Traffic dropping - not indexed on Google?

1. 60

   EVernonposted 12 years ago

   Hi, I am new to HubPages, but I've noticed some of my hubs are indexed on Google and some are not. One of the earliest ones I posted (over 4 days ago) has a little 'traffic falling' arrow next to it. I tried to search for it on Google, and despite it having the 'featured' symbol next to it on my account, it is not anywhere to be found on Google...so obviously it is getting no traffic!!
   
   What can I do about this? Its very frustrating, I don't know how I'll be able to get anywhere with HubPages if no one can find my hubs.

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   1. 60

      EVernonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Just like to verify that I have searched for it properly, not even putting the Hub's URL into Google brings it up.

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   2. 61

      David Garrett Jrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The first thing I wrote on HubPages was on 9-14. It's just now shown up on Google. None of my other Hubs have either so I've been using reddit to promote them.
      
      One of my Hubs was deleted for duplicate content. It turns out that almost every news site on the internet had written about the same thing and used the same quote from the press release. I posted it to Open Salon, and within 2 hours it was #4 in its search results on Google.
      
      Why does it take Google so long to crawl HubPages?

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      1. 87

         aa liteposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Until very recently my hubs used to be indexed within hours of publishing them.  I'm almost sure that the difference is because new hubs are now 'pending' for 24 hours, I believe they get the no-index tag when they are in pending mode.  One theory is that the Google crawls HubPages very often, but when the bot visits a new hub and sees the no-index tag and then doesn't come again. 
         
         The 'pending' and 'idle' hubs is very new, only introduced a month ago.  I am sure that things will change over time as problems are identified and sorted, the policy will evolve.  Hopefully this problem will be addressed since there is a lot of noise about it on the forum.
         
         Aren't there Ping tools that allow you to ping your new pages to search engines so they index them quickly.  I've never used them because everything used to get indexed so fast, but maybe it's time to look at them again.

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   3. 75

      dontaytteposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Getting traffic on google seems to be far and few in between. It can be really frustrating. I have been on hub pages for three months and getting traffic is hard at times. Post your hubs on stumble upon and google + to get some quick traffic. I also promote other hubs on these sites to help each other get traffic. I try to promote at least five good hubs a day. This way those who may not be familiar with hub pages get to see what we are all about. Check out my circle on google + where me and other hubbers promote good hubs. Please help your fellow writers, and share links.

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2. 67

   Pearldiverposted 12 years ago

   I've found this happened to several of mine also.... but for some reason, no one wants to openly address the issue... so build YOUR brand and perhaps consider giving them a little time yet before republishing them elsewhere, where you can submit them into the SEs personally.. just a thought 
   Follow your heart and your passion, but do so in a more diverse and less dependent way

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3. 87

   aa liteposted 12 years ago

   Hi Evernon,
   
   It does sometimes take a while for the Google bots to come to an account and index a page, its not instantaneous, and 4 days is not very long at all.  Google might not have automatically realised that your subdomain even exists yet, with a new account it might take a little while before things start happening with search engines.
   
   Admittedly since the recent introduction of idle hubs, it does seem to take much longer for my hubs to be found than it was before, I'm not sure I understand why, but eventually they do get indexed.  You can try helping things along a bit but sharing your  link in Facebook or tweeting it, or even better using the Google +.  Basically if you put a link to your hub from a very heavily trafficked place, Google is more likely to find it.  If you have a  web masters' tool account you can manually "force" Google to index your hubs by using "fetch as Googlebot" and then telling it to index it.
   
   The blue triangles (and red triangles) happen all the time, they are not anything to be alarmed by.  When you first publish a hub, it gets some traffic from hub hopper, and any people you might have referred to it.  This then dies out so you get the blue arrow.  Eventually that will be replaced by organic traffic, if you're like, but you might not get a lot of that right at the beginning.

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      Gamerelatedposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I would have to agree with aa lite that creating backlinks to your Hub in a high traffic area is probably the best way to get your Hubs indexed quickly.  Bots find your page by crawling from link to link.  HubPages does a decent job of internally linking Hubs, but this site is massive and it could take time before the bots crawl their way to your Hub.

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4. 87

   aa liteposted 12 years ago

   The best way to find out what is indexed on your subdomain is to do a google search for
   
   site:evernon.hubpages.com
   
   When I just did that I came up with your profile page and two hubs.  One was about hyperventilation and the other one about a bad haircut.  So that is what Google has in its index from your subdomain so far.

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5. 60

   EVernonposted 12 years ago

   Thanks very much for your reply aa lite, it was very informative. Perhaps I am just being too impatient, it just confused me as to why hubs I published after others are being indexed sooner. If they will eventually get indexed then that is reassuring. I have tried tweeting the unindexed hubs, maybe that will help. Thanks

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6. 82

   Rik Ravadoposted 12 years ago

   If mine aren't picked up by google after a few days then I just submit the URL to Google webmaster tools - This usually works for me.

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7. 82

   kaiyan717posted 12 years ago

   The arrows will come and go, different parts of the week will reap different views because people usually google less on the weekends.  Four days in, it may take time to get on Google.  Google has to trust you and it takes time for your writing to top out othes that have written on the same subject.  Promoting with Reddit or Pinterest can help get positive reviews on your hubs, which will in turn, earn ou a higher spot on Google.  Stick with it, write unique and informative hubs and Google will start putting you higher on the list.   I personally get more views from Pinteres than Google, but as I get positive feedback, my hubs get viewed more by Google Users, it just takes time.  So relax and keep on writing.

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8. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   I'm having the same problem as everyone else. I'm used to being indexed in 24 hours. Those days are gone now. And it has got to be the noindex thing that is messing us up. Not happy at all.
   
   WHY NOT JUST HAVE THE HUB BE UNPUBLISHED UNTIL IT IS CLEARED? THAT WAY, GOOGLE WONT GET ALL CONFUSED AND WILL STOP THE NOINDEX BLACKLISTING OF THEM.

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      janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Far too sensible and considerate of authors!

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         Pearldiverposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         + 5
         
         What a perfect observation...
         
         Though it does concern me that such 'inconsiderate' acts generally indicates a presence of dirty, thick and choking Smoke.... which generally indicates the presence of a Fire whose starter has acted with 'smoke screen' and/or total lack of clean air intentions! 

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9. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Still not indexed...

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   1. 0

      diyomarpandanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Deleted
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         paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Based on previous forum threads, I did that immediately after HP removed the noindex tag. Guess what? THAT doesn't work anymore either! Google still seems to refuse to index it. This is a first for me.

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            Len Cannonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Have you searched on google for your hub by the URL?  If it shows up, your Hub is indexed. I've had the slow but disheartening realization that Google knows my pages are there but will not include them on any SERPs, period. Not even when the first page stops returning relevant content after four or five listings.

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               paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               The URL itself didn't show up, but the link to it on my profile page did. I'm not sure what to make of that...

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                  diyomarpandanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Deleted
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                     paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I did the whole profile awhile back, pre-latest hub as a matter of fact. So G has actually been back since then.
                     
                     However, it was just the hub URL I submitted this time. And I have never had WMT ignore such a request from me for so long...

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                     1. 59

                        paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        And this is my first new hub since the HP Z implementation...

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                           diyomarpandanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           Deleted
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                              paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              I disagree. My traffic has been improving lately. I think this is strictly a noindex fiasco. Maybe Google recently changed how they react to noindex and didn't bother to tell anyone...

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                                 diyomarpandanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 Deleted
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                                    paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    Yep, there was a major crash and burn awhile back. But I'm reasonably hopeful that is behind us now.
                                    
                                    The bad news though is I'm beginning to think that once Google decides it hates a particular URL, it will always hate that URL no matter what one does.

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10. 88

    Stacie Lposted 12 years ago

    Looks like my traffic is taking a hit today as well

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11. 78

    Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

    For what it's worth, it's now day six since my first new hub created after the "Pending" status implementation, and it's still not in Google's cache. I haven't seen a lag that long in years.
    
    Before the new Pending status flag was implemented, I enjoyed getting search traffic to new hubs within an hour or so.
    
    I'd suggest submitting to Webmaster Tools, just in case Google relents, but I'm not surprised to hear that it didn't work for paradigmsearch. Search engines are often too busy, and too backlogged, to respond to manual requests.

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    1. 59

       paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Ya know what? I am herewith done publishing. I'll keep writing and maybe even build up an inventory. But I'm not publishing any of my new masterpieces until I know what is going on.
       
       Also, I'm getting more Z's. Per my earlier post, I'm going to kill those URL's and rewrite as new. Though I wont be republishing any of those either until whenever.

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          PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I've not put anything new up on my main account (this one) for months now.  I've done a lot of editing, refreshing, and deleting.  I'm still waiting for the bots to come.  My cache is saying August 4th.

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             Hollie Thomasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             I'm still waiting for a hub to be indexed which was published mid August. The bots last crawled my site September 5th, didn't index the hub, but some days later indexed a newer hub which had been published after Sept 5th. I thought  Google could only index a new hub when they crawl your site? Confused!

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             aa liteposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             This might be a noob question but how do you check your cache? How can you tell when Google last visited?

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                Isabel Melvilleposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Put aalite.hubpages.com in Google search. Your profile page should be #1. Mouse over to the right of this result, and you should see an arrow that opens to the image of your page.
                
                Above this image is the word 'cache' in blue. Click on it, then take a note of the date along the top.
                
                That is your last visit from the Google bots.

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                   aa liteposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Thanks Izzy, it appears I was last visited on Sept 6th.  Which is confusing because my idled hubs still show up in Google results, even though they were idle before the 6th Sept, I guess it's possible that G visits a subdomain, but doesn't re-index it completely?

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12. 59

    paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

    I've been thinking this was all the HP-noindex thing. Now I'm not so sure...
    
    
    Do we have any regular visitors to the Google or other related forums around who might provide/have some insight?

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13. 60

    EVernonposted 12 years ago

    I've only been on hubpages for a short while, but after seeing all of this I can't say I'm all too impressed. My hubs have had 0 traffic for days - all of them, even the indexed ones. Doesn't seem worthwhile to publish stuff here if no one is ever going to read it! Will things improve? I see other users getting a lot of traffic, but after reading everything on here, have things gone downhill for everyone and I just joined at completely the wrong time?

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       WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       You are writing on fairly general topics that are written about a lot on the Net. Thus you are up against stiff competition. Unless you have some very specific key phrases, your hubs will not appear at the top of search results. Very few people look past the first couple of sites that appear in the search results. If your hubs are not there, you will not get traffic. If you are at the top of searches for very obscure key words, which are not searched by anyone, then again, these will not drive traffic to your hubs.

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          EVernonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I'm not really sure what you're suggesting then. If I write about general topics that people search for, I won't get traffic, but likewise if I write about obscure things, people won't search for it and I won't get traffic either. There doesn't appear to be a way to get traffic if I'm reading your comment correctly?

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             LeanManposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             EVernon That is correct! The trick to getting traffic is finding that subject that people are searching for but no one has written anything meaningful about already..
             
             If you write about "how to make money online" it has been done a billion times..   If your write about the "mating habits of the lesser spotted brown backed Dougle" then no one will search for it.
             
             You have to find those hidden gems that not many people are writing about...... that is the skill that is required to make yourself some money, some people find those gems just by churning out what they themselves are interested in while others spend hours researching keywords.. both ways of working have their merits and both have weaknesses..
             
             But then when you have found those gems and start to get traffic up comes Google and provides a tweak to its little algorithm and suddenly all your traffic dries up.... you then spend months trying to tweak your content in the vain hope that Google shows you love again...

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             aa liteposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             It is not that there is no way to get traffic, but it is quite difficult to do it, and takes a lot of time.  It is pretty much impossible to find topics that people are searching for, but that nobody has written about yet, but some topics are definitely more saturated than others.
             
             Or there is an alternative strategy.  HubPages have just introduced 'exclusive' titles and since your hubscore is 85 you have access to them.  Start a new hub, type a word that you think you might want to write about into the title bar and you see that 4 suggestions for titles will come up.  These are titles that HubPages think have the "potential" to get good traffic.  You might have to play around with it to find something you feel you can write about. 
             
             The caveat with this is that this is completely new and nobody knows whether the titles will actually work.  To me some a lot of them seem very specific and like there wouldn't be a lot of people searching for them.  At the same time I would like to believe that HP staff know what they are talking about and have done keyword research on the topics.  We just have to try some and find out whether they work or not.
             
             There is a lot of stuff about finding topics both on the learning centre and in people's hubs.  You should probably familiarise yourself with some of it.  It is not impossible to get traffic on the net, some people are still doing pretty well, but it is definitely not quick and easy. 
             
             I know there is a lot of complaining about Google changes and traffic drops, but then some of the people complaining used to get 10-20 thousand visitors a day and now get 1-2 thousand.  Personally I would be pretty happy with that kind of traffic.

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14. 88

    moonlakeposted 12 years ago

    I just searched my profile on google the last time Google came by was Sep 2, 2012 09:08:31. I have not done a hub since the zzz's have came out. Brain freeze. When I do hubs I always submit to Webmaster Tools maybe that would help you. Worth a try.

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15. 59

    paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

    My latest hub still not freaking indexed...

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16. 61

    jezebellaminaposted 12 years ago

    Something weird is going on. I literally just found out about and set up Webmaster Tools a few days ago, and everything was fine. I just checked now and see that there are 6 errors under my subdomain, and they are listed as 404 or 410, either "cannot be found" or "does not exist" although my hubs are still there.
    
    Upon closer examination of the URLs in question, I noticed the discrepancy. Here is an example: (http://)jezebellamina.hubpages.com/hub/health/aging-and-longevity/Let-Your-Wrinkles-Tell-Your-Story-My-Philosophy-on-Aging-Gracefully-and-the-Legacy-of-Smile-Lines (NOT FOUND)
    
    actual current URL: (http://)jezebellamina.hubpages.com/hub/Let-Your-Wrinkles-Tell-Your-Story-My-Philosophy-on-Aging-Gracefully-and-the-Legacy-of-Smile-Lines
    
    so are there supposed to be two versions of every URL? One that includes the category & subcategory and then just the specific direct link to the article? Or did HP make some changes... I am very confused.
    
    My traffic is down 75% since yesterday and I'm not sure it has anything to do with the site being down...But I don't know what to do about it either!

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       Ethan Greenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Were the hubs idled by hubpages during this period? If they were, they were instructed not to be indexed by search engines, so may have shown up as not found, because they were there before, but now they are not (temporarily)

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          jezebellaminaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          No they were all active except the brand new one. One was even on the first page of google search in the second spot and is now nowhere to be found. It has been replaced with an article from squidoo

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    2. 87

       aa liteposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I noticed these sort of errors on my WMT page.  My understanding of crawl errors is that it is an external link with a mistake in it.  In one case I was trying  to link to from my blog to one of my hubs, but got the URL wrong, idiot that I am, and that resulted in a "not found" error.  Obviously if it is a link from somebody else you can't do anything about it.  I think you can find out which page the crawl error originated from.
       
       It is my understanding that these crawl errors are not anything to panic about, although you don't get the benefit of the back link obviously.  I strongly suspect that it has nothing to do with your traffic loss.  I've seen pretty low traffic for my hubs today, and a few of the hubs have fallen in the SERPs, other people are also reporting traffic drops.  The HP outage on Friday is of course making it more difficult to figure out what happened.  There was a Google algo change a couple of days ago, which supposedly attacked the advantage of having an exact keyword match in the URL, so it is hard to imagine how that could have affected my hubs.
       
       I am sincerely hoping that this is just one of those Google twitches that resolves in a couple of days, but who knows.

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17. 53

    wabondposted 12 years ago

    It is all about the money.  If you are not making any money for Google they are not interested in you.

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18. 80

    scoopposted 12 years ago

    Google made changes to their algorithm. I think getting hubs, sites, blogs etc.. to the front page, maybe even the second and third, is going to be near impossible now. Its unfortunate.

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       Ethan Greenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       That's not true. I have several hubs on the front page for my chosen long-tail keywords, and I've only been at this a few months:-)

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          wabondposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Well yes, it is possible if you have a key word that no one is wanting to pay a lot of money, for top ranking.  But if your keywords get too popular then someone with the cash, will take your top ranking away from you.

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             Ethan Greenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Good job there are billions of potential long-tail keywords then:-)

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                wabondposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Providing they are key words that people type into search engines.  There is no point in having key words that people have no interest in.

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