KNOWN ISSUE: Google SERPs WMT [see http://bit.ly/10GIBdz]

1. 67

   Michael Willisposted 10 years ago

   I think I can see why I am not getting traffic. I did a site:"domainname:.com and the two pics below is all I can see! Is hubpages being blocked by Google?
   
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   Here is the message underneath description:
   A description for this result is not available because of this site's robots.txt – learn more.

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   1. 31

      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's too small for me to read.  But, if you search:  site:hubpages.com, Google returns over 2 million pages.  (I don't know whose idea it was to index the whole darn forum, but that's a real waste of GoogleBot time on the site.  There's such a thing as 'crawl priority' - i.e., if the forum were off limits to search engines, Hubs would be crawled more frequently and given a higher status.)

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      1. 67

         Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Any time I have used this method to search for hubs, all my hubs came up first. Second would be questions. I never saw my forum threads or posts show up before.

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   2. 87

      Simone Smithposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      My apologies about this, Michael Willis- I imagine it might be related to a known bug we're working on. i'm moving this to the Technical Problems Forum and asking Matt (who is more in the loop on those issues) to stop by and see if he might provide more information.

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      1. 67

         Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Simone. Hope you had a good weekend.

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   3. 89

      NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I had a drastic drop in traffic yesterday and wondered why. Traffic has picked up again today though.

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   4. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      This is related to the known and ongoing issue that is affecting Google WMT verification and Authorship not showing for the sub-domain URL. 
      This is related to how Google is choosing to index and display the information we present to them.
      
      You can find info about the other symptoms of this broader problem in these other forum threads.
      
      KNOWN ISSUE: Some Hubs don't show in G WMT
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/112471#post2394653
      
      KNOWN ISSUE: Authorship for subdomain only
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/111275#post2368074
      
      Pages not indexed and 'topics' showing in SERPS, rather than subdomain
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/112639

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   5. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Just wanted to give an update.
      I have created a top-level thread for all the related issues.
      Please see it for updates.
      
      KNOWN ISSUE: Google SERPS affecting authorship display and WMT
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/112722
      http://bit.ly/10GIBdz

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2. 31

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   Google is showing you personalized results.  You have to use an encrypted browser that doesn't tell Google who you are.  Google has one:
   https://encrypted.google.com/
   
   Search from that and you will get the results other searchers see.
   
   It's a really bad idea to have forum stuff and questions indexed by Google, in my opinion, and when animals rule the world I will change that.

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   1. 67

      Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you about forum posts especially. I see no use to index them.

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   2. 67

      Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I used the encrypted google to check my pages with the site:domainname.....and got the exact same results.

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      1. 60

         Nomascus concolorposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I agree about the forum. Michael Willis, I check the traffic after seeing your post and it seems to be the same for me... not really sure why though. Hopefully this is just temporary.

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3. 31

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   I searched and got 44 results (clicking on 'omitted results', too):
   your domain Profile page
   Dallas Cowboys Football Schedule
   How do you make creamy Vodka sauce - Question
   Pityriasis Tinea Versicolor
   Do you treat people with a skin disease differently - Question
   Hamburger Helper
   site map – (This is what HubPages sends to Google to tell it what to index on your subdomain)
   Beautiful, hot, sexy, desirable woman
   35 pages that are blocked to Google
   
   So, that looks like maybe four Hubs and your Profile page shows 14.  Are you allowing non-featured Hubs to show on your Profile page? (You have the option to allow this, or not.)
   
   If all of your Hubs should be featured, go in to your Webmaster Tools account and under the help menu on the left, click on "Fetch as GoogleBot."  If Google can't get to your Hub, there will be an option to "Add URL." And, that is what you must do.
   
   It is a mistake to allow brand new Hubs to appear on a Profile before they are featured Hubs because if Google finds them before they are featured, Google will find that it is blocked and may be a very long time in coming back.

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   1. 67

      Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      All 14 hubs are featured. My average hub score is 87. I have no unfeatured hubs.

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4. 31

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   So, go to your Webmaster Tools and find out what the problem is.

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   1. 67

      Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      # 1WMTools says site was not verified. HP has had problems with this recently. I did verify again.
      #2---Crawl errors on all hubs show as 410. "does not exist or has moved."

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5. 31

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   OK.  So, you have to resubmit the URLs to Google from Webmaster tools.  It can take several hours if GoogleBot is ramming itself against a previous NoIndex tag.  Check your hubs (view/source) to make sure that they don't have the NoIndex tag right now.  Then, after GoogleBot tells you it cannot find the URL, it will provide a place to resubmit the URL.  Then, you do that and it should return a "URL found" and you'll be back on the radar.
   
   Do you remember what I just posted about not allowing new Hubs to appear on your Profile page before they were indexed.  Well, I have my settings for my Profile that way and, guess what?  I published a new Hub a few hours ago and it's on my Profile page, so the same thing you are experiencing is about to happen to me.
   
   I sent an email to HubPages just now to say that my Profile settings aren't working, but if this is what is happening to everyone, that could explain a lot. Google should never find a NoIndex on a new Hub.  It takes a long time to undue that damage. (Just my luck, my new Hub is about Father's Day and there's no time to spare for that topic!)

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   1. 67

      Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Your Father's Day hub is a good reason that the no-index should Not be added by HP on hubs that are seasonal if submitted close or at the season written for.
      I have not published a new hub in a very long time. I stopped when all sort of experiments started with our hubs. lol
      I have read about hubbers suffering major traffic loss and then I found this with my hubs. Wondering if others may have the same issue!?!?
      I also have read about the New Algo by Google and it being a big issue. Seem we always take a huge hit here at HP, whether deserved or not by individual domains.
      I have had Google to crawl my hubs at least daily or sometimes twice a day for more than 6 months, until this event. The longest I have found so far today is at 2 days on a hub, some 4 or 6 hours ago.

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      1. 88

         Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Michael, have you checked back to see if any changes? I did a check of my hubs and am getting my hubs showing up in Google.

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         1. 67

            Michael Willisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Nothing haw changed. I just checked again.

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6. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 10 years ago

   Featured hubs may not show up when you do a site: search because google has chosen to index a lot of Urls on hubpages.com.  If the URL is featured, try a site search without the subdomain.

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7. 88

   crankaliciousposted 10 years ago

   Last week was finals week for most colleges and Universities. My traffic started dropping in direct correlation to when finals started and hit bottom when it ended. Most college students, who spend a lot of time online, are travelling are finding summer jobs or just out and about and not in school anymore. This has got to be one of the main reasons for the traffic drop.

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8. 61

   MuellerWordsmithposted 10 years ago

   It isn't just Hubpages, its any public driven media whatsoever. Google is now heavily biased towards all forms of large corporate media. Slowly but surely they are turning the internet into a gated garden instead of an egalitarian house of ideas.

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