Google Indexing changes - Now indexed under my sub domain!!!

1. 72

   LeanManposted 11 years ago

   There appears to be some changes with the "problem" with google indexing some hubs under our domains and others through hubpages.com.
   
   "suddenly" webmaster tools are showing that my pages are now indexed under my subdomain rather than through hubpages.com. A search for "site: etc" on Google is confirming this also rather than the few that were indexed before.
   
   Is this just me or are others seeing a change? and will it make any difference in traffic??

   replyreport
   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I've seen some people reporting traffic losses over the last day or two and the Quantcast stats seem to show a drop too (though they are a bit behind).
      
      My own traffic was down about a third yesterday when I compare it to last Sunday and yes, my hubs all now seem to be indexed via subdomain, whereas previously they were mostly all indexed through HP's main domain.
      
      Hoping that my pages and traffic bounce up again quickly!

      replyreport
2. 61

   C.V.Rajanposted 11 years ago

   I don't know how to find out how my hubs are indexed, but I find my page views having doubled in the last 2 days.

   replyreport
   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Just type this into google's search box:
      
      site:cvrajan.hubpages.com

      replyreport
      1. 61

         C.V.Rajanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Susanna!
         I find some 93 articles of mine in "cvrajan.hubpages.com" listed by Google search. What is its significance? Any idea?

         replyreport
         1. 93

            Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Probably best you read Paul E's thread: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/114897
            
            Essentially, for a time Google was indexing many hubs through the old (pre-subdomains) url format  ie:
            
            hubpages.com/hub/this-is-the-hub-url
            
            instead of
            
            cvrajan.hubpages.com/hub/this-is-the-hub-url
            
            A lot of those that were indexed via the 1st format were getting better traffic.
            
            Google has just recently changed the url's these hubs are indexed under back to the subdomain format and traffic is tanking to those hubs.

            replyreport
3. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

   I just checked and yes, all of mine are now listed with my subdomain.  I wonder when this happened.
   One of those which had been listed under HP had an increase on Fri/Sat.  Yesterday my views were quite low across the subdomain.  We'll see what happens!

   replyreport
4. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

   Google took one of my hubs and cut off the second part of the title so it's indexed now on page 4.
   It used to be indexed with most of the title appearing.  ??  When I clicked on the green URL to check the cached page, it gave a 404 error reading that this URL is not found on the server.  ??  What's up with this?
   
   Views are exceptionally low today.  I haven't checked all of my hubs that used to be indexed under HP to see if it's showing the same 404 error. 
   
   EDIT: so far all of them that I've checked show the 404 error on the green URL when I check for the cached version.

   replyreport
   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I think this is simply because your hubs are now at a new url (as mine are), so Google doesn't yet have a cache of your hubs at the new location.
      
      From what I can see, switching to indexing via the new url has caused ranking losses for my pages (but rankings are not terrible - just not as good). Think it will probably just take a bit of time for them to get back to previous positions - hope so anyway!
      
      Edit: Paul E's thread has more info: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/114897

      replyreport
      1. 85

         rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I guess.  It's just frustrating, as most of the hubs that were previously moved to the HP domain ranked well on my subdomain.  Then they were listed on HP domain for a few months (however long it was), and now they've switched them back and they've lost the rank they initially had on my subdomain.  What are they doing?
         
         I'm not happy that they simply shortened one of my hub titles to two words in the SERPS.  It ranked also for other words used in the title.  Why would they do this?

         replyreport
         1. 93

            Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Wish I had answers for you, but unfortunately I don't. I would also prefer my hubs to have stayed indexed on the main domain!
            
            I've seen Google change the title displayed before, but only rarely. Your guess is as good as mine as to why G would do this at the mo. As usual I think the answers will only come after the dust has settled a bit and people have time to really analyse what's happened.

            replyreport
            1. 58

               Mark Knowlesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Worry not. I feel certain that Marisa and Wilderness will be along soon to 'splain it for us.

               replyreport
               1. 93

                  Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  LOL Mark
                  
                  Hope you're well

                  replyreport
                  1. 58

                     Mark Knowlesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     I am indeed. My traffic is now down to the point where I am 100% convinced the HP team have utterly no clue at all, so - WTF - I might as well give them some free content on their adsense monetised forum.

                     replyreport
                     1. 86

                        Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        I'm surprised it took you so long to come to that conclusion, Mark.  I decided that way back when Paul told Izzy she couldn't write.

                        replyreport
                        1. 0

                           EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           LOL. Yes, I remember that. I think that was the point at which I finally lost any respect for the management here.

                           replyreport
                        2. 58

                           Mark Knowlesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           Well - I was still making good money until this latest debacle. I am now looking at an almost total loss of income. Oh well........

                           replyreport
5. 79

   Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

   I thought mine were already indexed under my subdomain, but I'm not 100% sure.
   
   My views are going up a bit.
   
   Suggestion: set up Google authorship, since Google's evidently decided to lump all your hubs together. Do it wherever you're posting content that you consider to be quality content.
   
   After a while, you can build up an authorial footprint and reputation, which may help your rankings.

   replyreport
   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Previously, authorship has had no influence on whether Google decided to index a hub via subdomain or HP's main domain. It has been an issue with hubs for months now: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/113870

      replyreport
6. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

   Thanks Susana and GG for the responses.  We'll see what happens. 
   Hey MK, so funny! 

   replyreport
7. 58

   humagaiaposted 11 years ago

   It seems to me that those articles which were created before the change to personal subdomains may have been indexed under both the hubpages domain and our personal subdomain. This meant that they were indexed by Google as under the umbrella of Hubpages and therefore gained their authority from HP. Those hubs created after the change to personal subdomains will have been indexed by Google using that URL.
   The upshot of this is that the recent change by Google to index via the personal subdomain will have had an impact on those hubs indexed under the HP domain, giving positive SERP changes where your authority is better than HP, and negative SERP changes if it is worse.
   Now, if I remember correctly, going back to when the subdomain change was implemented, those seasoned authors that had a good idea of what the outcome might be, said that changing to subdomains would negatively impact traffic and SERP standings, in the long run. In my view their predictions are now coming home to roost.
   HP staff may say that there is nothing they can do to affect the outcome. This is not the case. For us all to benefit from a community site, the best way is for each of us to have our hubs under the umbrella of an HP URL, that is to say, remove the personal subdomain structure and revert to the original HP coverall URL structure. In that way, and if HP sets each hub with Google+ authorship under its own flag (Hubpages), each and every hub would benefit from the change back.
   It would be beneficial to us all if the removal of, and restrictions on, non-quality content were continued, such that the authority of the site increases. But with the quantity of hubs available, the authority will likely most times be greater than that for any individual.

   replyreport
   1. 78

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I'm no expert, but personally, I think I would do better "flying on my own" so to speak.  I do not like having the rise or fall of my work based on what happens with other people.  If I cannot earn strong authority on my own, then I do not deserve it.  Just me talking here.

      replyreport
   2. 77

      mathomposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      What TimeTraveler said. I would prefer to stick with my subdomains, thanks. Both are holding steady or slightly improving in traffic just at the moment.

      replyreport
   3. 85

      WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hubs HAVE been mostly indexed under the main site to now. In fact, being part of an authority site used to be one of the draw cards of Hubpages.
      
      If you wish to fly on your own, you'll find it can be a lot harder.

      replyreport
      1. 0

         EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         ...but by the same token, a lot of people reading this are going to think "If I'm not getting any benefits from HP's status as an "authority site" any more, then I might as well move my hubs to my own site."

         replyreport
         1. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I recall this was the concern expressed by many Hubbers when we moved to sub-domains.  If being part of a big site was the advantage of HubPages, why would we each want separate sub-domains?  Surely our Hub accounts would become the equivalent of a Blogger blog, in which case we'd be just as well to go and start a Blogger blog...
            
            Several Hubbers suggested the sub-domains should be topic-based, creating 'authority sites' on specific subjects. 
            
            However, the switch to sub-domains did seem to have a positive impact on traffic for a lot of people, at least in the short term.   Ever since, there's been debate about whether Google was judging our sub-domains as standalone or not.  Looks like "not" was the answer, at least partly - and now, Google is finally treating them the way HubPages expected them to treat them when they were originally created.

            replyreport
            1. 95

               wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               It certainly had one for me (something like a 300% increase in traffic).  Until Penguin came along.  Whereupon I fell some 75% and slowly climbed back up as HP made a few strides in combating the poor quality. 
               
               Until the update a couple of months ago, where I fell about 50% and slowly recovered about half that, until google updated again this week.
               
               As time goes on, as HP makes tremendous effort to comply with what google wants, gaining traffic as a result and as google repeatedly slaps HP back down, my opinion that Google is specifically targeting HP to kill traffic in general continues to solidify.  Not one update has seen an increase, even a temporary one.  Every time HP falls, it is from some kind of change to the Panda (or penguin, which is a part of the algorithm).  It really is becoming monotonous and it really does (IMO) look like Google is simply refusing to allow search traffic to find HP regardless of what HP does.
               
               Whether that traffic is ending up on Google's own sites, big box retailers or somewhere else I don't know.  It just isn't ending up on HP, where tremendous strides have been made to address the very issue Google (correctly) complained about.  Where those strides are NOT being acknowledged by Google (old stuff that now carries a "no index" tag are still being indexed weeks and months after the tag went on). 
               
               I don't see any other explanation for what HP traffic in general has done since the first Panda.

               replyreport
   4. 93

      Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This is what I've seen too, but it's not been static. When subs were first introduced hubs were indexed under the sub url. Then about 5 months ago hubs that were published before subs came into being were mostly all indexed via HP's main domain (and many veteran hubbers saw traffic increases to those hubs). Now that those hubs have been re-indexed via subdomain, the boost that came from HP's main domain has been lost.

      replyreport
      1. 78

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         If Google is to treat us as "stand alones", then HP needs to remove those automatic links to other people's articles because they do impact our own numbers due to the linkage.  You cannot have it both ways.  HP no longer is an "authority site" specifically because it allowed things to get out of hand.  It's hard to clean up spilled milk!  I think it would help everybody if HP would step back from "adding" to our hubs, maintain continually high standards and simply host the site for the revenue they receive from the ads.  If they did this and were able to eliminate all of the lower level work here, they would again become an authoritative site that Google would recognize, and this would benefit all of us.

         replyreport
         1. 93

            Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Was this a reply to me? What you said doesn't seem to follow on from the post you replied to

            replyreport
            1. 78

               TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Susana S:  No this was not a reply to you.  It was simply a general statement of how I see things.

               replyreport
8. 93

   Susana Sposted 11 years ago

   There's a lot going on, but aside from the indexing issue which has obviously caused traffic drops for some, I think the quality standards are still far too low.
   
   Here's an excerpt from a hub I flagged recently and is still published and featured:
   
   "voluminous hair is a sign of vitality and youthfulness, no matter what’s your age is but thicker, shiny and bouncy hair makes your fell pretty and feminine."
   
   .....and according to the QAP that's a pass because at level 6 (which is the pass mark) it's ok to have:
   
   Some significant or frequent minor deviations from standard usage, that begin to detract from readability or credibility of the page.
      
   There may be noticeable issues with word choice or sentence structure.
   
   To me it's just plain wrong to have that as the standard. Would anyone here be happy with publishing posts containing those kinds of errors on their own domains? I doubt it! If HP are going for quality then bloody do it properly. Use level 8 as the pass mark or don't bother.
   
   I think essentially Google just doesn't trust Hubpages to deliver consistently and in truth, it can't at the moment.
   
   I also wonder whether having so many noindexed pages also gives a clear signal to Google that not even HP trusts their own content!

   replyreport
   1. 81

      HollieTposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      +1

      replyreport
9. 80

   SimeyCposted 11 years ago

   I checked my 'domain' on Webmaster Tools and found that only about 50% were indexed - therefore I used the 'Fetch as Google' tool under crawl, submitted my domain name and checked the box if I wanted to index all other links under this domain - today mu indexed hubs doubled.
   
   MIght be a good idea to do this - hopefully I'll see a little recovery in stats today!!!

   replyreport