In the Google Sandbox

1. 87

   truefaith7posted 12 years ago

   Hi Guys--
   Over the past couple of days I've watched my hub traffic plummet down pretty rapidly to almost nothing. Two days ago, I only had a small trickle of traffic coming from Google. Yesterday absolutely nothing except from Bing and Yahoo. Since almost all of my hubs have completely vanished from the Google search results as of yesterday, I think it is safe to say that I've been sandboxed.
   
   At this time only three of my hubs are still listed in Google: My newest hub and my two underperforming hubs. However, out of those three, only one appears on page 1 when I typed its name in Google. The other two showed up for various oddball search results (including an slightly unrelated web search I did on Google earlier yesterday).
   
   Should I unpublish the two underperformers, change the titles and possibly certain repetitive text blocks of some of my hubs, and hope that works as some have suggested in previous threads? Or should I just sit back and leave my hubs to the whims of Google?
   
   Thanks for any and all help. It's much appreciated.

   replyreport
2. 93

   viking305posted 12 years ago

   This forum was started about 4 hours ago about what seems to be a complete copying of the Hubpages site.  That may have something to do with it. My traffic has plunged too since December.  Since last week I have been earning around 50c to €2 a day.  Before that it was steady at €6 to €14 a day!
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/92981
   
   
   The HubPages staff have not replied on the forum post yet so I would hang on and see what happens.
   
   It could be that you have been sandboxed though.  Maybe other hubbers could give you an answer.

   replyreport
3. 70

   shimmering Dawnposted 12 years ago

   I have followed that thread viking mentioned but I do not think that has much to do with the drastic traffic drop..sandbox is the plausible explanation.. but wait before you pronounce yourself sandboxed...some small changes have wiped out traffic in the past for a few days and brought it back again on my main profile.
   If you are sandboxed there is nothing much you can do than wait for the ban to lift.. or find another place/create a new profile to write.

   replyreport
4. 87

   truefaith7posted 12 years ago

   @Viking: Very sorry to hear your own traffic plunge!:-( It's pretty frustrating when we put so much effort into writing our hubs and some little glitch comes along and knocks them off the map. Hopefully your own traffic will recover soon though.
   
   As for the scraper site, not sure if that's the cause or not, but you never know with Google.
   
   @Shimmering: Fortunately I'm also active on Squidoo and have a couple of my own blogs, so I'll just publish my new material there until this gets cleared up, or the ban is lifted. Whichever the case may be....
   
   It's strange because my top 3 hubs show up when I type my subdomain address into Google Search, but the hubs do not appear in the search results themselves, even if I type the title of the hub and 'hubpages' after the end.
   
   Anyway, thanks for the feedback guys and hopefully my hubs will return to Google sooner or later!

   replyreport
5. 60

   CASE1WORKERposted 12 years ago

   I was sand boxed for two months- clean up anything that is outstandingly bad and then just leave it, is my advice- see what happens as there is no rhyme or reason to this.

   replyreport
6. 60

   CASE1WORKERposted 12 years ago

   I have just read the other post re the site being stolen- suggest you dont do a thing until that is sorted

   replyreport
7. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   It's difficult to say what the cause is, but this recent thread by Jason (HP staff) gives you good general advice on cleaning up your hubs. 
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/90867
   
   Minimize the number of Amazon ads you have would be my advice - that's to say, if you've added some just for the sake of it and they never bring in any money, you might be better off without them!
   
   I tidied up my hubs and experienced an increase in traffic a week later.  Although now I could be slumping again.  :-S

   replyreport
8. 66

   Pearldiverposted 12 years ago

   Just Maybe This is 'The Sandbox' After All
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/92981

   replyreport
9. 87

   truefaith7posted 12 years ago

   Ok guys...thanks for the tips. I will most definitely do some cleaning up and updating of my hubs and I may unpublish those hubs that aren't doing so well. Have no idea if that will have any effect or not, but some are due for an update.
   
   Thanks again for the advice!

   replyreport
   1. 95

      PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I only glanced, but your hubs look reasonably good to me and as you don't have many to start with, I certainly wouldn't unpublish too many!
      
      Somehow, there has to be a balance between doing nothing and over-reacting, as CASE1WORKER says.

      replyreport
10. 78

    Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years ago

    "The other two showed up for various oddball search results (including an slightly unrelated web search I did on Google earlier yesterday)."
    
    Make sure you're logged out of google when you check this stuff.
    
    I know when I search for something, if I'm logged in, my hubpages come up all the time for stuff, but I know that's not the case in the real world.

    replyreport