Serious drop in traffic

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  1. Zakmoonbeam profile image92
    Zakmoonbeamposted 11 years ago

    I tend to lurk and have not been active on the forums at all, but what better place to get some help than from a whole community of experts!

    In the past 30 days, I have had approximately 10,000 page views, about half of them to one page alone.  his is above average for me, but not wildly so, as this Hub has had 45,000 views and ranks page one position one on Google.

    Fast forward to yesterday and my traffic across the board dropped dramatically, from 250-400 views per day across all Hubs, to 80 today with alarming blue pointy icons of doom on every Hub on my stats page.

    I update Hubs fairly regularly due to their changing content, so if anyone has any news or advice for what might be going on, I am all ears, and will be eternally grateful.

    Many thanks

    Zakkers

    1. SimeyC profile image87
      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Apparently there was another algorithm change by Google on December 10 - my traffic plummited by 67% too! My experience is that this type of plunge (based on reviewing my ranking on a benchmark hub) lasts about a week - so hopefully Monday will see the traffic go back to normal!

      Of course who knows with Google these days!?

      1. Marisa Wright profile image86
        Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        If you're seeing a plunge that lasts a week, I can't see how it could be caused by an algorithm change.  When the algorithm changes, the change is permanent - so although you'll get natural changes in ranking based on other factors, Google isn't going to change its mind within a week (unless it realizes they made a mistake, which has happened a couple of times).

        Same goes for Panda reviews - Panda is run once a month, so if you get slapped one month, you'll have to wait till next month (and make some improvements) if you want to regain your traffic.

        It's still not confirmed whether there was an algo change this month, but my traffic has dropped another 25%.

        1. SimeyC profile image87
          SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          For some reason - my hubs went on a roller coast ride last year - I could predict when the next dip was coming and then predict when it would go back up - I think it happened 4 times in a row and then it settled - I'm hoping it's that type of thing again!

          I'm going to spend the time really looking at my older hubs and un-publishing ones that are not doing well and working to improve others that are doing OK but need work!!!

          1. Marisa Wright profile image86
            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Mine also went on a roller coaster but the peaks and troughs were months apart, not a week.

        2. mattforte profile image88
          mattforteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          The above statement shows that you know little about algorithm changes. Every time there is an update, it has a big effect on a lot of people for a short time. Most often, quality pages recover shortly thereafter.
          Just because the algorithm change is permanent does not mean rankings are permanent. The change happens, then it takes a while for Google to adjust pages to where it thinks they should be. This is partially due to the fact that the spiders don't crawl every page instantaneously. (You might drop, then it crawls other pages, and they drop below you..which pushes you back up a little, etc etc)

          Also, there is a human element to Google searches. Most people don't realize this, but Google has a HUGE panel of people that take search queries showing their search, language, and location...then they rate landing pages according to what they feel the person performing the search would be looking for. It is a huge, detailed rating system (I am currently working on getting into said panel myself) with a very stringent acceptance system. As these people rate landing pages, results are going to be updated.

          On top of that, and this relates partially to my first point...you have backlinks. Maybe Google updated and decided it didn't like some of your backlinks so you took a tumble. Then it crawled and found other backlinks that it likes so you climb up a little bit. Then it crawled more and decided that the backlinks it decided it didn't like before actually have a little more authority than it first thought..so you climb up a little more.

          NOTHING about an algorithm update is permanent. You should research more before giving out uneducated information based on assumptions.

          1. profile image0
            Miriam Weissmannposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I think you're right. That's been pretty much my experience on my Avon blog. It's been like that for over two years now.

      2. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
        Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        @simeyc I think there was an algo tweak on the 10th that for some reason caught a lot of your Hubs.  It doesn't look like many people were impacted and I can't see a pattern to say why your traffic changed so much.

        I did notice that a little over 1 year ago your site lost and gained in a few "cliff" like moves - maybe it will bounce bac.  I'll look a bit more to see if anything comes out, but it seems a bit strange for your traffic to move so much without the rest of HP feeling it broadly as well.

        1. SimeyC profile image87
          SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          big_smile Yep I remember it well - it was a pretty predictable pattern too! Is it possible that Google pick out certain sub-domains to experiment on? I felt I was a vast experiment last year - if you look at all the dips they all recovered in about 5 to 6 days! or something like that!

          Just checked my traffic last year
          September 5th through October 19 2011 I experience 4 drops and 4 restatements - two of the drops lasted 6 days, the first lasted 9 days and the last lasted 2 days - since then I have not experienced any major drops untile December 10, 2012 at 9:00PM ET - which is when there was a rumored tweak to the algorithms.

          I have one hub I watch which has been very consistant in the way it reacts to all changes - this bechmark hub has fluctuated between 15th and 23rd place in the searches - I seem to remember it doing the same during my roller-coaster period!

          1. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
            Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I'm going to drop John Mueller at Google a note with your site as an example....We don't often get specifics, but might dig up something....I've seen other accounts with that pattern.  I wish we could tell more, but it happens to people that I think are among the best Hubbers....Wish we could help  more here.

            1. SimeyC profile image87
              SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Thank you; I'm not too bothered as it's part of the game - it'll make me go back and work on older hubs that are not really top quality.....so it's a good wake up call in a way!

              1. PaulGoodman67 profile image95
                PaulGoodman67posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                My experience was similar to yours, SimeyC, although for me it was less dramatic, morelike 33% rather than 67% that I suddenly dropped.  I seem to have recovered a little since, or at least plateaued.  Something similar has happened to me in Squidoo too - the overall drop seemed too large to be explained by purely seasonal factors.

                1. SimeyC profile image87
                  SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Normally I wouldn't bother me but my Christmas Hubs and End of World Hubs were doing reallllllllllllllly well! Bahhhhhh Humbug!

                  1. cocopreme profile image88
                    cocopremeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    I had some huge drops this week also.  I lost about a 1/3 of my traffic around Tuesday.  Then another 1/3 over the next couple of days.  And before that my traffic had been back up to near the levels it was before the September drop.

                    Funny thing is I have an end of the world hub and Christmas hubs that were doing well this month too.

                2. Ms Dee profile image86
                  Ms Deeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  PaulGoodman67, It is helpful to hear you have experienced something similar and have the same thoughts, that this change is more than just a seasonal change.

          2. aa lite profile image84
            aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I wonder whether it is not so much that Google experiments with subdomains as perhaps some keywords or keyword types.  The hub that I use as a 'benchmark' is usually no.2 in Google SERPs.  Now it is 12, but there seem to be serious changes in the SERP listings as well.  There are a few results that are completely unfamiliar now listed in page1, the SERPs for this keyword seem to have changed a lot.

            The massive drop in traffic that I experienced happened to me once before, in the summer, and like you, everything went back to normal after a week.

        2. Bendo13 profile image78
          Bendo13posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Count me in on that "doesn't look like many people were impacted" statistic.  My traffic is at about half of what it was last I checked.

        3. habee profile image92
          habeeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Something happened to my traffic on Dec. 10th, also.

    2. Ms Dee profile image86
      Ms Deeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Between Nov 14 and Nov 18 mine lost over half its traffic, though I had kept updating the hubs. I don't know what explains it. Very little of the lost traffic has recovered. Even my highest traffic hub lost a good 60% of its traffic. I guess last month's algorithm change by Google could be an explanation. Also, I know my husband's HP site, though, took a huge hit the last couple days, too--losing about 90% of its traffic. It is a mystery as to what more can be done about it, as we have tried to implement the HP's tips.

    3. LucidDreams profile image64
      LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The past 30 days! If you just recently noticed a drop in traffic then things could really be ok! Most of us have seen major drops in traffic for several months. The constant Google algo updates are surely playing a part. I am just surprised that you are now feeling the results of something that most have dealt with for quite some time now.

      1. AlexK2009 profile image83
        AlexK2009posted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I checked on quantcast. HP is suffering a long term drop in traffic.  This means some people will be hit badly, many people will be hit but not badly and a few  will be unaffected.  You can see the trend by moving the sliders to cover 2012 or an even wider  range.

        http://www.quantcast.com/hubpages.com?country=US

    4. 2besure profile image77
      2besureposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Towards the end of the Christmas season and after, traffic goes down as well as earn, for many.  Advertisers pay more during the holidays.  People are in the mood to spend.      Don't get disappointed if you traffic has fallen, especially if you had holiday hubs.  It should even a little in a few months.

  2. WorkAtHomeMums profile image86
    WorkAtHomeMumsposted 11 years ago

    I'm in the same boat. Incredible drop. Nothing about this is fun.

  3. janshares profile image93
    jansharesposted 11 years ago

    Has anyone noticed that with all these changes and traffic irregularities, that hubberscores have decreased as well? Maybe it's just me but mine hasn't shot up a few points this week like it normally does. I've been checking out the hubberscores of others as well and they look lower than usual. Am I imagining this?

    1. moonlake profile image82
      moonlakeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have also noticed that.

      1. Gypsy Willow profile image64
        Gypsy Willowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        My hub views have halved in the last couple of months and so has my personal score dropped from 90+ to 79 to 81. Since I've never earned anything on hubpages it is not a worry but I wouldn't like to be relying on my score these days. Not what it used to be!

    2. LucidDreams profile image64
      LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      janshares

      You can't be serious when worried about your hubber score right? I mean, with everything going on, loss of trafffic and all, your hubber score is what worries you? I'm sure that every profile and writings from it are affected in one way or another.

      1. janshares profile image93
        jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Hi LucidDreams,
        No worries, just an observation that I thought was noteworthy with everything else that's fluctuating and/or stagnant. I'm aware that hubberscore is not significant in and of itself. Just trying to understand what's happening.

  4. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    Yeah...I have 41 Hubs that have dropped to zero views.
    That's 41 little blue triangles.
    After seeing a resurgence in traffic in November this is very discouraging.
    So out of 232 Hubs, 41 are doing nothing and 36 are down to 1 view a day which is 31 more little blue triangles.
    That means in the space of just a few days, 77 of my Hubs are now basically useless.
    The good news is that after the 12th...it looks like it has leveled off.
    According to Quantcast, HP is only down 3% since the 11th, so I'm not gonna start freaking out yet.

    BTW...more reason for me to focus on Bing/Yahoo and not Google.

    1. AlexK2009 profile image83
      AlexK2009posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I  have been seeing more and more red triangles  but still have a continual drop in traffic. 

      My options are (1) Panic, tweak hubs, write loads more hubs, flog dead horses etc.  (2) Remove unfeatured hubs with no views over the last month and put them elsewhere: The ones I moved seem to have been doing better on other sites ( except Triond which is dying faster than HP) . (3) Give up on HP.  I am currently following (2) and keeping my eye on what happened.  A couple of weeks ago I had 5 hubs getting more than 100 views a month, now I have three. It is beginning to look like the end for HP.

      I hope I am wrong.

      1. sabrebIade profile image81
        sabrebIadeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        (1) Panic, tweak hubs (tweaked all my Hubs), write loads more hubs (not writing anything else here till this is straightened out), flog dead horses etc. 
        (2) Remove unfeatured hubs with no views over the last month and put them elsewhere (I haven't had any unfeatured Hubs. Even the zeros are still listed.)
        (3) Give up on HP (not ready to do that yet. But 5000 a day to 1000 a day to 500 a day...most sane people would already be gone)

  5. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    Ya know... I had a topical hub that was temporarily skewing my results. But now that that has passed, I'm beginning to think I've been Google hit as well.

  6. Sally's Trove profile image77
    Sally's Troveposted 11 years ago

    My page views are down, as of two days ago, and continuing to slide. Not a little down, a big down. Something happened, but c'est la vie around here.

  7. Xenonlit profile image60
    Xenonlitposted 11 years ago

    I have given up. My score is fine. My hubs are just not getting views. I am doing better at blogger and with publicizing on my own. I've stuck with this for a year and the results are just not satisfactory.

    I will leave my cooking and active hubs, because it will take a while to transfer them, but will not contribute new material.

    1. AlexK2009 profile image83
      AlexK2009posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I may contribute new material but  HP is now mainly a repository for  the articles I reference on my CV.  If things go on this way I will go to other sites.

  8. Rosie2010 profile image68
    Rosie2010posted 11 years ago

    My traffic is also down by 35% from Sunday.  This morning, the drop was mainly from google.com, but tonight there is noticeable drop in my traffic from google.uk and google.ca.  Yahoo and Bing traffics are holding.  Definitely a google slap.

  9. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    "Right now
    1
    active visitors on site"

    What the...

    1. paradigmsearch profile image60
      paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Make that...

      "Right now
      0
      active visitors on site"

      1. SimeyC profile image87
        SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        big_smile I was getting 30+ last week - now it's more like  5 or 6 -still getting decent traffic so shouldn't complain - but all those dollar signs that were flying around my head have suddenly wilted!!!!

        1. paradigmsearch profile image60
          paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Getting 2 visitors from the link to my hub that NASA put on their site. Paradigmsearch is perking up.

    2. dhannyya profile image80
      dhannyyaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      mine also have gone down..wondering wat happened

    3. profile image0
      kelleywardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My views have dropped drastically over the past two weeks. Two weeks ago I started noticing about 1,000 views less than I had experienced in November. Then this morning I noticed another drop by 900 views in 24 hours. I'm at the lowest I've been since April 2012.

  10. Mandy M S profile image86
    Mandy M Sposted 11 years ago

    Yep, went from 1000 views in a day to under 300 the next.  The only reason it's still that high is that my best performing hub didn't move in the rankings, the rest died.  Went from 210 views in 24 hrs on one hub down to 8.  Google got me good this time.  I don't know what to think.  I'm torn between being upset that I just dropped off like that to being happy that I ever had that kind of traffic in the first place.  Oh well, will just keep plugging away.

  11. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    I went from 0 to

    "Right now
    23
    active visitors on site"

    Go figure...

  12. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    So are more people actually affected than we thought at first?

  13. brakel2 profile image73
    brakel2posted 11 years ago

    I can't find anything on Internet about Google panda/penguin.

    1. paradigmsearch profile image60
      paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I would torture you about that, but I like you. big_smile

  14. Tricia1000 profile image64
    Tricia1000posted 11 years ago

    During the last three months or so I have noticed a drastic drop in my traffic which used to be really good. Sometimes the traffic got better just to drop again. I will be receiving my first payout next month and then I will only concentrate on my own blogs for new content and even delete some of my hubs. I just got a bit tired of these traffic problems here.

  15. Mark Ewbie profile image82
    Mark Ewbieposted 11 years ago

    It is irritating, the up and down nature of it.  My stuff is the same quality as last week but some algorithm thinks differently.  That says to me that either Google had it wrong last week or this week. 

    It would be nice if at some point they could stop changing their mind and just let me know if I am getting X or Y traffic in future.

    I appreciate that other people may have written better stuff, or that the world has moved on from my pages - but then when traffic reappears I have hope again for a while.

    Google is like a friend who you can't really trust.

    "Oh I like that page" he says when all along you know he is just planning to crap on it.

    1. SimeyC profile image87
      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      big_smile

      1. Ms Dee profile image86
        Ms Deeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Mark, You explain really well the way it leaves a person feeling. smile

    2. wilderness profile image95
      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I exist only on the hope that one day the giant panda will finally empty it's bowels for good.

      1. Mark Ewbie profile image82
        Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Lol.  Then you can type in a search and Google will say "Nope, nothing found - try Bing".

        1. wilderness profile image95
          wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          lol  You're probably right, at that!

  16. profile image0
    jenuboukaposted 11 years ago

    Why when an update occurs more times than not; many writers here post about more traffic loss?  What is the reason for it?  For the last year, every update through Google causes more drastic drops to this site?

    1. Marisa Wright profile image86
      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      ...because people whose traffic increases are quite happy, and don't feel the need to say anything.

      Every time there's an update, some sites benefit and some sites lose out.

      1. profile image0
        jenuboukaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Perhaps it is those who would show up here and verify that every time Google updates it does not slam HP, Positive feedback would be great on this subject as it is getting to be a constant struggle for the majority to understand why,what, how  this keeps happening.

        1. aa lite profile image84
          aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          There was plenty of positive feedback when the traffic recovered in Novermber (I think it was Nov. 17th).  Lots of people wrote happy messages that their traffic was recovering.

          Incidentally I'm hoping this isn't a Google update, and in fact I haven't seen a report about one.  My Google traffic is basically wiped out, after previous updates I saw falls and rises but nothing this drastic. 

          Something similar happened to me in the summer when I updated my profile.  No Google traffic for a week, then everything was back to normal, so I am still hopeful traffic will return soon.  Perhaps it has something to do with changes to the site architecture?

          This just shows the importance of having different income streams.  Traffic to my Squidoo lenses is rising, Amazon sales are happening.  I'm also selling stuff on Zazzle, and even on CafePress where I have less stuff.  Of course this is just the pre-Christmas effect, but it certainly lessens the pain of all my hubs tanking at the moment. 

          Now if I could just put 30x stuff online as I have now, I would not have to look for a job.  smile

      2. mattforte profile image88
        mattforteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        More false assumptions.

        Most of the big updates that caused big losses you could see site-wide. You can look at the HubPages domain as a whole, and see a big traffic decrease. That means that something about the HubPages domain be it the domain itself, or the way hubs are built/coded took a hit from Google, which means almost everybody took a hit.
        Yes, there are a few people each time that benefit from the update. This is simply because they are lucky enough to have something on their pages that Google happened to like this time - so their fortune was bigger than HP misfortune.

        Last month, when HubPages (as a whole) started seeing a big traffic increase - Squidoo at the same time went through what we'd seen a month before that. Their site-wide traffic took a hit. This probably means that the traffic we gained was directly a result of their loss, and vice versa.

        If you ever experience a drastic drop in traffic, just take a look at HubPages traffic as a whole. More often than not you are going to find that the entire community took a hit. This means there is little you can do about it, but just keep building. When the community bumps back up, you will as well.

        It's an ebb and flow thing. Spend enough time dealing with Google, and you will begin to hardly notice.

        1. Marisa Wright profile image86
          Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Of course you can see ups and downs if you look at Quantcast, but there are plenty of sub-domains which don't follow the trend shown on Quantcast.  Every time there's an update, there are definitely swings and roundabouts - some go up, some go down.   For one of the earlier updates, I had a Hub where we were all sharing our traffic stats, trying to spot the trend.  There wasn't one. 

          And there's no need to be rude.

          1. mattforte profile image88
            mattforteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            While I would like to apologize for coming across as rude - there is a reason.

            One recurring thing I've seen in this community is misinformation and uneducated guesses being passed off as real knowledge. I see it happen again and again. Then those people looking for answers start repeating that misinformation, and it brings the whole system down because for some reason that information gets spread faster than the good info. When an entire domain (HubPages for example) gets full of people that think they understand how the system works, and they either start implementing harmful and/or useless techniques...it does bring down the entire domain, which is probably part of the reason HubPages gets hit so much.

            I find HubPages to be a cleaner site, and I think the build is much better than Squidoo. (Also less prone to spammers) but the knowledge base on Squidoo seems to be full of MUCH better knowledge. The HP staff does their best to train people (The Apprentice program is great, I still suggest everybody try it - even though I wasn't able to finish)...but it is hard to combat bad information...that is why these updates tend to favor Squidoo more than HP and why Squidoo in general has a higher PR.

            My point is - it gets old and tiresome. Trying to help combat this bad info makes a person feel like Sisyphus. As a result, that comes out when responding to bad info, and sounds rude. But it is what it is.

            1. IzzyM profile image87
              IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Marisa Wright is one of the most helpful and experienced hubbers on this site.

              I totally agree with everything she says. You have to have been here to know what she says is true. Hubpages has only experienced these massive dips and highs in traffic since the introduction of subdomains.

              Instead of worrying about so-called harmful practices, perhaps someone with a bit of knowledge should look at the site architecture to see what is wrong.

              The introduction of the apprentice scheme means that many more newbie hubbers learn how to write for the web at an earlier date than many experienced hubbers, who learned the hard way.

              It means an increase in better quality hubs, while older and potentially harmful hubs on the site are now being idled/put to sleep.

              Taking that this is good business practice (and is it?), perhaps someone can explain to me why the site still has roller-coaster traffic?

              To say this community is full of misinformation and uneducated guesses is actually true, but not when it comes to Marisa Wright who I (and many others) trust implicitly.

              1. SimeyC profile image87
                SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                IzzyM: Just a couple of points:

                I experienced this rollercoaster ride of dips and un-dips well before the sub-domains came along - since the sub-domain I hadn't experienced a major dip until Dec 10. As you said it seems to hit some sub-domains and not others - so personally I do not think it is a sub-domain problem.

                One of the problems is that no one, including Google, can explain these roller coaster rides - if it was restricted to Hubpages then we could obviously point at HP being the problem - but if you look at a lot of SEO websites and webmaster websites we're not the only ones seeing these types of traffic patterns - the change on December 10 apparently even has Google confused - so if the makers of the algorithm can't work out what is happening then what chance have we.

                I think the advent of systems to improve the quality will benefit us all over time - Google will eventually get it right with their algorithms (may take a year or two yet) - but if their stated focus of bringing quality to the readers is true - then we should see improvement over time...

                1. sabrebIade profile image81
                  sabrebIadeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  And I think in a year or two we'll be saying
                  "Remember when Google ruled search? Before they screwed themselves up so badly that *insert search engine name here* took them out."

                  Remember...AOL ruled the internet once.....and it wasn't that long ago.

                  1. SimeyC profile image87
                    SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    And then Yahoo ruled for a while! Maybe Bing is the next big thing!

                2. IzzyM profile image87
                  IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Well, I experienced no roller-coasters until the Google Panda slam, which hit the whole site. Until then, everything was on the up.

                  Between February and July, my traffic was gradually recovering.

                  In the first three weeks after subs were introduced, my traffic soared, then collapsed, never to return.

                  I am surprised at you saying your traffic has remained stable until December 10th 2012, because you have said on multiple threads that your traffic has disappeared before for a week or so, before returning.

                  I now have a host of subdomains. Some do well, and others don't. They all suffer from traffic 'swings' which is a regular pattern now here on HP, despite what you say.

                  While multiple sites have experienced traffic issues, the 'content farms' seem to be treated differently.

                  eHow got hammered in the first Panda, which was then known as the Farmer's Update, but have since reached even higher heights, as have Squidoo.

                  One seems to lack content, the other seems overly-promotional.

                  To me, Hubpages has the perfect balance. So why the ups and downs? Obviously, you are one of the few who has escaped any major damage, but many of us have experienced this.

                  I still think there is something wrong with the site architecture.

                  1. SimeyC profile image87
                    SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    BTW I must correct myself and apologize for the error. - my rollercoaster did occur after the sub-domain switch.

                    "I am surprised at you saying your traffic has remained stable until December 10th 2012, because you have said on multiple threads that your traffic has disappeared before for a week or so, before returning." [I experienced these swings all between September 2011 and October 2011 - the rest of the traffic has been pretty consistent - I had a couple of huge niches that slowly died - but no one day drop until December 10]

                    (My 4 dips in 6 weeks)
                    http://s1.hubimg.com/u/7491104_f1024.jpg

                    (My traffic since Aug 2011 - December I had a great niche - but 2012 really didn't have any suprising ups or downs until the dip in December)
                    http://s2.hubimg.com/u/7491141_f1024.jpg


                    "I now have a host of subdomains. Some do well, and other don't. They all suffer from traffic 'swings' which is a regular pattern now here on HP, despite what you say." [It is for some, not for others]

                    "While multiple sites have experienced traffic issues, the 'content farms' seem to be treated differently." [Squidoo generally don't until last month]



                    "One seems to lack content, the other seems overly-promotional." [Agreed]

                    "To me, Hubpages has the perfect balance. So why the ups and downs? Obviously, you are one of the few who has escaped any major damage, but many of us have experienced this." [I honestly wish I had an answer - and I'm sure HP wished they had one too!]

                    "I still think there is something wrong with the site architecture."[The problem is that there are hundreds of websites who report wild swings - just look at the SEO forums when a major algorithm change occurs - architecture may have something to do with it, but there must be other factors - why do Q&A sites with very poor quality rank higher than most? Why do Squidoo and Ehow seem to be doing well? Only Google can answer this - and apparently even they are not sure - they said there was no algorithm change on December 10 - but something happened - and it un-happened yesterday....]

                    I didn't mean to have a go at you - I wasn't - I just think that there is no true answer - for some like you there is an obvious roller-coaster ride going on, yet for me it has mostly stopped - there's no logic - I am not a better author than you - I am not better at SEO  - there simply isn't anything logical occuring!!!

                  2. wilderness profile image95
                    wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    There may actually be a problem with site architecture, but I begin to wonder more and more if google isn't intentionally and specifically targeting content farms, one after another.

                    Panda hurt, but HP recovered most of it's traffic.  Until, that is, google hit them again, whereupon the cycle repeated.

                    Others have reported a roller coaster ride, and so can I but in a much different manner.  I go way down, then very slowly start back up.  Months pass, I am getting a little more traffic than I had and I fall once more. Not an overnight drop, but a long fall.  This is the third cycle since Panda and I sure wish it had waited a few weeks, until after Xmas.  This one is going to cost me hundreds of $$.

                  3. LucidDreams profile image64
                    LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    I agree IzzyM, there seems to be something seriously wrong now with how Hubpages is set up and the search engines reading it.

              2. AlexK2009 profile image83
                AlexK2009posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                If the community is full of information this may be because it is not easy to find accurate information or trust what is on site. For example my traffic sources are now showing -1 (minus one) views from some sites. This does not make sense.

              3. Nursey profile image60
                Nurseyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                You are such a sweetie! ♡ ♡ ♡

  17. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    Quantcast is now showing HP at down 11%.
    Steady drop since the 10th which was the last update I think.
    (Sorry...I know this is probably trivial but I'm trying to keep busy and not think about Connecticut)

  18. SimeyC profile image87
    SimeyCposted 11 years ago

    Days like today really put things in context.... As for quantcast - not sure if that's a dip or just the usual variance - Squidoo is showing a similar downward trend...

  19. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/15600/15604r.jpg
    And so it goes...

    1. janshares profile image93
      jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Ha ha ha ha ha, luv it, para!

    2. LucidDreams profile image64
      LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Nice!

  20. Gypsy Willow profile image64
    Gypsy Willowposted 11 years ago

    Mark your writing is wonderful. I love your hubs, personally I feel sorry for the people who try to earn through hubpages.it has been a pleasant experience for me. Good luck!

    1. Mark Ewbie profile image82
      Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well I just scrolled back up and yep, I'm the only Mark on here so thanks very much Gypsy Willow!

      1. SimeyC profile image87
        SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        My middle name is Mark....big_smile

        1. Mark Ewbie profile image82
          Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Now you tell me.

          1. SimeyC profile image87
            SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            But I do concede that you were the 'Mark' in question!

  21. Zakmoonbeam profile image92
    Zakmoonbeamposted 11 years ago

    Been "netless" for a day, but I just wanted to say thanks, I have read the ongoing discussion thoroughly and I guess we just need to ride the wave and wait for business to pick up again.

    I have learnt a lot from this thread, so again, many thanks to everyone who took the time to make a post.

    Cheers, Zakkers

  22. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image84
    Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

    My two most popular hubs have dropped dramatically - one of them shows exactly ONE view for the past 24 hours (compared to dozens a day in the recent past). Something odd is going on.

  23. Wesman Todd Shaw profile image81
    Wesman Todd Shawposted 11 years ago

    I've had a very similar experience.

    I'm deleting hubs left and right, and finding new homes for them.  I'm sandboxed starting three days ago....and I hardly backlink at all.

    1. aa lite profile image84
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This sort of thing happened to me in the summer, and then suddenly Google decided I was OK after a week and I got all my traffic back.  Simey appears to have had similar experiences, so I'm not panicking yet.

      1. Wesman Todd Shaw profile image81
        Wesman Todd Shawposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        There are some things here I'd probably never delete...but I have several blogs that could perform better with things I have here posted there....so I'm not sure I'm losing anything by deleting thirty or so older pages.....

        I mean, over the past three years...I've probably deleted about a hundred hubs, most were moved to blogs.

        They can just as easily get moved back here as well, really.

        I've got some theories as to why I got sandboxed....but none of them involve my own actions...which means I'm very pissed.

  24. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    Wow....now the most popular sites I had left after the last Google culling are getting slashed.
    It's almost like Google is saying "Hey look! We missed some!"
    Though the traffic drop looks better on Google than on the My Account page on HP.
    Can we go back to 2010-2011 when I was getting 5000+ views a days?

  25. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    Just checked Quantcast again and HubPages is down 17% now.
    We are closing in on that terrible Nov 22nd day this year when HP was down 24%.
    Of course HP did rally after that.

  26. Nell Rose profile image90
    Nell Roseposted 11 years ago

    I have lost tons of view in just a couple of days. Its driving me mad! I was up a few hundred, now its gone down the pan again, typical!

  27. tillsontitan profile image81
    tillsontitanposted 11 years ago

    I've seen more blue arrows in the last week then I can remember!  I thought it was the new Christmas color!

    1. Nell Rose profile image90
      Nell Roseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Haha! must be mine too! I just don't get it! losing at least three hundred over the last two days? why? it wasn't as if they were christmas hubs! lol!

    2. Ms Dee profile image86
      Ms Deeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      LOL! Like blue arrows are the new Christmas color :0).  I've not had this low a number of hits in 24 hrs. since 16 months ago. A huge drop!

  28. relache profile image72
    relacheposted 11 years ago

    Remember to consider all the holiday distractions that occur at this time of year.  The closer we get to the end of the month, the more that wild fluctuations and huge drops in traffic happen.  People put more time into offline activities, going to movies and parties.

  29. moonlake profile image82
    moonlakeposted 11 years ago

    I'm seeing all blue. The day of the shootings my hub views dropped in half but anyone can understand why people were clued to the tv.
    I also believe people are out shopping getting ready for Christmas and not on the computer so much.
    Maybe after the holidays we will see more views. I know my views started down after the tags were taken off and after I took off all RSS feeds. I had more RSS feeds on my hubs than I thought. I finally removed all of them. I put work into tags that I shouldn't have because HubPages had already disabled them. I wonder why they didn't tell us.
    Views are a small problem compared to what others have.

    1. aa lite profile image84
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The theory that people are away from computers sounds reasonable.....except that on Squidoo my views are rising quite a lot.  Of course there I have pages specifically for Christmas gifts, while I have no hubs targeted at the Christmas period.

      Still what is happening (I've basically lost all Google traffic) doesn't sound like a seasonal change.  It also seems too drastic to be a Panda update.  Perhaps the changes to the site (removal of tags, and RSS feeds) confused Google in some way, I don't exactly know how.  I didn't have any rss feeds on my hubs and yet G completely hates me this week.

      1. SimeyC profile image87
        SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        There was a Google algorithm change - it occured on December 10 around 9:00PM ET - there's a distinct downturn on my analytics at exactly this time - this was long after the TAGS and RSS change-  I barely use RSS modules and they were not removed yet - the TAGS have never been used by Google.

        In another forum thread I posted a link to a discussion where other webmasters were convinced there was an algorithm change...

        1. aa lite profile image84
          aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Couldn't find your link but I found one to SE roundtable, and from there to webasterworld forum, where indeed there is heated discussion about what Google is doing.  Is this what you meant?

          http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4524403-4-30.htm

          The SE roundtable has an amusing update:  <i>Update 2: At about 2pm EDT Google told me this is not Panda related but they are going to dig deeper and let me know if it was something else.</i>

          So lots of people are seeing changes and complaining about the SERPs, but nothing official is known about an update.  I have noticed that for the past couple of months Google no longer makes official announcements before the roll out another panda or penguin child, but usually they will at least confirm it happened a couple of days later.

          Sounds like people think the SERPs have become really bad, which could be just sour grapes, but if it is true, then Google might undo whatever it is they've done, if they can figure it out themselves that is!

          1. SimeyC profile image87
            SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            http://s1.hubimg.com/u/7476711.png

            This is directly from my analytics - as you can see there is a huge drop on December 10, 2012 between 18:00 and 19:00 (Which I assume is Pacific Time?).

            This is why I suspect they updated or changed something. One thing interesting - December 10 is when they had a problem with Gmail - I wonder if they had a server problem and rolled back to an old algorithm - and haven't restored to the latest algorithm yet - so it may not actually be a new algorithm, just a roll back?

            (Not sure why my graph isn't showing up properly sorry - if you could see it you would see a 66% drop in one hour...)

            1. aa lite profile image84
              aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              I see your graph fine, it looks very much like my graph, except mine started off lower.

              I definitely think something happened with Google, it just seems really drastic, I don't think they did something like that since the original panda.  Also people are usually able to get info from them about updates, and I don't think they officially admitted to anything.

              Whether this is a 'technical fault' or an experiment I don't know, but if it is there is hope that it will make it "unhappen" soon.

              1. SimeyC profile image87
                SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                big_smile Me too - wish they would have done this in January rather than December - probably costing me a few hundred dollars! Such is life....

                1. PaulGoodman67 profile image95
                  PaulGoodman67posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I didn't expect Google to make any more changes until after the buying season, to be honest.  Overall, however, I am still up from my low point in Summer (I crashed in April/May).  I got a boost at the end of November, then Google took a large proportion of that back again this month.

  30. Stacie L profile image88
    Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

    Maybe we should start a 'blue arrow' club? Its the color of the season this year! lol

  31. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
    Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years ago

    First, I'm really sorry to those that lost traffic.  We know how tough these swings are.  I've looked into this and it's a fairly widespread loss of rankings (if you lost traffic, you're not alone).  Like the last few updates, I don't see any conclusive data on why some things gained and others lost.

    1. janderson99 profile image55
      janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It seems to be a wind-back to where the site was one month ago, almost like a reversion to a past version of the algo (a rethink?). The gains over the last month appear to have disappeared, sadly.

    2. tillsontitan profile image81
      tillsontitanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Its good to know we're not alone!

    3. Rosie2010 profile image68
      Rosie2010posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the update, Paul.  Good news or bad news or even no news at all, it's somewhat comforting to hear from you.

    4. janderson99 profile image55
      janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Paul,
      Can you please clarity this
      " it's a fairly widespread loss of rankings "
      What are these rankings and how do you get access to them? Is it PR? Is it SERP rank? Something else? I would be interested to know what these 'rankings' are as you refer to them often.

  32. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    Well if it makes any difference, Quantcast is reporting HP is UP 16% on 12-16.
    I myself will take any good news.
    Squidoo is also up.
    So it looks like the two sites are like a twin rollercoaster.

  33. aa lite profile image84
    aa liteposted 11 years ago

    I can definitely assert that whatever it is that Google is doing is definitely working in terms of making sure that only the top quality sites are ranked highly in the SERPs.  Writing hubs of the best quality is the only way we can ensure that we do well.

    For example I've been googling for reviews of computer monitors, since I'm thinking of renewing mine.  On the first page of google this site came up in position 9 (I've done the dotcodotuk in the name of site so I don't provide a back link).

    <link snipped>

    If you can't be bothered to go there it starts like this:

    "Ok, what if the best computer monitors 2011 algae are stabilising between protea damp distinguishing.

    Most salesmen boost at the bedouin and think that that is the most speckled existence of the reupholstered up, but in hubshee fiscally horticultural is the sacks room" etc. etc.

    Ok now going back to writing my hub about algae stabilising protea in reupholstered bedouins. big_smile

    1. Sally's Trove profile image77
      Sally's Troveposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well said.

  34. LucidDreams profile image64
    LucidDreamsposted 11 years ago

    Rediculous.................

  35. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    As of right now I have 41 Hubs at zero (no change from 3 days ago) and 47 Hubs down to 1 view (another drop) which gives me 88 Hubs out of 232 that are now pretty much worthless.
    I'm waiting till that hits 116 before I bail.
    28 to go.....

  36. benzshad profile image60
    benzshadposted 11 years ago

    I am new here. Guide me if you can!

    1. relache profile image72
      relacheposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Read over the thread.  It should make things rather clear.

  37. LucidDreams profile image64
    LucidDreamsposted 11 years ago

    I am systematically un-publishing hubs with very low traffic and then after a couple of weeks, posting them on some of my blogs. Blog traffic is already picking up because of it. I see no reason to waste my writing that is getting little exposure here.

    1. sabrebIade profile image81
      sabrebIadeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's gonna be my plan as well unless things upturn.
      Either way, low ranking, low traffic Hubs have to be hurting me here, so why not turn them into a positive as a good solid blog entry?

      1. Marisa Wright profile image86
        Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Sabreblade, this is what's perplexing me.  Why would a low traffic, low ranking Hub hurt your sub-domain, if a low-traffic, low-ranking post won't hurt your blog?

        If you have low quality Hubs in your sub-domain (which I'm sure you don't), that would hurt you.  But they would equally hurt your blog if you transferred them there.   

        Idled Hubs here aren't doing you any good, but they're not doing you any harm either.

        1. livewithrichard profile image73
          livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Marisa they shouldn't have any effect on our subdomains, I've been doing the same thing Sabreblade is contemplating for the past couple of months and those 'supposedly' low traffic, low ranking hubs are getting more traffic and exposure than they ever did here. The only thing that I changed was the new URL and maybe a title tweak. You know that the SERP's will only return a couple urls from the same domain and with all of the competition here, not to mention all of the thieves that can't think for themselves, placing those non-performing hubs on your own domain makes perfect sense.  As for the idled hubs, they become lost in Google almost as soon as they are idled because Google crawls almost daily.  If you unpublish them then it takes about a week for them to disappear from Bing/Yahoo.  The harm idling causes is clear if those hubs were stolen or published by thieves elsewhere.  You can't move them to a new domain because then they will appear as duplicate content and our thieves will get to rank for our work.  It's best to just leave those copied hubs here and when you get time they will require a major overhaul and not just a title change and a couple sentences, or they will just become idle again.  Many of my product review hubs were seasonal and I just could not afford to let them sit idle because I didn't add 5 pictures, a poll, a quiz, a couple videos and other elements to decrease bounce rate.  I earned nearly $4000 in the 3 months leading to Christmas last year and in the same time period this year, I'm lucky if I earned $400. Well considering the idle and me moving 100 hubs so far, I should have earned quite a bit more.  By the end of this year I will have moved all but my copied hubs, a few hubs that are still good earners here, and a few that I just don't have another home for right now.  No big deal, it is what it is... lol I should have done this when Nelle Hoxie did it, I just had too much faith in Hubpages to abandon ship like she did.

          1. paradigmsearch profile image60
            paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Serious question. Where is a good place to move them? I've moved some to some of my blogs, and they get traffic for awhile, but adsense response is terrible there.

            1. livewithrichard profile image73
              livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              Adsense on your blogs is going to be disappointing until you can get steady traffic. Getting good bookmarks from StumbleUpon and Tumblr and some Pins will help in that area.  I use a few other places to bookmark (Digg, Reddit, Fark, Folkd, G+) but I also participate on all of those sites and try to build relationships that have an engaging effect.  Make use of other add networks, Commission Junction, Shareasale, Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Zazzle, etc.. and promote their products or a product closely related to one of your articles.  Personally, I'm no longer interested in pursuing traffic or the pennies I now earn from HP, Squidoo, and other sharecropping sites.  Build your self hosted blogs but also make sure you build your email lists.  If you write on a variety of topics then you need to have a blog for each niche... here is a good tip... make it a broad niche then you can easily rank for the tighter niche categories.  For example, if you write on photography and you build your list surrounding the topic of photography then you can easily start to rank for a sub-niche on that topic such as 'pet photography' and get super good ranking on even deeper topics such as "how to make a meme from your cat pictures.'  If your hubs that you want to move are on low traffic topics then you might want to place them on a free blog site... I would use Wordpress or Tumblr and then use those hubs for backlinks pointing to your self hosted blogs (don't link back to the free sites).  It's time consuming but without engagement you are doomed so make that a priority from day one.  You will have to siphon people from related sites by engaging them there and inviting them on their blogs (not forums) to come visit or critique your blog content.  When your email list reaches 500 then you can start to add some offers in your weekly or monthly newsletter... yes you have to have a newsletter that provides unique content only to subscribers.

          2. Marisa Wright profile image86
            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I'm obviously having communications troubles this week because that's what I'm trying to say. Sabreblade said "low ranking, low traffic Hubs have to be hurting me here", and I'm questioning why she would think that. 



            Yes, I've been moving my idled Hubs and making that exact same discovery.   I've republished the copied ones and will file DMCA's for them so we'll see. 

             

            I'm in the same boat as you - I have never written Christmas-specific Hubs but I always got a nice spike of traffic leading up to Christmas, whereas this year it's been the opposite!!

            1. IzzyM profile image87
              IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              You know you don't have to republish to file a DMCA. Google accept evidence of the hub from the wayback machine.

              1. Marisa Wright profile image86
                Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                I'm working on the principle that I may as well republish them, since I probably won't be able to move them  anywhere else for a long time (or never, if I can't remove all the copies).

                1. IzzyM profile image87
                  IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  That is the sort of problem I have. I have all those unpublished hubs that I can;t do anything with, because they have been stolen multiple times sad

                  1. livewithrichard profile image73
                    livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    I'm feeling your pain... I have too many hubs that have been copied and republished by too many thieves for me to do anything about.  Too much labor for so little return.  Best thing for these hubs is to just do a major revision on them when I get the time.  I've moved over a 100 hubs so far to my blogs and that alone is a huge task.  But my goal is to move everything that has not been stolen, and a few hubs that still earn but don't fit into any of my current domains, by the end of the year...

                  2. Marisa Wright profile image86
                    Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    Why not just republish them then?   Set your profile to show idled Hubs, at least that way other Hubbers can see and enjoy them.

                    I had a bit of an epiphany last week and decided to delete a bunch of my idled Hubs.  There is so much cr@p on the internet already, why am I adding to it?   If I wrote an article on St Johns Wort for a competition, and all I did was repeat information from a bunch of other sources, why am I so conceited as to think it's worth preserving?  If I wrote a Hub to sell Bokashi buckets and it didn't work, is my prose so deathless that I need to keep it forever?

                    A lot of my idled Hubs are not suitable to move to my blogs, and moving them to other rev-sharing sites is tedious.   If they weren't good money-makers, they're better off in the bin.  I feel good having cleared out some of the clutter!

        2. sabrebIade profile image81
          sabrebIadeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          It puzzles me too Marisa.
          But I have taken Hubs from here and posted the info on blogs and had it do very well.
          It's like as soon as it leaves HP it's okay now.
          Not every one of them works out like that...but some do.

        3. LucidDreams profile image64
          LucidDreamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Marisa

          I am just experimenting because at this point, after several years of the same type of problems, I have had enough. After the original Panda update, I created several blogs with custom domains. At first they did very well and then I stopped posting and came back to Hubpages under another profile to try and increase earnings here. That worked for awhile but the once again, everything went quickly back down. If I could put in my two cents. I have moved good creative articles which do not get a lot ofg traffic here to my blogs. Since starting this migration, blog traffic is picking up (because more potsts I guess) which has in turn increased my adsense earnings on those blogs. I am not encouraging people to leave Hubpages. I still have over 60 articlesd here. I am just saying, if they are nor doing well here, I am using this opportunity to un-publish then, wait a couple of weeks, then republish them on other sites I own which helps those sites get more traffic. So far so good. We have to look out for ourselves. Being a part of the community is great, having faith things will get better is also great, getting paid for our efforts is even better!

  38. wabond profile image61
    wabondposted 11 years ago

    most of my traffic on hub pages comes from just one hub,  and the traffic on that one hub has gone down a lot the last few days as well.  Perhaps Google is trying to put hub pages out of business.

  39. Paul Edmondson profile imageSTAFF
    Paul Edmondsonposted 11 years ago

    RustyBrick at SEL said that Google responded that there was not an update - I think that's BS.  The only thing we've seen move traffic that quickly (up or down) in the history of the site is a Panda update. 

    There wasn't anything major on our side, plus lots of other sites I know saw significant moves...If it's inadvertent on Google's part we hope they remedy it soon...I'll let you know if we hear anything.

    1. wilderness profile image95
      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the update, Paul.  It's been rather disappointing, to say the least, to see traffic tumble at this time of year. 

      Sounds like a "wait and see" once more.

    2. SimeyC profile image87
      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with Google - nothing change. It just happened that in the space of an hour on December 10th, 67% of my readership collectively decided my writing was crap and started shunning my work!!! I knew I shouldn't of made fun of the End of the World!

      1. profile image0
        summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Odd question, but did you change the features on your hub profile slide show around that time?

        1. SimeyC profile image87
          SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          No - the only thing that I did differently was to post a few links on So.cl - which is Microsoft's social network - however we're only talking less than a dozen so I cannot see being punished so much.

          My drop does coincide with a lot of other people on the web - not just HP - I have recovered some traffic and am back at the levels I was in early November before we spiked - so I guess it all has balanced out!

          1. profile image0
            summerberrieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Okay wink

  40. Mark Ewbie profile image82
    Mark Ewbieposted 11 years ago

    The Quantcast figures indicate that Google are messing around.  Significant raise followed by significant drop all in a couple of months.  It is ridiculous for a site of this size. 

    I am assuming that the content wasn't dramatically worse, better or worse over the same period.

    Therefore, after due consideration, I believe their search algorithm and the people who work it are a pile of poo.

    1. SimeyC profile image87
      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      big_smile Poogle

      1. sabrebIade profile image81
        sabrebIadeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I think if Google did have a customer service line it would be like this.....

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8L2cI8brzQ

        "Peggy"....LOL

        1. paradigmsearch profile image60
          paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Never occurred to me to do a search for "customer service" on youtube. Doing that plus a company name, like Time Warner, gives me all sorts of ammo to give companies grief that try to rip me off. Thanks.

      2. paradigmsearch profile image60
        paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I would have forked over the $10 to buy that name, poogle.com. I know, one way or another, I would have made money from it. Alas, someone beat me to it. Don't bother going there, nothing happening with it.

      3. bgamall profile image68
        bgamallposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Poople. Crapple. Shittle, Dungle. It all applies. They are liars. Everyone had massive traffic drop. They are lying. Some bounced back. It was all artificial.

  41. sabrebIade profile image81
    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    Paul isn't the only one getting that line from Google.....

    "A Google spokesperson told us there was no update that they were aware of. In fact, they told us there was definitely no Panda update and as far as they know, no other update that took place on or around Thursday, December 13th."
    But all the signals that we track point to some sort of Google update.

    http://searchengineland.com/no-that-was … =feed-main

    "On Friday, we reported pretty significant and convincing signs of there being a Google update on December 13th. I emailed Google to get confirmation for a post on Search Engine Land and Google initially told me it was not a Panda update and then finally confirmed with me that there was no update at all."

    http://www.seroundtable.com/no-google-update-16101.html

  42. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    "Right now
    12
    active visitors on site"

    It is what it is. And that is all that it is. Is is is?

  43. PaulGoodman67 profile image95
    PaulGoodman67posted 11 years ago

    When you consider how much work that HP and hubbers (like me!) have put into improving the quality of the site, the latest Google hit is somewhat frustrating!

    1. SimeyC profile image87
      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree - I have recovered all my traffic today and hopefully so has everyone else. It really is annoying to have this happen occasionally - I haven't done anything differently this week so why would my traffic double overnight - Google must have broke something and finally fixed it - not the best time for them to mess with my traffic though big_smile

  44. SimeyC profile image87
    SimeyCposted 11 years ago

    Traffic back up today - my benchmark hub that went to page two of Google is back to page 1 position 2!

    It took ten days - last year it was 6 to 7 days to recoever:

    http://s3.hubimg.com/u/7489078_f1024.jpg

    1. aa lite profile image84
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      So what do you reckon happened?  Google undid the "update"?

      I'm still down, but I'm down so much I'm hoping my traffic will do what yours did.  It's like bits of Google fall into some weird warp in the space time continuum, where nothing makes sense.  This has nothing to do with quality!

      1. SimeyC profile image87
        SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I guess they experimented - the same thing happened to me last year four times over a few months - I have one hub that I follow that goes down to page two when 'something' happens and then back to the top of page one when they fix it! It returned to page one early this morning.

        As I said earlier in this thread - my experience with this rollercoaster is that I recover after two weeks or in two cases one week.

        It really doesn't make sense - I have four or five 'quality' hubs that always get hit hard but then go back to number one in the rankings.....

        1. Rosie2010 profile image68
          Rosie2010posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Awesome!  I'm happy for you, Simey.  My traffic is improving, too.  Although it has not fully recovered like yours, I'm happy it's going up (fingers crossed).  Cheers!  smile

          1. janderson99 profile image55
            janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Nah! My overall traffic reset to what it was a month ago, before the lovely surge, and has stayed there. It essentially mirrors overall HP data trends

            http://www.a1niches.com/revert.jpg

            1. Ms Dee profile image86
              Ms Deeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              janderson99, my traffic recovery is the same experience as yours. Very nice visual, BTW! smile

              1. PaulGoodman67 profile image95
                PaulGoodman67posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                My HP traffic pattern is similar to Janderson's.  My Squidoo was more like Simey's though, with a sudden drop, then a (fairly) quick recovery.  I hope my HP figures come back, they seem to be getting worse rather than better at the moment!

  45. Mandy M S profile image86
    Mandy M Sposted 11 years ago

    My traffic has not recovered.  I made $195.00 from December 1-10 and from 10-20 have made not quite $10.00.  I'm going to stay hopeful tha traffic will climb today.  smile

  46. mathom profile image78
    mathomposted 11 years ago

    FWIW -- and this is Greekgeek being too lazy to log out and log in again -- this new account is puttering along nicely with Google and Bing. Not great, as it's still only a handful of hubs, all about 2 to 3 three weeks old -- but it's amassed over 1000 visits, with about 300 of those from search engines.

    My regular account is around 700-800 a day with about 100 hubs (not all featured). again, not great, but slightly better than before that September 27 drop that clobbered so many of us.

  47. DTWJ profile image61
    DTWJposted 11 years ago

    I'm relatively new to Hubpages and posted only one hub. So, it's good to read up on your hub so I know what's going on in the community. It is true that Google changes their algorithm more often than not and it can be discouraging. I'm hoping we can find ways to work with the new algorithm and get the most out of it.

  48. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    "Overview

    Right now
    19
    active visitors on site"

    I am enjoying it while it lasts.

  49. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    "Right now
    29
    active visitors on site"

    It all ends tomorrow...

  50. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    "Right now
    34
    active visitors on site"

    1. SimeyC profile image87
      SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      big_smile I have 80! 64 of those are spread over three 'end of world' hubs - guess that'll die off after tomorrow - one way or another!

      1. paradigmsearch profile image60
        paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I hit over 400 on my 12/12/12 hub back then.

        Too darn much competition as to 12/21/12. Still having fun though.

        "Right now
        17
        active visitors on site"

      2. SylviaSky profile image91
        SylviaSkyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        I have lost about 30 percent of my visitors...could it be the deletion of tags? I chose my tags carefully.

        1. SimeyC profile image87
          SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          The Tags were not used in Google searches and HP say they were not even used in internal searches so it's unlikely they had any bearing on loss of traffic - sadly HP seems to get hit with major adjustments every so often - I'm lucky that I've only seen one adjustment hit me this year, but IzzyM has experienced a roller coast ride on many of her sub-domains....

          1. profile image0
            jenuboukaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Um, I am not so sure about Google not using tags, or the fact that tags are obsolete.  Other online writing I do; tags are extremely important and hold quite a bearing of whether traffic is coming.  In my opinion and experience.  I find them highly substantial for organic traffic to my other sites.  So I really am scratching my head why HP removed them.

            As for the "loss" of traffic during the holiday season; that is a load of bull; seriously.  Especially for those writers who published "holiday" themed content; oh wait; many of those hubs are idled and not indexed anymore or has that been fixed?   

            Online shopping, surfing, and content in general is huge; as we have mobile smart phones, tablets, notebooks, to use at our very fingertips.  So I just don't buy anyone who says "traffic drops are due to the holiday season; as many people use the internet to do their shopping; and if you market your content right; your articles will show up. 

            I just don't know anymore; I mean when I went to research some social bookmarking sites to help my other sites; I found OW, and saw Hubpages as one of the "social sites" to post your content to. What does that mean? NING and social glam on the bottom of this site have anything to do with that? 

            I came to this site over a year ago; and earlier this year when they changed the layout; I became concerned; and the changes keep happening;  and the issues keep a coming. 

            Perhaps it is just time to move on.....

            1. SimeyC profile image87
              SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

              "I am not so sure about Google not using tags" - I think it was Izzym? who did research on this and showed that the Tags were not included in the Source and therefore were not being counted as Meta Tags - therefore they were not being used by Google - I think she even noted that they were not even being included as text.....

              HP have said that they create 'Tags' automatically - there was a lot of discussion about this and whether we should be able to edit them.

              "As for the "loss" of traffic during the holiday season; that is a load of bull; seriously." - did you see my graph where I showed that my traffic plunged in one hour on December 10th - and then regained all the traffic in one hour yesterday. There's no way to know if this is a HP problem or a Google problem. There is always some variation around the holidays - I get quite a lot of traffic to some Christmas Oriented hubs - but I don't see a dowturn of other hubs at the same time. So I agree!

              I understand your frustration - visit some of the SEO forums and see how many sites are seeing similar ups and downs - many are having to change formats, change the way they market etc - take a look at Wizzley - they also had to do a major overhaul recently - there seems to be no logic to why we all have to change - but something has to be done.

              Interestingly when Panda first hit, HP were heavily critisized for not anticipating problems and improving quality - now that they are 'attempting' to do this, they are critisized for it - they cannot win.


              At the end of the day it is in HPs best interest to get more traffic to everyone....

              As for moving on - I think a lot of writers (myself included) are diversifying - I write on several sites but will continue to write on here - it's always a good idea to spread your eggs among differemt basket
              s...

              1. profile image0
                jenuboukaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                S,

                Your knowledge here has always been such a great benefit to me.  As for the tags; I would think since we wrote the article we should have the authority to manage these tags; as we could "update" faster and better.

                I do agree that all sites have their ups and downs;  and those who continue to publish on their domains must acquire proper seat belts for the ride.  So you are right on the nose as far as diversifying- This place was such a great starting point for me; but as I grow; my perspective has changed.  Not to knock HP as a site, but what I write about; there are just better avenues to per sue for my niche. 

                I hope all that engage this thread will head your suggestions as a great insight to a fuller picture. 

                You rock Simey.

                1. SimeyC profile image87
                  SimeyCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks! It's an interesting discussion and there are so many great writers with different experiences that the mind simply boggles - it's sad to see so many talented people leave HP - it's partially HPs fault but also Google has to take a lot of credit - for me it's simple - if an article is quality then it should rank - it doesn't matter if it's on ehow, Squidoo, HP, blogger or anywhere else - even if the writer has 500 poor articles - surely the great article should still rank!

                  Perhaps I'm an eternal optimist - things will get better I am sure - I just hope all the talent doesn't leave the internet!!!

                  1. Xenonlit profile image60
                    Xenonlitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                    We're not leaving the internet. We're leaving dysfunctional content mills. I just can't afford to waste any more time here. Now that I'm investing time in my blog, the views are going up nicely and I don't let some content mill skim off my pennies while suppressing views.

 
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