No Google traffic at all for a recent hub

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   Bard of Elyposted 11 years ago

   A few weeks back I spent a lot of time researching and writing a hub about The Prisoner which was and is a cult TV series starring Patrick MacGoohan. I thought I would be sure to get good traffic for this but it has failed miserably. And guess what it has had no traffic from Google at all! Now why would that be?

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      janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Without  going into a lot of detail I think the problem lies with your Title.
      Patrick McGoohan was The Prisoner Number Six in this cult TV series
      Do you do keyword research?
      There is a lot of information about keyword research on HP and elsewhere.
      I ran a few test on some of the tools I use and came up with this revised version for the Title.
      "Prisoner TV Show Starring Patrick McGoohan - Retrospective Review"
      Here are some reasons
      If you enter "prisoner TV" in  a Google search  and look at autosuggest up pops "Prisoner TV Show" - that means many people search for that term
      When I ran this through Jaaxy.com it shows about 3000 views per month with an 'amber' for competition. When I run it through Niche Finder it also shows moderate competition and 880 searches a month. Using the title I suggest, may get hits from "prisoner tv mcgoohan" which is also competitive.
      
      Your title does not inform the user what the article is about, nor does it entice them to visit - you need an action word.
      
      It is going to be tough to compete for those key words as there are lots of prisoner TV series all around the world. HP's Title Tuner may have some suggestions.
      
      You should do your keyword research on the topic before writing the article - there is no point writing on a topic that no one is searching for and for which you have no hope competing for. (in my opinion, no matter how much research you do and its quality)
      Another great tool is  http://www.seodevgroup.com/products/Nic … inder.html  Its free and highlights the problem you face with such a broad niche.
      
      Others more qualified and experienced than I may have some suggestions. You also need links links links to give it lift off.

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         Bard of Elyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you so much for your detailed advice, janderson99! I will try your amended title. I suppose I don't really understand keywords and will have to study more on this subject. I was thinking that "The Prisoner", "Number Six" and "Patrick McGoohan" were all keywords people would be searching for seeing as the series has a huge following and he was  an actor who was famous for his role in the series.
         
         That last link doesn't work for me for some reason though but brings up a page saying Error.

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            aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I suspect the problem is that  although "The Prisoner" and "Number Six" are good keywords, that might be searched for quite a bit, they are too competitive.  The first pages of google, at least for "The Prisoner" are filled with pretty strong sites like Imbd etc.  Even the BBC is relegated to the second page.  According to Market Samurai, there are 56k searches a day for "the prisoner", although this might be an overestimation, it would be brilliant to rank for such a keyword, but not really realistic for a hub.  I would still expect it to rank for some long tail keywords (longer phrases about the prisoner), and eventually it might, but it's a bit of a risk.  Because there are already a lot of well established sites which focus on tv shows writing about it, they probably outcompete you.  It's possible that the title changes will bring you some traffic, otherwise perhaps write several hubs about more detailed aspects of the show.  I  would check out the sites on the first page of Google and see whether you can write something about the show that they haven't already covered.

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      relacheposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Can you explain why you thought you would be sure to get "good traffic" for this?  I just read the entire Hub and I'd like to hear your rationale for success before I share why I think you missed the mark with this one.

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         Bard of Elyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I thought it would do well because it was well researched and I spent a lot of time on putting it together with a balance of text boxes, images and videos and it was about an actor and TV series with a cult following,. I was hoping, in vain as it has tuned out, that some of that following might find my work and see that it was good!

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   Keith Hamposted 11 years ago

   You can't always rely on Google even if you have keywords. Its all about trending, or interest hubs. If yours is about something that is vague or fails to draw a reader in, despite how many billions look at Google, there just won't be any views.
   The majority of my views come from HubPages but I haven't a lot in the first place. I somewhat don't rely on this place as a medium for coverage as more a community to write within.
   
   I'm not saying your articles are bad, by the way, just letting you know that Google really isn't the best place to rely on views from. Unless your page is in the first couple hits to pop up, its likely to go overlooked.

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      Bard of Elyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your advice too, Keith! I have always thought that Google was where we wanted the traffic from, especially seeing as money comes in from Adsense, or used to!

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      WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Google won't suddenly send you hits the moment you write a hub, usually. 
      
      And evergreen is better than trending if you want passive income and growing traffic.

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   2uesdayposted 11 years ago

   You could try using possible search terms as sub-headings for the sections.
   If people remember it they may be looking for some of the details about it that they have forgotten.
   
   Such as - Which 60's TV series had a giant bubble in it?
   The Prisoner had a giant bubble that ..........
   
   What color jacket did Patrick McGoohan wear when playing the part of the prisoner?
   
   I am thinking that is the sort of details people might check out when they have a discussion about a TV show from the past. I would think it would be searched for more in the UK than other countries.
   
   You could try something like - Where is Port Merion?  Then add a map capsule to answer the query.

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   relacheposted 11 years ago

   Thanks for answering my question.  I want to say that 1) I am a total fan of the Prisoner show and 2) I have a Squidoo lens on the show which is just over six years old now.  I haven't read a lot of your hubs over the years, but I have read a lot of your forum comments, noting that you have struggled a lot with trying to make money from this site.  I studied both creative and critical writing in college, and the constructive criticism I am now about to offer is the sort of questioning and feedback I got while in those classes and in some professional workshops I've taken.
   
   I think your Hub tanked because it reads like a regurgitation of information which already exists out on the Internet.  It doesn't read like it was written by a fan of the show, it reads like it was written by someone who was given an assignment to write about the show who didn't actually want the assignment but who had a list of bullet points or a word count to meet and then sat down and determinedly cranked it out.
   
   To a fan of the show or even someone who just watched the episodes most of what you've written is obvious.  It's either a rehash/recap of things that happen or trivia tidbits that are long well-known and available on any number of other, older Prisoner websites.  I didn't actually get the impression from reading your Hub that you've actually watched the show, and the commentary seems to be utterly devoid of anything that resembles your own opinion or experience.  If I am your reader, why are you sharing this with me, and why should I care that you wrote it?  How come if you think it's important enough to write about this show, you don't seem to have a personal opinion about any of it?  Or favorite things you want to talk about it?  Cult tv shows have rabid, passionate fans.  I think a dispassionate review of the show serves no purpose.  Established fans have no reason to consider your resource and people unfamiliar with the show aren't being shown why they are supposed to get excited about it.
   
   I found your outbound links to be utterly banal.  There are actually quite a few web resources about the Prisoner which are much better (and which have more fandom credibility) than Wikipedia.  Did you read any Prisoner fan sites?  Also, why do you offer links to old VHS tapes of the show instead of modern DVDs? 
   
   The show got that AMC remake with Ian McKellan back in 2009, and Patrick McGoohan died right around the same time, so that was the last big wave of interest in the show.  My lens history shows some bigger traffic peaks that match the tv airing dates and subsequent DVD release.  But that was now 2-3 years ago.  Why does the world need another web page about the Prisoner tv show now?  And why does it need to be your Hub?
   
   I think the feedback you got here about keywords and titles isn't as important as Keith Ham's comment about how if something is vague or uninteresting, it's just not going to draw Google traffic.  You also said in your most recent post in this thread that you'd hoped that fans of the show would find your work good.  How are you identifying those people as your audience?  How are you researching what they already know vs what they might want to know?  How is your content unique and useful to them?

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      Bard of Elyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Relache, for a very detailed constructive criticism of why the hub hasn't done well. You are no doubt right because I know you are far more successful here than I am.
      
      I actually watched all the episodes before I wrote it to give me ideas of what should be included. No, I didn't look at any fan sites. I must admit I didn't think to do so. I didn't put links to new DVDs because I didn't know there were any.
      
      I can take your point that fans of the show wouldn't find my hub of any interest because they would already be familiar with it all and that is why I can now see it failed. I was writing it giving info and explanations for people without any knowledge of what it was about. So to think I would hold the attention of established fans was just wishful thinking.  Seems I spent a lot of time putting it together in vain, apart from what I have just learned from you! Thank you again!

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   relacheposted 11 years ago

   Remember, what I said is just my opinion and perspective.  I have Hubs that don't do what I'd hoped too.  I often take that as a sign that I need to play harder with them, not necessarily work harder.
   
   I'd be curious to hear what happens if you decide to rework your Hub.

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      Bard of Elyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I will probably make some more changes to it based on what you have said. I think that maybe where I have gone wrong in the past is in concentrating on getting a lot of hubs published whereas if I had spent much longer on ensuring that the ones I was publishing were of top quality material it might have worked a lot better for me. I was reading one of your advice hubs and picked up on where you say that hubs need a score of 75 or over. I know I have a lot bellow that figure and I suppose they drag down my overall score and traffic. I also note that you recommend between 600-800 words of text. I have had old hubs that are less than that but recently have seen advice from hubbers saying that 1,000 words or more was needed, so have been trying to work with that figure.
      I am currently aiming to get my new Green Bard account able to complete the 30 hubs in 30-days challenge and have been working to the 1,000 words idea there. Knowing I can have less words will help me timewise. I am going to make a lot more changes here I think too. Thank you for your advice!

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   Mark Ewbieposted 11 years ago

   I loved the series.
   
   
   

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   Wesman Todd Shawposted 11 years ago

   I've had things that sat and did nothing for over a year.....and today get me more daily traffic than I thought they deserved in the first place.
   
   I don't do keyword research at all, and don't intend to start, but I do pay close attention to the title of things, and also think putting what is known to be a valid keyword within any given piece as a bold title over each capsule is VERY VERY important, so long as said keyword is relevant to said capsule.
   
   Some things just take more time to get noticed and ranked in search engines, is my conjecture.  I've published whimsical bits I'd mostly consider "throw aways" that I'd literally forgot I'd published, that a year later turn into successful things.
   
   I no longer pay so much attention to whether or not I'm getting steady Google traffic within the first week after publishing a thing.  I think that is pretty misleading insofar as judging long term success.

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   paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

   Google routinely ignores all my new endeavours as well.

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