Two Months Running an AI-API Reference Site Solo: Google Punished the Launch, Bing Didn't Care

Description and use

After two months, Google removed most content from the index, leaving only three skeleton pages, while Bing continues to index new content and count backlinks. The author maintains daily publishing, focuses on skeleton pages, and uses cross‑posting with canonical URLs to sustain visibility.

Problem

Maintaining visibility for a new AI‑API reference site after Google removed most content from the index while Bing continued to index and credit backlinks.

Outcome

After two months, the site lost most of its Google visibility but retained Bing indexing and backlink credit. The strategy of publishing daily, focusing on skeleton pages, and leveraging cross‑posting for backlinks keeps the site alive and growing traffic.

Workflow

• Publish 42 posts in a burst to give crawlers content; maintain daily publishing floor; focus backlink strategy on skeleton pages (homepage and hubs) rather than deep articles; monitor Google Search Console for index status; cross‑post to dev.to with canonical pointing back to original; keep content dated and verified with hard numbers; translate Chinese‑media announcements within 6–48 hours to capture early pricing changes.

Evidence

The site got indexed fast — exactly one page: the DeepSeek hub. Not the homepage, not any article. One navigation page.

Source

Sometime around September 18, impressions went to zero and the hub dropped out of the index. No manual action, no message in Search Console, just silence.

Source

On September 29 I cross-posted a cost-math piece to dev.to with the canonical pointing back to my original. Bing indexed the copy the same day and counted the backlinks.

Source

Three rules doing the heavy lifting: Narrow verification, Chinese‑media translation gap, dated caveats everywhere.

Source