Amount of organic traffic (SEs) at 70%

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   Casimiroposted 11 years ago

   That's overall for all my hubs. That number has been rising and seems to me a sign of healthy hubbing at this point. The rest is about equally split between coming internally from HP and from my external links via social media and blogs. What do the veterans around here think about these numbers?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well done!   From my experience, you'll really see the earnings start to grow when you get over 85% from search engines, so you're nearly there.

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   bodyathleticsposted 11 years ago

   I'm not exactly a veteran.  How many blogs do you have?  I have one blog about fitness but that's about it.  I just started using Hubpages for backlinks as well as just to have some fun.  I think because I have started so early I am not receiving SE traffic yet.  Seeing your score I take it you've been on Hubpages for a while?
   
   I'm pretty sure the SE traffic percentage will go up the longer and better you write on Hubpages.  I take it you do keyword research.  Did it take you a while to realize the benefits of doing this?  Or were the SE results pretty quick (say a week) after keyword researching for an article?

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      Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      bodyathletics,
      
      Officially, I've been on HP since last Sept., but had a couple months' hiatus at the end of the year. I have 3 blogs. Yes, I do keyword research, but can't really put my finger on how much it helps or not. Overall, it took a few months to see the SE traffic rise to where it is now. I think that's pretty much par for the course as far as I can tell.

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   bodyathleticsposted 11 years ago

   Okay, that sounds about right.  I joined Hubpages because the ad system revenue is faster and better than the one on my blog.
   
   Has there been anything in particular that works well for traffic?  Obviously you don't have to tell me exactly what you do as that's what makes you competitive.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      If you have a blog, then you should be able to monetize it better than HP, not less so. 
      
      Advertising doesn't work well on blogs, but affiliate sales do, so I recommend you look into that.  I have a Hub on how to monetize your blog which might help.   If you can find the right affiliate companies, they pay bigger percentages than ad networks do - so although you get fewer visitors, you make more money. 
      
      One major tip - decide whether you're going to use your Hubs to promote your blog, or vice versa. Never try to do both.   In general, I'd advise using your Hubs to promote your blog - so you shouldn't have any links on your blog back to your Hubs (remove the widget, it's a bad idea anyway).

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         Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'll look up your hub on blog monetization for sure Marisa. I've not had much luck with any affiliate program I've used so far. Amazon is dismal, even though I try to target their ads to the theme of the blog. I was using one of the affiliate aggregators (forget the name) for quite a while and it also produces zilch.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            You're right, Amazon is dismal, because it has a one-day cookie.  They're the only company which does that - everyone else has at least a 30 day cookie, and some go 90 days.  That means you get paid even if the customer takes three months to make up his mind, which greatly increases your chances of earning a commission.
            
            My experience with affiliates varies widely.  In general, I've done much better with affiliate networks like ShareASale or Linkshare than with standalone affiliate schemes run by individual websites.  I think the problem with individual schemes is that you don't know how reliable their affiliate software is, or whether they've implemented it properly - whereas when a third party like ShareASale is involved, they'll make sure it is, because they want their cut!
            
            For instance I recently signed up for the affiliate scheme at Flamencista, to use on my flamenco site.  They sell high quality products at excellent prices so I was thrilled to come across them. So far I've sent them over 5,000 visitors.  No sales. I find that hard to believe, and I'm considering dropping them.  It was worth the trial, though.
            
            The other thing with making money is - don't just rely on your sidebar. It's just not enough. You need to be actively promoting products in some of your posts, and you should have at least one page of "recommended products". Choose them carefully so you can recommend them honestly.

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               Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I think it was Linkshare I was using before. I'll give the other one a try, too. I didn't know that about Amazon cookies, thanks for the tip!

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Oops, I hope my sentence wasn't ambiguous. What I meant to point out is that with Amazon, if the customer doesn't buy the same day, you get nothing.  Whereas with almost every other affiliate scheme, you get commission for up to a month (and sometimes three months) after the visit.

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      catgypsyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's terrific Casimiro! You are definitely doing something right!

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   Cliff Mendrezposted 11 years ago

   That is great, Casimiro. I suggest you focus more on conversion rates and writing more hubs. Do more experiments about hub layouts: position of modules, use modules you haven't tried before, etc. Then study the data on your analytics account. This is something I had neglected for a very long time, so I'm throwing this one out for everybody to see and consider.

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   Joseph Muendoposted 11 years ago

   Great organic traffic everyone's goal on Hub pages. Write more and grow your earnings. Way to go Casimiro

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   Sue Adamsposted 11 years ago

   Hi Marisa , nice to bump into you again.
   
   
   
   Why do you say that Marisa, can you explain please?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not sure which bit you mean, but I'll cover the lot just in case!
      
      You're familiar with the concept of backlinks, of course.  Google uses the number of links TO your web page to judge the value of that page.  So the more links you have pointing to a page, the better - BUT their are important caveats.
      
      One - Google counts only one or two links from one domain to another.  So it's pointless creating several links from your blog to your Hubs, because all but one are a waste of effort.  Worse, if Google sees too many links from one domain to another, it may decide it's a link scheme and discount them altogether - and that's where sidebar widgets can be bad news.
      
      I know someone who got in trouble with Google because a friend had added her blog to his blogroll.   His blogroll was displayed in the sidebar of his site - which meant that every page on his site had a link to her blog.  His site had hundreds of pages, which meant Google counted hundreds of links, decided it was "suspicious" and penalized her for it.  That's why sidebar blogrolls have gone out of fashion.
      
      Two - if Google sees that two domains are linking to each other, it suspects there's some collusion going on, and discounts both links.  So again, wasted. That's why I say, decide which direction you're going to link in, and stick to it.
      
      I have links from several of my Hubs, pointing to blog posts. That's not to impress Google, it's to drive real readers to my blog.

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         Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         That's interesting about the blogroll list. I wonder how blogger counts it as each post can appear on its own page with all the sidebar stuff that comes along, but perhaps that doesn't get counted the same way since, after all, it is Google's blog platform.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            It's not a question of how Blogger or Wordpress or some other platform counts it, it's how Google's robots see it. Blogger is exactly the same - in fact the example I gave was a Blogger blog.

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               Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               For a blogger blog, it's Google's platform, Google's template, Google's blogroll widget. The bot is smart enough to know all that and that every blog post creates a page. Sorry, but I'll have to suspend belief in this case that I'm "in trouble" because I link to other relevant blogs in the sidebar.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  If you're linking to other blogs in your sidebar, you're not the one in trouble.  You may be causing trouble for the blogs you link to, but only if you have hundreds of pages in your blog.  A small blog is unlikely to generate enough repetitive links to be a problem.
                  
                  Personally I'd hate to cause trouble for anyone else by accident, so I link to other relevant blogs within the posts themselves.  That gives just as much backlink benefit to the other blogs (probably more, if it's within the text) without any risks.
                  
                  Please don't think that just because something belongs to Google, Google's search engine algorithms approve of everything about it. Google's divisions operate separately, and they don't always talk to one another.
                  
                  A perfect case in point is Adsense and the Search division.   Last year, the Search division started penalising websites for having too many ads "above the fold", and for having too high a ratio of ads to content.  Over six months later, the Adsense division was still recommending an ad layout with a top banner and ads in the sidebars above the fold - a layout that would get you dumped by Google search.
                  
                  Another example is tag clouds.  You can create a tag cloud on Blogger (called labels there), but there is a video somewhere by Google's Matt Cutts saying that tag clouds are a bad thing!  Personally I use labels as categories rather than tags, which means that I use them far more sparingly.

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         Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Marisa - great information here!  Do you think there are similar issues when we link within a subdomain, or link from one subdomain  to another within HP (if we have two accounts, for example)?

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Google loves it when you link between related Hubs on your own sub-domain, because it sees that as enhancing navigation within your site.  They don't count as backlinks.
            
            Paul Edmonson has said - and I've always understood - that Google regards each sub-domain as a separate site.  So linking to and from Hubs on other sub-domains is exactly the same as linking to and from posts on another site.

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               Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks, Marisa - this is very helpful!

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         younghopesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Hello Mairsa, hope you are doing fine, read your answer and found it helpful and informative, But i am  a bit confused being a newbie. You said " if Google sees too many links from one domain to another, it may decide it's a link scheme and discount them altogether ". I just wanted to know one thing: i have a blogger blog and i have been promoting it by creating a blog here at hubpages as well as on wordpress too. So i leave a link for example: 'Read Full Article Here' which brings the readers directly to my main blogger blog. Is it wrong in the eyes of google? I have some traffic coming to my blog from wordpress as well as from hubpages too. Should i go ahead or else what needs to be done to promote the blog. Your advice and help would be much appreciated, Thanks

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            You can't create a blog at HubPages. I assume you mean you are writing articles on HubPages. 
            
            Also, you should not be posting part of an article here and then repeating it on your blog. 
            
            If you are writing an article here, then referring the reader to a post on the same subject on your blog, that is absolutely fine.  It would only be a problem if you were writing dozens and dozens of articles here, each one linking to your blog.

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               younghopesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               oh yeah, i m writing on hubpages not having a blog here, no i havent linked all articles to my blog only a few of them, so will that affect?

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         GA Andersonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Marisa,
         I think a little more explanation might be helpful to others worried or confused about "linkbacks" (different from reciprocal links), as discussed.
         
         BackLinks between hubs and blogs can be a good thing.
         I remember a video from Matt Cutts about this, but was unable to find a link, but to paraphrase:
         
         Relative to linkbacks, reciprocal links, exchanging links - whatever you want to call it, Relevancy is the all-important determination as to whether Google sees a linkback as good or bad.
         
         For example: (these two were Matt's own examples)
         A linkback that is natural and good in Google's eyes
         - A site that sells bicycle tires links to the tire manufacturer's site, and, because the tire-selling site is am important customer of the manufacturer, it has links back to the tire-selling site
         
         these are NOT reciprocal links. they are natural and beneficial, and Google gives them value
         
         So linkbacks between a blog about flamenco dancing and hubs about aspects of flamenco dancing would actually have value and benefit in Google's eyes - thus they are a benefit to the hubber and blogger (usually the same person)
         
         Bottom line - it is smart, and beneficial to have linkbacks to your hubs and blogs IF they have relevant content.
         
         - Bad linkbacks - simple, links between non-relevant content.
         Linking your flamenco dancing site to a hub about giraffes and the giraffe hub linking back to the flamenco dancing site would be pure reciprocal linking providing no enhanced value to the reader - and frowned upon and devalued by Google
         
         Matt's example of this was a Polish-speaking website with English-language links to rental apartments in San Fransisco - no obvious relevancy = bad in Google's eyes
         
         This is one of the reasons that "link widgets" are a bad idea - no control over relevancy.
         
         And relative to sidebar links and tag clouds - you are spot on - not healthy things to do anymore.
         
         Hope this was helpful,
         GA

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            Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Could you provide a reference to why sidebar links and tag clouds are now "bad"? Haven't been able to find anything definitive about that yet. Thanks.

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               GA Andersonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Perhaps, perhaps not,
               I just remember in my reading that a block of text, like a tag cloud, stuffed with keywords, (which essentially are what tags are), would almost certainly be seen as keyword stuffing.
               
               Consider that most trusted content sites; Constant Content, Ezinearticles, etc., all recommend a keyword density of 2% - 4% (2 to 4 times per 100 words) and a tag cloud could easily be seen as almost 100%.
               
               Maybe they are not bad, I'm certainly not a knowledgeable expert, but I've seen enough "maybes" that it makes sense to me.
               
               and then.... this....
               
               This is Google's own Matt Cutts speaking at Word Camp 2009
               It is about blogging and Wordpress, and it is excellent - it might be the best 46 minutes you spend - relative to Google knowledge.
               
               It also contains some very good information that could help HubPages writers too. Highly recommended.
               
               Anyway, I think it's somewhere in the last 10-15  minutes where he talks about tag clouds, sidebar links - in relation to his discussion about the importance of link relevancy.
               
               Or maybe it's not there and I imagined it. Either way, I doubt anyone will be disappointed that they watched it.
               
               http://youtu.be/3P-m2cBCJSk
               
               
               GA

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                  Casimiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Matt was rather ambiguous about the tag cloud point, as usual. In any case, I do agree that they are not very useful and I've deleted them on two of my blogs as they'd grown rather large.
                  
                  As far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on Marisa's claim that because the sidebar repeats for every page/post, it can be seen as link stuffing. I made a query over on WarriorForum and even they don't seem to know if that's an issue. The links in my blog rolls are very relevant to the niche of each blog, so they stay for now.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     As you know, all these pieces of advice, like tag clouds and keyword stuffing and blogroll links are speculation, because Google is always ambiguous about it. 
                     
                     Having seen my friends Webmaster Tools showing over a thousand inbound links from the blog in question, I'm inclined to believe it's a problem, but everyone has to make their own decision. 
                     
                     Even if it isn't, there isn't a lot of point in a blogroll in the sidebar. If you're trying to do the other blog owner a favour, a sidebar link is far less valuable than a contextual link in one of your posts.  If you're trying to provide resources for readers, why not create a Links page, where you can include the links followed by a short review of the blog?  That avoids any potential problems.

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               GA Andersonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               dit..dit..dit..dit...NEWS FLASH UPDATE dit... dit... dit... dit...
               found this from Google's Matt Cutts, it pretty much agrees with what I already posted, but it's always good to hear it "straight from the horse's mouth"
               
               Are "tag clouds" a good idea?
               
               http://youtu.be/bYPX_ZmhLqg
               
               ps. side bar linkrolls (widgets) have the same possible negative link value effect that Matt attributes to tag clouds, for the same reason - IF - the links aren't relevant to your content
               
               pss. Everyone should do a "Matt Cutts" search on youtube - it's amazing how much good info he puts out, and it makes it easier to spot BS when you hear it from "so-called" knowledgeable people
               
               pss. I AM NOT one of those knowledgeable people
               
               GA

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                  GA Andersonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  *bump - good info for hubbers with blogs

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   Sue Adamsposted 11 years ago

   Thank you Marisa for your elaborate reply on back-links.

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   Sue Adamsposted 11 years ago

   Thanks GA Anderson, saves me a lot of work removing (relevant) links from my website. The widget however, I hall get rid of. Thanks, Marisa.

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   drpennypincherposted 11 years ago

   I had about 35 posts on my blog on blogspot that all linked to my HubPages profile.  I decided to remove the link on each blog post and only link to my HubPages profile from the about page on my blog.  Hopefully search engines will like this arrangement better. 
   
   I do have up to 2 relevant links on blog posts, some to my HubPages articles and some to other posts on my blog.

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    Rock_njposted 11 years ago

    The 24 hour window that Amazon provides is a limitation, but it's nice when someone enters Amazon through a Hub product link and then buys a bunch of things on Amazon unrelated to the link.  That's happened to me a couple of times.

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