Ask HN: Getting deranked in Google due to a link list?

[instance]

Two months ago I posted a list of 61 QUBO formulations and cited every single one (which resulted in 33 links to papers) [0]. After seeing this post get crawled by Google, my traffic dropped permanently by more than 50%. It has also stopped growing (which it did before). Of course, afterwards I noticed my mistake (I suppose Google thought I had become somewhat of a 'link spamming' site?!). Hindsight is 20/20. But I refuse to remove this page, since I find it extremely resourceful and use it all the time in projects (I work on a Quantum Computing startup) and to send that list to others.

I guess the point of this post is two-fold:

1. What does HN think about Google aggressively deranking people due to one simple mistake? Could others share their stories?

2. Is there anything I can do to get back my original traffic without removing this post? Should I remove the links and just keep the text citation? Did I fuck up permanently, with Google flagging my site or something?

Appreciate any input.

[0]: https://blog.xa0.de/post/List-of-QUBO-formulations/

[aww_dang]

You might try adding rel="nofollow", but I doubt it will change much. These are reputable sources you actually recommend, so this may not be the best solution. You can also try loading up on structured data.

The non-gamey way to approach this would be to expand your content by adding a summaries and comparisons. This is what I imagine Google wants to see. Aside from improving metrics like time on page and external links vs unique content, you'll be addressing the underlying factors they're trying to measure - unique, useful content which users can't get elsewhere.

GoogleBot can be fickle. Consistently publish more content, worry less about sudden variations.

You can also fix one webfont issue here:

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=...

[mikewave]

Great site, I've shared it internally to some folks here at D-Wave!