Has the new idle status "feature" actually helped anyone's traffic yet

1. 77

   Bendo13posted 11 years ago

   This was supposed to help give us a boost overall, right?
   
   Well, my traffic has fallen ever since the change and I just had the first sub $1 day through the HubPages Ad program that I've seen in a LONG time...
   
   And I'm not even sure if I'll make the $50 payout this month, but yet I've ALWAYS made the payout in the past.
   
   So, at least in my case, it hasn't helped me at all; it's only hurt me.
   
   Go figure.
   
   And when I asked them to look at my holiday hubs, since I wrote 365 of them last year, no one responded in the forums and no one responded to my email.  I'm not real happy about this but that's a common trend, when dealing with the HP these days.

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      IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think the idle feature has kicked in yet as Google hasn't visited my account since August 20th, before the change came into force.
      
      There has been a algo change though, or something, as I saw several of my accounts move up or down recently.
      
      This sub got hit again round about the first week in September, about a week before other reports started appearing in the forums of another traffic slide/rise.
      
      It was definitely a Google thing tho', because the handful of hubs that kept a decent level of traffic since my main slap over a year ago can only be found several pages in when I search for their titles, in quotes, instead of on the front page.
      
      I have not yet reached payout this month either, though I still think I'll get there, only just.
      
      Just as well a couple of my new subs easily reach monthly payouts.
      
      Still got my fingers crossed that this change works, but I think it is too early to tell.
      
      Would be nice if staff posted more often about the problem though. It does seem the problems affect older accounts more than newer ones.

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      1. 77

         Bendo13posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Welp, everyone go check Google because mine was just checked on Friday.  So, I hope these changes actually did something because last month was the first month, since the HP Ad program opened, that I did not even reach the $50 payout for the month.  Not happy about that...

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         1. 88

            IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Mine finally got crawled on the 24th, and my traffic quadrupled on the 26th, then fell back by half on the 28th  (the day of the outage) and has remained at that level (so far).
            
            But also on the 28th, traffic collapsed on all my other subdomains, and has stayed down!!
            
            I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

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            1. 77

               Bendo13posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               In other words, copying Squidoo with the Zzz hubs really hasn't helped in a predictable way. 
               
               Seems like a lot of political talk to me anymore... Here, we did this and it's for this and it's going to do this for you!  (It never does that)

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               1. 86

                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  The "Idle" feature is different to Squidoo's in a couple of important ways, especially as it affects brand new Hubs.

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   2. 74

      Jenn-Anneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I've noticed that my best-performing hubs have moved up in google rankings since the idle hubs were introduced. However, I'm still getting periodic search engine traffic to my idled hubs which tells me they haven't actually been fully idled yet. Another thing that puzzles me is which hubs are getting idled. At first it was my two oldest hubs that were affected and I agreed that the idle status was appropriate. But since then other hubs have been idled and in some cases I'm puzzled as to why. There is one hub in particular that gets almost no traffic and yet hasn't been idled while better performing hubs have been. It seems odd to me. As for traffic, I would say that it has improved a little, however I don't have many hubs to begin with and I haven't been here 6 months yet, so it is hard to say.

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      1. 0

         EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, that's the case for me as well.

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2. 67

   tamronposted 11 years ago

   I like the feature because it lets you know which hubs to tweak.  Its hard to keep track of the hubs you tweak the way it was and it don't help any when our hubs are constantly rotating.  Its just easier when you got a heads up with the feature.
   
   I thank God for it because it made me take a better look at my hubs.  I put up some crappy hubs.  Now they are getting traffic and steadily the traffic is growing.
   
   I had a few of those hubs actually earn today and never earned a cent before on those hubs.

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3. 53

   janderson99posted 11 years ago

   My traffic is up a tad, but the overall picture for HP does not show improvement with all the changes - layout, profile idle. May take a while to improve. 2012 data
   
   
   
   

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4. 59

   abithewriterposted 11 years ago

   it helped me to have a good experience to know my status on different hubs.

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5. 96

   PaulGoodman67posted 11 years ago

   No effect on me, as yet.  I am still hoping that I will see some benefit when the Google bots visit (not been since early August, before the idle changes).

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6. 46

   Doodleheadposted 11 years ago

   Forgive my ignorance, but how can you tell Google bots have visited?   How do you know?

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   1. 72

      Reality Bytesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Check the cache in the Google search, it will tell you the last time Google stopped by for a visit.
      
      Little blue arrows next to your hub in the search, pulls up a cached version of your hub.

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      1. 81

         GA Andersonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I did not see any little blue arrow - but you can also use  the cache command, as in
         
         cache:your url
         
         GA

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7. 92

   Thelma Albertsposted 11 years ago

   Good to know about that. I´ll check right away when Google had visited my pages.

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8. 81

   GA Andersonposted 11 years ago

   Folks, just used the cache command on about a dozen hubs - let me invite you to this thread
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/104307
   
   to share results and see if you can offer any input
   
   GA

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9. 68

   waynetposted 11 years ago

   No traffic is down....

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10. 0

    The Writers Dogposted 11 years ago

    Traffic for the Hubs I left published is through the floor. Oddly enough, Google still ranks some of my "substandard" - to quote HP - prose and flash fiction Hubs at #1 and #2, even though I pulled them and reposted them on my own site.

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11. 88

    IzzyMposted 11 years ago

    An interesting turn of events is that when my traffic returned on the 26th, Google started sending traffic to hubs which have been idled.
    
    I am thinking that perhaps they hadn't been crawled yet, but it is still happening.
    
    Hubs that have not seen traffic in more than a year are seeing traffic, and I am awakening those.
    
    All those who unpublished sleeping hubs may have been a bit premature in their actions?
    
    I'm still not seeing a lot of traffic, but some is better than the none that I have been seeing for the longest time.
    
    I also don't expect it to last. Something is wrong with the site when so many of us are getting slapped around like this.

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    1. 77

       Bendo13posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Seems to me that it was premature for HP to put them to sleep in the first place if they are now getting traffic directly from Google.  The formula is flawed.
       
       HP needs to buckle down, stop making changes for looks or on a whim and make changes, one at a time, splittest the results and bring the site out from under the foot of Google.  If you don't test long enough, or stick to one change at a time, you'll never know what really works.

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       1. 68

          waynetposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          +1

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       2. 0

          jenuboukaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Totally agree Bendo, while I appreciate the site trying to improve, I think they jump the gun way too fast and perhaps they should value the input of the actual writers versus some "testers'  they bring in for any kind of theory.....
          
          Just sain'

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12. 0

    EmpressFelicityposted 11 years ago

    I have absolutely no idea. My traffic started going up on September 11th (!), and is now about three times higher than it was in the few months before that. There are so many different variables going on here - HP site changes (profiles, idle hubs etc.), plus Google changes, that it's impossible to attribute changes in traffic to any one thing. IMO.
    
    I will just enjoy the increased traffic while it lasts. My condolences to anyone whose traffic has tanked.

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