeeks had subdomains like ide., cdn., and auth. bloated with pages, devoid of users. IDE alone had ~464,000 indexed pages generating just 3,000 visits. That’s 1 visit per 150 pages.
Google calls that index bloat. We call it a liability.
And when 10+ subdomains show 100% traffic drops? That’s not decay. That’s death.
Anchor Text Games and Over-Optimization
DR 87 supported by 561 domains per DR point? That’s not link diversity—that’s link dependency.
Repetitive anchors, low-value TLDs, and international spam signals fed into the algorithmic dossier.
What triggered the penalty wasn’t just bad content—it was bad linking with intent. A signal-rich tapestry of thin trust woven from thick deception.
Community Response: Love, Loss, and Schadenfreude
Some cried foul. Others cried, “Finally.”
Students mourned the loss of tutorials.
SEOs nodded knowingly. (“They had it coming.”)
Reddit developers cheered. (“G4G was clogging the SERPs with junk.”)
Call it a Rorschach test for content ethics. But don’t ignore the takeaway:
Even beloved brands aren’t bulletproof. Not if their foundations are hollow.
Signals Before the Sink: The Warnings Were There
Let’s list them—briefly, brutally:
+84K indexed pages in 18 months → scaling without guardrails
-19% index drop in Q1 → structural instability
+13K new domains → link velocity anomaly
-9,700 Top 3 keyword losses → value evaporated
-$343K traffic value drop → commercial collapse
This wasn’t a surprise. It was a slow-motion car crash with the brakes cut.
SEO Isn’t a Game of Volume Anymore. It’s a Game of Trust.
You can’t bluff your way to the top of the SERPs anymore. Not with AI sniffing for patterns and human reviewers ready to act.
GeeksforGeeks played a 2018 SEO strategy in a 2025 algorithm. And lost.
So What Now?
If you're running a content site—stop and check:
Are you publishing off-topic posts for cheap traffic?
Are your links real, earned, and diverse?
Is your site technically lean or bloated with dead pages?
Are you one algorithm away from collapse?
Because here’s the truth:
Google didn’t kill them. They self-destructed.
Google just wrote the obituary.
End Note
This wasn’t a penalty. It was a product recall. A full-system audit on content trust. And if you’re running an authority site, you’re next on the list.
You have two options: Clean up—or get cleaned out.
SEO-level insight
🔄 Page Velocity & Indexing Trends
Net growth of +84,651 organic pages from May 2023 to Jan 2025 (+81.86%)
Sharp net decline of -36,183 pages from Jan 2025 to Apr 2025 (−19.24%)
Largest single-month drop: Feb 2025 (-21,595 pages; -11.48%)
December 2023 saw +17,246 new pages, unusually high (+14.60%)
Sustained stagnation and micro-decline between Aug–Nov 2024
Contraction phase began Q1 2025 without recovery
🚀 Link Velocity & Referring Domains
Net gain of +7,701 referring domains from May–Nov 2023
-1,885 domains lost from Nov 2023 to Apr 2024 (5-month decay phase)
Recovery phase added back +1,807 domains (Apr–Dec 2024)
Massive spike of +13,181 domains from Dec 2024 to Apr 2025
Jan 2025: +5,237 domains
Mar 2025: +4,064 domains
Surge pattern in 2025 suggests abnormal acquisition velocity
📉 Backlink Profile Instability
Current: 2.8M backlinks, down from all-time 23M
~87.8% attrition rate in total backlinks
Referring domains: 48.8K current, down from 153K total
~68% attrition rate
High DR-to-backlink ratio: 1 DR : 32,184 backlinks
High DR-to-domain ratio: 1 DR : 561 referring domains
Over 63 backlinks per domain on average — indicates low diversity
Large quantity of repeated anchors and template-based link patterns (e.g. IDE links)
🔗 Anchor Text Distribution Issues
Dominant anchors are branded (expected)
High volume of links to dynamic tool pages (e.g., TryIt, IDE)
Examples: 248 identical links from 31 domains
Signs of automated backlink drops and templated link generation
Presence of spam-like anchors (e.g., “cipit88”)
⚠️ Low-Quality & Suspicious Links
Many backlinks from low-trust ccTLDs (.io, .br, .de)
Heavy skew toward .com (>50%) and .io (>1,000 domains)
727K nofollow, 252K UGC, 792 sponsored links dilute editorial signal
Multiple subdomains receive backlinks but deliver 0 traffic
Example: IDE subdomain has 464K indexed pages but only 3K traffic
📉 Organic Traffic Trends
Grew from 13.4M to 29.8M between May 2023 and Mar 2025 (+121.7%)
April 2025: sudden drop from 29.8M to 16.6M (−44.3%)
Minor declines in Nov 2023, Aug 2024, Sep 2024
Disproportionate collapse not explainable by seasonality
🔍 DR to Traffic & Link Profile Ratios
Domain Rating (DR): 87, but
URL Rating (UR): 41 → low page-level trust
DR maintained via bulk links despite link decay
DR not backed by current high-quality referring domains
Link profile shows signs of over-leverage and artificial inflation
📉 Top Keyword Positions & Intent Loss
Organic keywords: 5.3M, dropped −30.1K
Top 3 keyword positions: 379K, dropped −9.7K
Informational keywords: −54.7K
Branded keywords: −13.5K
Drop spans all keyword intent types: informational, commercial, navigational
🧨 Spam and Manual Update Vulnerability
Traffic collapse in March–April 2025 aligns with algorithm updates
Link profile likely triggered SpamBrain or link spam devaluation
Potential manual action suspected due to:
Unnatural backlink pattern
Thin content scale-up
Subdomain misuse
Redundant internal tools (IDE, TryIt) over-linked externally
🧪 Subdomain Bloat & Toxic Footprint
IDE subdomain lost -93% traffic, but retains high link volume
Over 10 subdomains have 100% traffic drops
Examples: cdn, auth, alphatest
Crawl budget likely being wasted on non-performing subdomains
High ratio of indexed pages vs actual traffic on secondary paths
📍 Final SEO Risk Flags
87.8% backlink attrition
68% referring domain loss
DR 87 propped up by 2.8M links
DR-to-domain ratio of 1:561 (very low diversity)
High churn in monthly referring domains (6K–8K added, 4K–6K lost)
March–April 2025: complete traffic cliff (-13M+)
Over 400K links to low-performing subdomains
Low-quality anchors & keyword spam variants present
Overuse of low-authority TLDs (.io, .br, etc.)
Content velocity peaked late 2024, then reversed hard in 2025
📊 GeeksforGeeks: Fanbase & Social Media Snapshot🔗 LinkedIn
Followers: 2,342,347
📸 Instagram
Posts: 2,654
Followers: 416K
Following: 3
Avg Likes/Post: 739
Avg Comments/Post: 11
Engagement Rate: 0.18%
👍 Facebook
Page Likes: 205K
Followers: 216K
🐦 Twitter
Joined: July 2009
Following: 149
Followers: 79.6K
▶️ YouTube
Location: India
Joined: June 11, 2015
Subscribers: 979K
Total Videos: 3,448
Total Views: 146,385,673
Author: Hawrry Bhattarai
⚠️ Disclaimer
This breakdown is based on third-party data sources like Semrush and Ahrefs. Numbers may not be precise.
Multiple factors influence deindexing, ranking drops, and SEO performance—many of which are invisible from the outside. The patterns highlighted here are based on observable metrics and personal analysis, not definitive causes.
This is not SEO advice.
This is not a diagnosis.
This is a forensic snapshot, nothing more.
Always do your own research before drawing conclusions. And remember: Google’s reasoning isn’t always visible—but the symptoms are.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaTech/comments/1jpko9j/geeks_for_geeks_not_showing_up_on_google/
https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/lot6ah/geeksforgeeks_not_a_good_place_to_get_started/
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/