Traffic Problems? Me Too, Here Is What I Think

1. 64

   LucidDreamsposted 11 years ago

   Although many have suffered over the past year and a half for traffic, some have done better or atleast been able to recoup most of the original visitors numbers they had. I have a few suggestions or ideas that could be pondered!
   
   I am currently unpublishing most of my lowest performing hubs (even a few others that could use updating) in order to give myself time to understand what happend, also to improve them based on what I find out.
   
   The EMD update happened this last week and most hubs have exact match domains. Got a few ideas but could mean loss of age. Hubpages could give us the ability to change the web address and this might be an idea that could help.
   
   The Panda algorithm happened on the 27th of September, that is when most people really noticed an impact, Poor links, spelling errors, difficult navigation and little use of lsi keywords being the main components. We could use a in house spell checker and if they really wanted to get crazy, how about an lsi or atleast a synonym provider.
   
   Tell me what you think. These are just ideas because I would like to continue writing here but we need some fixes that could potentially help the masses.

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      No - Hubs are not domains, they are pages within a domain, and they have exact match URL's.  Those are not affected by the EMD update.  Things would get pretty chaotic if the EMD update targeted every single URL, since most blog posts on most blogs would have a fairly exact match URL.
      
      
      
      I haven't seen any specifics about the 27 September update yet.  Do you have a link?

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      1. 96

         Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Here's the link to the article about the Sept. 27th algo update:
         
         http://searchengineland.com/google-pand … ted-135291

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2. 96

   Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years ago

   What exactly is Isi? Sorry, don't know much about this stuff

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   1. 64

      LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Daughter Of Maat
      
      Latent Symantic Indexing........Consider it like the natural flow of vocabulary when speaking on a specific subject. Synonyms are part of the equation versus repeating the same phrases over and over.

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      1. 96

         Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Oh, okay. That makes sense.
         
         Someone in one of the other forums said we aren't affected by the EMD portion of the update. So we actually are affected? I have lost so much traffic it's not even funny! I'm trying to figure out if there is something I can do to appease the panda, but I don't think that's actually possible lol.

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         1. 64

            LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            If someone said we were not effected by exact match domains, I would like to see the proof they have! Right now, I don't think anyone knows anything for sure. Even the people at Google are still defining the results, they can only PREDICT before hand.
            
            But beyond the simple question of exact match domains, and I get it, we assumke they are talking about the main url or sub-domain, but is it possible that exact matched post urls are being affected also?
            
            There are several little things that could be done on site to help people I believe. Most though is just going to be figuring out what is causing the traffic drop, hub by hub and then holding your breath and hoping it all turns out ok in the end.

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            1. 96

               Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I'll be honest, I really don't know what they were talking about, when it comes to domains and subdomains my eyes glaze over. But if I remember correctly, it was something about our hubs not actually being EMDs. But as you stated, it could affect us.
               
               I wonder if it is the EMD update though, if HP can fix it...?
               
               It may also be an internal issue, that just happen to coincide with the panda update? There are so many theories out there. I think I might just wait until the dust settles before I go changing things around. I don't have any idle hubs at the moment (knock on wood) so I'll just keep my fingers crossed!

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            2. 89

               Redberry Skyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               The proof I have, Lucid dreaming, is that we don't write on an EMD - our domain is Hubpages.com.  An EMD is something like loseweightfast.com.  Even our subdomains, for most of us, aren't exact matches for whatever searches we're targetting - who looks up 'Redberry Sky' or 'Daughter of Maat' when they're searching for articles on make up, tea, or eye health? 
               
               One thing I have noticed is that for *certain* search terms the SERPS are returning results where the first page of results does not have any pages whose titles exactly match the search term.  The search terms I've noticed this on are ones that are very commercially viable.  This still isn't EMD.  If I were to guess (and I will, endlessly), I'd guess that in the Panda 20 update there was something that targeted pages that have titles that exactly match very popular search terms - the thinking being that anyone using a popular search term as a title is using SEO, which G seems to frown on more and more. 
               
               The Panda updates are very complex, though.  Even if any of us hits on something that's right, there's likely to be a dozen other factors involved.
               
               Anyway, no, I don't have proof of any of my theories.  I don't need proof, I'm just sharing what I've noticed and read in a few dozen forums full of SEO experts.  I could be wrong, and I welcome anyone else's observations on the patterns of the SERPS before and after the updates - no proof necessary because it's not possible for anyone to have any proof at this stage, we're just trying to help each other out.

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                  moonlakeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I have noticed the search term does not match what I am searching for. It is aggravating. I think your guess is right.

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         2. 63

            rb11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            You have to remember that Google updates have a ripple effect. Even though the first wave was on the 27th, the next waves can catch the folks who think they dodged the bullet. Back when Panda was released I had a site that didn't get hit with the first release. I thought I was in the clear, it was a few weeks later that my site disappeared from the radar.
            
            Some of the SEO experts I subscribe to are just as confused as we are about what to do. Established, well read, well respected sites have been affected in recent times. I'm not sure if Google is making some "self-serving" adjustments, or are they truly trying to clean-up the search engine for the public's benefit. Personally, I am going to sit tight for a month or so and see if things level out. If we start to see the Walmarts and Youtubes occupying the top spots in the search results, then that will answer a lot of unanswered questions we all have right now. If that does happen, then who knows what we do from there. It's Googles game and they are the ones that can flip the switch and change the rules overnight.

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   2. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      LSI  (Latent Semantic Indexing) just means the robots are now looking for a variety of terms instead of just one.
      
      Once upon a time, if you wanted to target the search term "belly dance", you would put it in your title and then sprinkle it liberally through your text.  Then "keyword stuffing" checks came in, so you had to sprinkle it less liberally through your text.   
      
      Now the robots have LSI.   If they find your Hub and it's all about belly dance, but they can't find any other terms meaning the same thing (belly dance, belly dancing, danse orientale, Raqs Sharki) then it's regarded as unnatural and therefore suspicious - the robot decides you're writing for SEO, because a good writer, writing for a real audience, would vary their language by using synonyms.
      
      At least, I think that's what it means!
      
      (Edit: thanks for the link to the Searchengineland post - unfortunately, it still doesn't have any specifics on what the update actually did).

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      1. 96

         Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Marisa, that really cleared it up for me
         
         I was disappointed in that article as well for the same reason. It says nothing about what the update actually changed. I searched that site, too, for any info on the specifics of the update and couldn't find a thing!

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         1. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Not really fair to be disappointed in them - it's Google we should be disappointed in, because they haven't offered any clues as to what Panda 20 was targeting.

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      2. 64

         LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Marissa,
         Great explanation on lsi, it's a tough one to try and explain but even more needed now then ever. I jus wanted to get a discussion going so maybe something can get figured out. Guess I will just be hanging on and waiting for the most part.

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3. 74

   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   Lucid dreams   Do you mean hubbers using same keywords, and what do you
   mean by poor navigation. I agree with your philosophy. We need to take action. Bravo!

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   1. 64

      LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hi brakel2
      I have to be honest, to me and im probably wrong, it seems as if this latest update is having unforseen consequences. I enjoy the way Wordpress allows you to choose a shorter or change your post url. I'm just thinking, it could potentially help for those who may want to impliment it. Other then that, I am just waiting and improving each hub as well as I can before republishing.
      
      Poor layout would be more on the hubber and how they create the structure of each hub. Videos, pictures and poor titles and sub-headings. Lack of bullet lists and so-on. Im just guessing but something needs to happen.

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4. 89

   JayeWisdomposted 11 years ago

   My decrease in traffic began last week (midweek), and it's worsened until it makes me feel ill to even look at my stats. My most-viewed hub was pulling in more than 400 views most days, and today it's at 170, steadily dropping.  I checked to see where it is in the Google line-up, and this is the most frustrating factor:  it's still on the first page, 8th ranking.  Can anyone explain that to a very technically challenged writer? 
   
   I may not have the best keywords, so I'll check over all my hubs when I don't have a raging tension headache and see if I can make some improvement there.  However, I don't have any spelling errors (not brag, just fact--I've been a good speller since I learned to read), and I think I've weeded out any possible typos.  I also updated several article-type hubs when the dreaded "zzzzs" hit, and that took them out of the Idle Hubs category. But if I don't get traffic, many of them may become idle and "die."
   
   Jaye

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5. 78

   Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

   As Marisa says, a page name is not a domain name, any more than a postal address is the same as an email address. The EMD algorithm change specifically targeted doman names. Websites such as teethwhitening.com lost rankings due to the EMD update, because that's an exact match for a search phrase in the domain name segment of the URL.
   
   Unfortunately, other than the fact that we know that the Panda algorithm was adjusted on September 27 -- it didn't just reset the data  but actually changed the evaluation criteria Panda was using to rank websites -- I haven't found official info from Google on what tweaks were done to Panda. (Of course as soon as I post this Marisa will probably find and link to something.
   
   On top of which, Google has tried to obfuscate the specifics of this latest Panda update ("Panda 20") by posting a list of many of the OTHER algorithm changes in the past two months. That list is dreadfully vague on what they did to Panda (cited on that list as the "Page Quality" project), and almost as vague on other components of Google's algorithm.
   
   I am curious why Google is making such a big effort to hide exactly what Panda 20 did. By pushing out the EMD change on the same day, rolling out Panda 20 over the course of 3-4 days, and posting that list of other non-Panda changes (there are small adjustments happening to Google's algoriithm all the time) they've made it harder than usual to reverse engineer what just happened. Which I guess is the goal.
   
   At this point there's really not much we can do, since Panda is applied across the entire site (subdomains may help a bit, but to some extent we all seem to get classed under Panda's evaluation for Hubpages.com.) One thing we CAN do is read Google's guide to what Panda is looking for and reevaluate our own content, with reference to those bullet points that address the content on an individual page. They're generally good goals to strive for, since they boil down to "how can we satisfy readers?"

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   1. 64

      LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I mentioned that I understand the differnce and the EMD is supposed to only attack exact match domain names, I jus posed the question what if. The obvious point here is nobody really knows yet!

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      1. 91

         Marseiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I think I'm just lazy,  but until we know what they were actually targeting, I'm doing absolutely nothing.  I spell check my work once on HP, then swipe it into Word and spell check again, then my sister proofs it; so I'm
         hoping no errors slipped by.   Working from 8:00 to 5:00 every day, I never have the luxury of time to do the fun stuff, like hub hop.  I'm going to use the hour a day or so I devote to HP to concentrate on hopping hubs for a week or so and maybe write a new hub and just not publish it until we know more.   Good luck, guys.  Hope you figure it out!

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   2. 85

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      greekgeek:  Having looked again at the info put out by Google to which you linked regarding what they are looking for, I am convinced that several things are hurting all of us here at HP:  First, there is too much blogging going on and too much "personal" writing.  Second, there is too much low quality stuff that is loaded with misinformation, poor spelling and low level language skills.  I see this all the time and wonder why the moderators allow it to continue.  Another problem is the low quality of discussion on some of the forums...most particularly those related to politics and controversial topics.  Forums should be limited to discussions about HP and writing...after all, this site is supposed to be a place for writers, not people who want to use it as a bully pulpit.
      
      Until  HP does something serious about these issues, I think it is safe to say that we all will continue to lose views and income.  Just sayin'

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6. 57

   writing4actionposted 11 years ago

   Google Panda is our friend.
   It cuts low quality content our of our way!
   Keep on writing GREAT content and Panda will love you!

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7. 58

   Gaarf Rosewellposted 11 years ago

   I think the problem with traffic is hubpages. My Squidoo pages have been unaffected.

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   1. 73

      relacheposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      When I look at performance over the last several months, I have to agree with this statement.

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8. 64

   LucidDreamsposted 11 years ago

   Views jumped 30% since some of the fixes yesterday. Don't know yet if that caused the difference.

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9. 85

   crissytsuposted 11 years ago

   Believe it or not I've had a hug flux of traffic over the last week while everyone has been posting about their declines...I've only been a member for about 3 months so maybe it's beginner's luck. I've been doing some hardcore promoting too though.  I'm certainly not trying to come across as a braggart, I'm just letting you guys know that the drop in traffic isn't across the board....until it hits me like next week then you'll see me on the other side of the fence.  Good luck to everyone who has experienced the decline.

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10. 57

    Dame Scribeposted 11 years ago

    I'm curious to know if some of us with similar 'names' on our HP accounts may be used against us?

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11. 74

    jacharlessposted 11 years ago

    If the only outlet for traffic {aka the only super-highway} is BigG, then traveling is of no use and all are doomed to Carmageddon. And if anyone has ever been in LA traffic, you really do not want to be on that crowded, over advertised/self-promoting super-highway.
    
    Take for example Route 1. Nearly 5000 miles of coastline road, with beautiful fjords, rolling hills, sunny skies, redwood thickets and cool, sea-mist fog along the way. From the Mexican border straight to British Columbia and not a lick of back-up, delay's or smog...
    
    imo..
    James.

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    1. 64

       LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Like the way you think!

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12. 91

    Jean Bakulaposted 11 years ago

    Last week I was on a different writer's site, and writing about Moon phases. Of course, the word Moon had to be used quite a few times. I had so much trouble publishing the article, I got to a point where I had to stop, and move on to the next few capsules, to type the last part of the piece in, then I backtracked. I guess when I had a higher word count, the ratio of the word Moon to other words did not show up as much.
    
    Many other sites don't allow people to discuss religion or politics on the forums, they are related only to writing on the site. I think that would help HP immensely, because some of the "posts" on the forums are pages long when people get carried away. Plus if you let yourself get dragged into a discussion (I weakened a few weeks ago, and a mean person got me banned for 3 days) it just wastes time you could be writing good content.

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13. 89

    JayeWisdomposted 11 years ago

    You're right about the forums, Jean. It's very difficult to remain "cool and collected" when the emotion generated by vastly differing views about religion and politics come into play. They are time-wasters, can make one's blood pressure go up unnecessarily and no one's opinion is ever changed in one of these forums.  I think the HP forums should be restricted to writing on the site or (as we've been experiencing for the past week) traffic problems due to either Google or HP changes, or both.

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    1. 85

       TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I've been saying this very thing for awhile now.  I see no point in having a lot of negativity brought on by people, some of whom like to argue just for the sake of arguing.  This is ruining HP and I wish the moderators would put an end to it.  I really do think doing so would help all of us.

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       1. 91

          Marseiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I agree here.  I got involved in a forum about same sex marriage and was foolish enough to waste hours of my precious time, accomplishing absolutely nothing, certainly not changing anyone's mind.  I've never been back to a forum since except for help with some technical something and will never go to one except for that reason.

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