Help with lost hub

1. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   I wonder if any of the SEO experts could help me out with a query. I wrote a hub a while ago:
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Five-Best-iPhone-Cases
   
   And it has been getting pretty good search engine traffic until a few days ago when it seems to just disappear off the google rankings:
   
   
   
   As you can see, it was fine then all of a sudden - gone. Almost no traffic. When I do a search for  "Five Best iPhone Cases" - without the quotation marks, it doesn't even show up, but another one of my hubs, Five Best iPhone Bluetooth headsets does:
   
   
   
   Any ideas why this would happen?

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2. 67

   funrideposted 16 years ago

   It´s really quite strange , I´ve gone through google with the first paragraph from your Cases hub and it shows this link to hot hubs and it happens to have your Bluetooth headsets hub one the top, very strange if you ask me . Do you change anything to those hubs recently?

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3. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   No I haven't changed anything. And Yes, I can find it vicariously through links from tags and other hubs, but not the hub itself.
   
   "Really quite strange" about describes it

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4. 67

   funrideposted 16 years ago

   Well , I guess google doesn´t like you anymore .
   
   ps - and of course it is not just google, yahoo and all the other search engines start to dislike you as well .

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5. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   LOL - I see that. Google stopped first, then the others followed suit.
   
   Anyone have any ideas?

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6. 76

   Lissieposted 16 years ago

   Sorry Mark - google is beyond me - why did it take 2 months to find my 5 light laptops hub??? BTW you have accidently published the text of this questions as a hub called "cases"  -it came thru on my fanmail!

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7. 0

   Hovalisposted 16 years ago

   Mark, I've had the same thing happen recently with a few of my hubs. They were getting, what I consider for the subject, decent traffic and in the last week or so they've dropped off to nothing. I'm wondering if Google is playing around with their algorithm again, and that's why. I'm going to wait it out, and if it continues maybe do a bit more promotion to see if I can get it ranked again. That's all I can think of doing.

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8. 89

   Paragliderposted 16 years ago

   Ah, now I understand! I saw the new hub before the forum post and hadn't a clue what to take from it. Still not quite clear why you published it as a hub though?

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   1. 76

      Lissieposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      
      
      I don't think he meant to paraglider  -I think he will wake up soon - its 3am in the morning in Europe and then he will realise whats happened!!

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9. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   He has realised what's happened LOL
   
   I published the cases hub to add the photos here on the forum - I was having some technical difficulties with the hosting service that I use for all my other sites at the same time I wanted to ask this question and add some photos. So I put them in the cases hub.
   
   Sorry to everyone about that, but I could see no  other way of quickly hosting these pics
   
   Hovalis - the same time frame as this one ?

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   1. 0

      Hovalisposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Roughly. The drop started during the week after  9th March, and had a very slight rise and then fell again around the 20th. Basically traffic has been crawling since then. This is on the hub which was, before that, bringing in the most traffic for me. At least from Google.
      
      The other hub I was most concerned about had a similar drop at the same time, but its traffic was always less predictable because of the subject matter.
      
      Edited to add: And the third hub, which had lower but constant traffic, dropped at the same time. With the same pattern you see in your stats.
      
      I noticed the drop in traffic at the time and wondered what had happened, but decided to ride it out for a month and see if it improved.

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   2. 89

      Paragliderposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      All is revealed. No worries, I was just curious!

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10. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    That is interesting. I do see differing traffic patterns for different hubs at different times - But usually when they are something seasonal like a turkey gravy recipe   - no one is looking for a turkey gravy in February LOL
    
    But this is different - I cannot find the hub by using the title - another hub comes up in the results and I have been back through quite a lot of pages.
    
    What was the subject of your hub that shows the same pattern?

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11. 0

    Hovalisposted 16 years ago

    Okay, the two with the same pattern are these ones. I wasn't going to post the links because I didn't want to be seen as overly promotional. I must be in a paranoid mood today.
    
    They are both historical subjects: World War 1 to be precise.
    
    World War 1: The Sinking of Lusitania
    http://hubpages.com/hub/World-War-1-The … -Lusitania
    
    This was on page 2 of google now, nowhere to be seen.
    
    and
    
    HMS Dreadnought: The Ship That Sparked an Arms Race
    http://hubpages.com/hub/HMS-Dreadnought … -Arms-Race
    
    This was listed page 1, and now only the Digg link shows.
    
    I thought the Lusitania hub was going to break 1000 views, and be my first to do so within the last couple of weeks, instead traffic plummeted to nothing. .

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12. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    Yes I see -
    
    Exactly the same problem as I am having with mine.
    
    I can find vicarious links to tags, your profile and tophubs, but not the hub itselff.
    
    Hopefully a team member will be along some when soon - if not I will start another thread in the "Report a problem" forum and include your hubs too.

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13. 0

    Hovalisposted 16 years ago

    Thanks, Mark.
    
    I looked up the exact title to both of those hubs, by the way, with quotation marks to see if they'd just been bumped down or something, and in both cases only backlinks and the hot hubs listings, and the author listings are showing.
    
    I don't know how Google works, but I have heard of this happening before but usually it is after a page has just been published. It's usually called something like "the google dance" and has something to do with the page being listed on all 10 servers around the world. But those particular hubs have been around for a couple of months now, way past when this type of thing usually happens.

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14. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    Well, I have heard of that too, but as you say, these have been published for a while, then all of a sudden disappearing yet leaving all the backlinks. Weird.
    
    I have just been going through my hubs and have found another one like this one.

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15. 0

    terrygposted 16 years ago

    Hello Mark,
    
    I have had the same happen with one of my producing websites. I fixed it by removing all, not some, but all duplicate content.
    
    I found yours in position 709 which coincidentally is the last page for the search result. The fact it is last page last position would indicate a penalty of some sort and I would guess a duplicate content penalty.
    
    A quick check on my duplicate content checker reveals the duplicate content was flagged in the description of each product, particularly "Apple iPhone Aircraft Aluminum Metal Case - Bundled with Full Frontal Touch Screen Protector Shield - Available in 3 Color Choices, BLACK+PROTECTOR ..."
    
    Therefore it is my guess you got the 700 penalty for that and was relegated to the end of the field. Happens all the time, even a few long tail keywords in your hub was flagged as duplicate content.
    
    It is very hard to write about something and to describe it in a totally unique way, my way around that would be a martian dialect, but none us can understand it.
    
    I wish to make it quite clear the duplicate content was from the Amazon descriptions and not your writing.

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16. 0

    terrygposted 16 years ago

    Just went away to check Hovalis hubs as well. What I have seen there is a duplicate on the photos of course that would be expected as well as the Amazon ads.
    
    It would appear to me that maybe the hubs are being affected by the Amazon advertisements as they are each flagged as duplicate content.
    
    Maybe G has decided not to include Amazon ad sites in their search engine.
    
    This would explain why the hubs have a 700 penalty.  I believe this to be the case because when you reach the end of the search results where G has "repeat the search with the omitted results included".... and you do this the supplemental side is full of Amazon and Wiki links. My next guess is the algorithm has a time limit before its flagged.

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    1. 0

       Hovalisposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       You would think that G would differentiate between Amazon ads and the content. Hmm. It's surprising that some of the quotes I had didn't show up as dupe content. There are a few, such as the Mersey inquiry quote which is really hard to cut down, and I included it and the one on the warning from the German Government as a primary source.
       
       The pictures are problematic as well, considering the subject, there are only a finite amount to draw from, so I'm hoping they aren't included. I wonder why some hubs would be hit and others not.
       
       I've since found another two hubs in the same position that lost their listing at the same time. All of these hubs were history related. If Amazon ads are going to incur a penalty and override the rest of the originally written content then I may need to re-examine my whole approach. Le sigh.

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       1. 0

          terrygposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          I have actually done that very thing. I was under the impression from other SEO forums that there was a certain percentage of duplicate content you can have before being penalised either with the 30 or 700 penalty. By the way some call it the 750 penalty but its still at the bottom.
          
          Looking at the hub Mark spoke of I could see maybe the percentage was down compared to Amazon. But yours was full of content and yes some quotes as you described something came up as duplicate. Such as the name of the ship etc.. It does not figure.
          
          I was relagated to the end of the field, re-wrote the entire page and checked for duplicate. Not one  phrase came up and viola back to page 1.
          
          There is definitely something in this and maybe someone else may know more.

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17. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    Thanks terryg -
    
    This is interesting, but I don't see how I can remove the Amazon descriptions - they are in the amazon capsules. Every thing else is original writing of my own. So it's like 600 words of my own writing and then 5 sentences of Amazon capsules.
    
    I figured a penalty of some kind had been applied, but not sure how I go about getting around this.
    
    Any one have any ideas?

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18. 62

    Jason Menayanposted 16 years ago

    I don't see anything wrong with the Hub whatsoever.
    
    I would check to see if there are any backlinks going to the Hub that Google might construe as a paid-for link (which they forbid).
    
    Adding another (clearly legitimate) link or two to the Hub might "kickstart" Google's attention.
    
    But we've seen a lot of Hubs get a flood of traffic, then lose it for a month or so, and then get it again. We saw this with other sites that I managed at my previous job. It's often hard to know why, but in almost all cases the traffic comes back as mysteriously as it disappears.

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19. 74

    charlemontposted 16 years ago

    Looking at the source of the hub I see the nofollow tags in amazon capsules. And if it's javascript, then Google cannot "read" the content. Anyway, I often come across search queries that get a page of websites with 100% duplicate content. For me this 'dupe penalty' is quite a mystery - as how it works, when, and to which websites applied.
    My guess is that Google when listing a new hub (website) is waiting for it to gather inbound links. After some time, when it sees no backlinks appear, it drops the website off prime positions. This is just my guessing based on link: query in yahoo and G itself.
    However, since the hub is not delisted, not deindexed, I'm sure it will come back to higher positions in SE.
    Just my 2c

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20. 76

    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    I don't know how good this guy is but the reference was giving over at Squidoo where a similar discussion is occurring I dont think you are alone and it doesnt seem to be a particular to HP either
    http://seo-theory.com/wordpress/2008/03 … -bad-seos/

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21. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    Interesting link Lissie - Thanks. He is saying the same thing I have been saying about social networking sites and leaving comments etc.  LOL
    
    I have no idea why a penalty would be applied, but it seems to be an intentional penalty - the pages are listed and indexed, but just waaaaay down the listings for a search result. I will just have to see what happens I guess. There are links to it and one of those links shows on the google first page. It does make you wonder what the point is of writing unique content when something like this happens. Google can just decide arbitrarily that I am not worth ranking any more and cut off my income from those hubs overnight.
    
    And even hubpages don't understand it.
    
    Although there seems to be a lot of other little discussions about mysterious drops in traffic so I would think I am not alone (with hovalis) in having a problem.
    
    Not sure what to do about it though.

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22. 61

    nicompposted 14 years ago

    I'm seeing this on my hubs tonight, where adsense should be...
    
    The requested URL could not be retrieved
    
    While trying to retrieve the URL: http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?
    
    The following error was

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