Has your hub traffic tanked in the last few days? Here may be why.

1. 61

   Mike Daleposted 11 years ago

   Google's latest update was more than just EMD's.
   
   Welcome to Panda update 20.
   
   "Google has confirmed with us that on Thursday, September 27th, they released a Panda algorithm update – this would be the 20th Panda update and thus we are naming it Panda 20. This is a fairly major Panda update that impacts 2.4% of English search queries and is still rolling out."
   
   http://searchengineland.com/google-pand … ted-135291

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      Xenonlitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Mine is down about 20 percent at Hub Pages. My Helium views are sky high. Go figure.

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         Redberry Skyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Xenonlit - I'm not asking for your trade secrets ( ! ), but are there broad differences to the kind of things you write on Helium and on here?

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            Xenonlitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I have been there for a long time and I have a huge catalog there, so there is really no way to compare.

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2. 88

   Redberry Skyposted 11 years ago

   Wow.  Google had to wait to be asked (several times) whether they had released a large algo update before they finally admitted it, and it took them 6 days. 
   
   One of the comments on the link Mike Dale posted has noticed exactly the same thing I noticed - for certain terms the top 10 are dominated by big brands and blogspot blogs. 
   
   Since it's not targeting quality as far as I can see (the blogspot blogs on the first page seem to mostly be scappy and not often updated), and since it's not targeting sites like HP (other similar sites don't seem to be affected and some Hubbers have said they haven't been affected), I can't see what it is they're actually targetting.  Is it commercially viable search terms - putting low quality blogs on the first page to drive searchers to big brand sites and/or adverts? 
   
   Not all the search terms I've taken a hit on are commercially viable ones, though, so have they penalised my whole subdomain?  But I've not lost all my traffic - I'm down to about 40% of my previous search traffic (but still falling day-on-day).  So should I (and others who've been hit by this) open a secondary HP a/c and make sure we don't target commercially viable search terms?
   
   I'm just musing aloud, and trying to see patterns and a way forward - antone else noticed any patterns or have any ideas?

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   1. 61

      Mike Daleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think anyone knows right now. People I trust are saying Google will have to change some things because they took it too far. I'm going to wait it out a few weeks then see what my strategy will be.
      
      My Hubpages traffic is around 15% of what it was at the moment.

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3. 74

   Victoria Stephensposted 11 years ago

   Yep my traffic is down about 95% I can't see things getting any better for a while either.

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4. 67

   Cheeky Girlposted 11 years ago

   The EMD update and a Panda update arriving together. They will affect about 2.5% of all web content in the English language. But rather, my hub traffic has increased. perhaps it's due to increased  engagement on social media like twitter and others, and less on searches.
   
   I suggest using social media that is mobile friendly, as most of everyone's traffic comes from there now. But that is not always obvious to some folks. And Linked In is one of the best social media platforms for dedicated followers of writing and things that professionals want to read about.

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      Mike Daleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Spot on advice! Social is the new SEO.

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         talfonsoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I agree! I have been using a service that sends out text messages for people to read Hubs. I saw a bump in traffic and I was happy with it. I'm pretty much good with TweetMeme and Twitter.

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            mmorpgloverposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            What service is that? Or do you mean Tweetmeme?

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5. 89

   meloncauliposted 11 years ago

   I have lost about 50% of my traffic also. It is so annoying as it came at a time when my articles were seeing a good rise in traffic!

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6. 67

   Midasfxposted 11 years ago

   Since i have several hubs related to korean music my hubs have been doing great since the world wide music sensation Psy-Gangnam style came out. But since this update i am down about 80% in traffic, and virtually no income from hubs,  adsense, or amz. Worst update ever!

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7. 81

   pstraubie48posted 11 years ago

   So ...if you have page views of 90,000 and the next time you view within 8 hours it is now 89,000 is that because of panda?  this may seem really stupid of me to ask but I am not so up on my panda knowledge. ty ty

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      Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not quite pstraubie48.
      
      If you had been getting page views of 90,000 and were now getting 30,000 then that would be that blasted Panda!!

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8. 61

   Mike Daleposted 11 years ago

   OH who called it? (yeah, look a few posts up) Google confirms it will have to tweak and adjust the EMD update.
   
   (also read this for help in understanding Panda)
   
   http://searchengineland.com/the-emd-upd … ome-135446

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   Dame Scribeposted 11 years ago

   I think this will be a regular event for all online we are at the mercy of the SE but least, we can try to have fun, get mischievous, partay .. oops

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      Mike Daleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well now that's a take on it that I can get into lol

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    CyclingFitnessposted 11 years ago

    The question then has to be- why has Panda taken so much of some people's traffic away but not others?

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       Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       For every loser, there is a winner!
       This update is causing problems for webmasters across the board. It is not just confined to HubPages.
       What is frustrating to so many people is there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason as to the logic of this latest update.

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11. 0

    jenuboukaposted 11 years ago

    Oh my word, WTF, In the last 3 days my traffic is now down by 50% and there are crazy blue arrows invading my screen.  I have made it through all the "whatevers" between HP and Google but this last one is just out right nuts. NUTS.
    
    How long are you hubbers going to hold out to see what happens.  I think a month is about all I can handle, before I lose it. 
    
    Should I just take a fine comb and go through each hub and update, reword, rewrite, find new links to connect to?

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    1. 61

       Mike Daleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I would wait it out for now. SEO in the old sense is going away. Links, if not the right kind, can do more harm than good. Also lots of variation in anchor text is mandatory. Google knows about our old tactics and is punishing that sort of thing more and more.
       Social is the name of the game as well as market leadership.
       The days of lots of small sites on autopilot drawing meaningful search engine traffic just from google is over.
       My top tip: Use amazing images in your articles and pin them on pintrest. Be consistent with it, you'll be glad you did.

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          jenuboukaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Great tips!! Thanks!

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       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       There's no point doing anything until there is some indication of what the problem might be.   Google won't tell us, but there are squadrons of webmasters out there, far more web-savvy than any of us, and you can be sure they've already started testing and researching.   Keep an eye on sites like SearchEngineLand where I'm sure they'll be sharing their conclusions over the next few months.

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          Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I agree with not doing anything. Usually these updates give new content a boost even if the older content suffer a little. Most times the hubs that suffer tend to regain their momentum. I see traffic picking up even though weekends tend to be better for me than midweek. Fridays are my worst days but I do see an improvement.

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             DrMark1961posted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Last week my page views were down to about 1/3 but they are way up now; still lower than before but climbing a little every day. Maybe waiting will work out.

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12. 67

    Cheeky Girlposted 11 years ago

    Everyone in Hub Pages needs to focus more on attracting reads, views and traffic from outside Hub Pages. Social media, blogs, websites, back links... guest blogging. As more pages in this place get de-indexed, hubbers will have to attract new eyes to older hubs, or else revamp the old hubs a bit. Spit and Polish time!

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13. 61

    Xenonlitposted 11 years ago

    I am a big Google searcher. Given the garbage that I get in  the search results, Google does not care about quality, or is not getting it right.
    
    From what I've been reading, there are three things: paid promotion, hitting the trending sweepstakes or plugging away at it.
    
    None of those are paying off. Since students and writers are the main customers, maybe Google needs a lesson. I'm going to try Bing or Yahoo for a while.

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       jenuboukaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Can you give any suggestions on how to submit to Bing and Yahoo?

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    2. 61

       Mike Daleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I think it's that they are not getting it right rather than don't care. I think they are figuring out the "how" to serve up results people care about. If they don't get it right Google search will not be king for much longer.
       The thing is, the Hubpages model is making things hard. The way to success these days is to be an authority, a market leader, in a specific niche. If we do 100's of articles on Hubpages on different topics, it's really hard to be a market leader and get a following.

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14. 86

    Cardisaposted 11 years ago

    My views tanked too. I also noticed that hubs that did extremely well before have fallen and hubs that did poorly have picked up significantly. My views seem normal today but the hubs that brought that on are not the usual do gooders.

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15. 69

    Bob Zermopposted 11 years ago

    I don't know about anyone else, but I've found that I've had a huge drop in page ranking for search terms that don't appear in my title. I've lost page ranking for synonym terms, and I don't see any titles without the exact words of my searches in the first 4 or 5 pages. Has that been anyone else's experience?

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    1. 61

       Mike Daleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       It seems to be pretty common to get unexpected results from Google algorithm changes. I think, for now, we have to ride out the storm that is google search and look for traffic elsewhere.

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    timorousposted 11 years ago

    I'm sure the monkeys at Google have plenty of ways of trying out the algorithm before they unleash it on the public. The current results may well be intentional. It still needs more tweaking though, since they didn't ask anyone outside the staff whether this is what their users want in the way of info, or results. At this rate, they're digging their own grave. As Martha Stewart likes to say "It's a good thing"

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    wymyczak66posted 11 years ago

    My overall daily views are down by about 40-50%. Isn't as bad as the first major downfall I had back in April, but my hubs hadn't fully recovered from that big hit either. September really had me thinking things were back to normal, boy was I wrong! Haha.
    
    I'm just hoping my popular Halloween hub can pull me through this, but so far no good. By the end of Oct I'm usually getting 500 views/day on that one hub, but I just checked today and it's at 19  :[

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    CyclingFitnessposted 11 years ago

    Is anyone seeing positive growth in traffic today?

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       mybestreviewsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       For over a week, I have had 0 search engine views total for all 9 of my hubs. For today I have 8 views already.   Not much but 8 times more traffic in one day than the whole last week. It is without a doubt improving for me. Hope it keeps getting better.

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    2. 86

       wymyczak66posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       My views are showing just a little improvement this week. I was getting somewhere around 160 total views earlier this week, varying by about 20 from day to day. Today I checked and I'm at 199, before the update I was at around 260, so I see this is as progress : )

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       wymyczak66posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       My earnings however... R.I.P

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19. 79

    Bard of Elyposted 11 years ago

    My current traffic and earnings are the worst they have been in years!

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20. 0

    janikonposted 11 years ago

    My search engine views have fallen off a cliff, murdered by this Panda 2.0 ... sigh.

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21. 95

    brianlokkerposted 11 years ago

    My traffic from Bing and Yahoo together has historically been about 10% of my traffic from Google. Over the past week or so, Google traffic has fallen below the traffic from Bing and below the traffic from Yahoo, individually.

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    Dame Scribeposted 11 years ago

    Is this where we blame the quality of their hired human 'raters'

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       Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Definitely Dame Scribe!!
       The Google search results I've been getting, whilst researching, have been absolutely abysmal these past few days.
       When I tried tightening up the search term to improve the results I ended up with pages of results for  university research papers!
       Are Google really saying/believing that this is what the general public want to read??

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