WTF

1. 60

   wildt1980posted 10 years ago

   Is the Google keyword tool wrong? Or is hubpages a scam.  How in the world can my hub be #1 with the keyword, "how to doodle" with the average local volume at 1,8000,000 and my traffic is decreasing at 5 hits a day.  Something is not right?

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   1. 71

      galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Something is not right for sure! I  put specific keywords and phrases from google in a hub that HP keeps zapping. Metrics did not recognize any keywords before or after I put them in.
      There's no point in researching keywords if google is still not going to recognize them! It's useless! (just my opinion)

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      1. 71

         galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I just checked my article "Researching Old Military Photos", and metrics still says there are no search terms. This is BS because the title is a high ranking search phrase!

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         1. 88

            SimeyCposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Typing in "Researching Old Military Photos" places you seven in Google ranking - however Google Adwords show no traffic - this is probably because not many people are searching for that phrase. The phrase 'old military photos' does show some traffic so you should see some traffic over time - the problem you have is that you are not ranked top - so you will only get a minor part of the traffic!

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         2. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Where are you getting the information that it's a highly searched term?
            
            I just tried it in the Adwords keyword tool and it says there are precisely zero searches for that term. 
            
            Take out the word "researching" and there are 46 searches a month.  Change "photos" to "pictures" and it's even worse - 28 searches.  Globally. 
            
            Change the parameters to "Broad" instead of "Exact" and it improves to 390 searches, which is still not great.
            
            "Military pictures" is a highly searched term, but that would cover modern as well as old images.

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   2. 88

      SimeyCposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      You are coming up seventh on google. 90% of views tend to go to the first five in search rankings. At seven you should get 2% views in theory - so that would still be 30000 a month or perhaps 1000 a day! of course this assumes that Google Adwords are accurate-  and from my experience over the last few years - I always divide by at least ten if I am ranked in the top 3 and probably more below that!
      
      I can attest that HP is definately not a scam - they have no control over views Google sends you - you can compare views on Google Analytics if you've signed up for them!

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      1. 95

         wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         There's more to it than that, Simey.  There are 6,120,000 searches for "how to doodle" and all similar phrases.  I get the OP as #8 here for the phrase, but that does not mean that he will be #1 for all those other similar phrases.
         
         On the other hand, there are just monthly 2400 searches for the exact phrase "how to doodle"; 2% of that is just 1 1/2 per day average.
         
         To the OP: that your traffic for this hub is decreasing by 5 hits per day means exactly nothing, whether you are seeing 100 per day or 15.  I have one hub that drops 100 per day (or more) every Friday, like clockwork.  On Monday it goes back up that same 100 per day. 
         
         In any event, HP does not control your traffic; that perk belongs almost exclusively to you and google.  Mostly google.

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      2. 71

         galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         The wrong titles show up in google at #7.. Thats because HP keeps unpublishing it and google doesn't get a chance to even see that the title is a current search phrase. which is different.
         It was searched 11 hours ago and no search terms were found.

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         1. 95

            wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Presumably you are meaning the "search terms" found in the hub metrics on the hub itself.
            
            It will probably take HP a month of decent organic traffic to collect any terms - say a few hundred readers coming in via google.
            
            Simey is right; there are about 45 searches per month for "old military photos" and none at all for your title.  Searching for "old military photos" does not produce your hub anywhere in the top 50 results; you are thus extremely unlikely to get any traffic at all from that keyword.

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            1. STAFF

               pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Starting in 2011, Google started hiding the search term of referred traffic for people that were signed in to a Google account.  As of November it was estimated that represented 39% of requests, and it's probably even higher now.   So, while we may know that the traffic to a Hub came from search, we only get the terms some of the time.  It's probably best to just consider the relative quantity of the different terms rather than looking at the absolute number.

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               1. 92

                  Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Google hides the info in analytics, but do they also hide it in the keyword tool?
                  
                  I can't find any info to say yay or nay on that.

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                  1. 89

                     WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Susana, I can't find the article, but I do remember reading that although they hide it from GA, they DO NOT hide in the keyword tool as they believe it's of benefit to advertisers. The article was talking about the hypocrisy of hiding one but not the other, and privacy concerns.

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                     1. 92

                        Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        That makes much more sense to me. Advertisers DO need to know the actual traffic potential of phrases and how much they're likely to cost. If my budget was nearly 40% out I'd be pretty peeved!

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                        1. 89

                           WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           Precisely. I still miss having accurate keyword visitor stats though

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            2. 71

               galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Wilderness:
               I agree with you on the low searches for "old military photos'" but thats not my title! It's "old military pictures" and a couple others I put in.

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               1. 71

                  galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I'd like to further add that the title that shows in HP when you hover over my hub title does not match the current title. Therefore it will never be right! The title that shows is one that was used a year ago!
                  Why does the title not change?

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                  1. 95

                     wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     The title is what you see regardless of a hovering mouse.
                     
                     The URL is what a hovering mouse will show, and is not changeable.  Whatever you put in when you wrote it is what it will remain.

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                  2. 86

                     Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     It's the URL that shows, which can't be changed.  It's not that important so long as your actual title is correct.
                     
                     Unfortunately, as I stated, your title keywords are not highly searched at all, so the whole thing is really irrelevant, I'm afraid.

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         2. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            As others have said, are you using "broad" or "exact" match when you check the number of searches?   "Exact" is the only one that counts.

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   3. 92

      Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      This what happens when you use "broad match" rather than "exact match" in the keyword tool - you'll get search volume results that are nowhere near a reflection of reality. We've all made the same mistake at some point it's just a case of learning from it and moving on
      
      Also, I don't see your hub on the first page of Google search at all - for me your hub is at number 15 (so half way down page 2). What you're seeing are personalised results. You can turn that some of that off, but not all of it unfortunately. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/54048?hl=en
      
      Here are more tips on de-personalising Google search: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-574 … h-results/
      
      The good news is that if your newly published hub is on page 2, it can easily get to page 1 over time.

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   4. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      How do you know it's ranked #1?   If you're searching for your Hub on Google on your own computer, you're seeing personalized results and that means nothing.

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   5. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Do you have the Match Types set to "Broad" or "Exact"?   "Broad" will give you a misleading result, because it includes that phrase and all other similar phrases.
      
      Switch to "Exact" and you'll see that "How to Doodle" gets 2,400 searches a month - which is still worth going for, for a subject where isn't already a lot of competition from other sites.

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2. 0

   Beth37posted 10 years ago

   Oooh, how exciting still though. Congratulations.

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3. 59

   MindExplorer1posted 10 years ago

   Dude, would you mind posting a screenshot to substantiate your 'accidental' success?
   
   Er, I mean, the No. 1 Hub in the World! How cute!!

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4. 60

   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   "WTF"
   
   This thread on The World Taxidermy Federation really should be reclassified on the topics page. HP is slipping...

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