My traffic is tanking!

1. 93

   habeeposted 11 years ago

   Just checked yesterday's traffic, and it was horrible. My Monday traffic hasn't been this low since August 2011. I don't get it. It seems the more long, informative, media-rich hubs I write, the less traffic I get.

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      Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You're not alone.  Paul E has started a thread:
      
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/114897

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      rose-the plannerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yesterday I woke up to more than 80% of my hubs with blue arrows which has never happened to me since I started here 3 months ago.  This morning there were blue arrows on about 30%.  The numbers were stuck over the weekend as per usual but when they adjusted I noticed traffic was pretty slow.  I think it might be a combination of factors.  Google is probably up to something plus this is peak vacation time which will definitely slow things down.  I just hope things go back to normal soon.  Take care.  -Rose

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         Wendy Fiskposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'm new at this. What do blue arrows mean? I have now published my 5 hubs & still feeling my way through the whole process of Hubpages. How long does it take to begin generating traffic? Appreciate any info and advice!

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            susi10posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            The blue arrows mean that your traffic is falling, don't worry. When you publish a hub, it will get a lot of traffic from going into the HubFeed, sent to followers etc. Then, your traffic will go down and stay down for a few days to anything  up to a week. After that, your traffic should rise from getting Google traffic. Provided, you do a little keyword research on the Keyword Tool, you should begin to get some search traffic. Hope that helped!

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   3. 72

      livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Are you keeping up with this thread started by Paul E.? http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/114897
      
      Google in now indexing hubs through the subdomains instead of the main site so the high PR Topics page they were indexed on is no longer giving the same weight as it did last week.  PR is coming through your Profile page in combination with the PR of the actual hub. 
      
      It will be a little topsy turvy for a couple weeks but those with strong profiles. such as yours, should see a return of traffic.  Those with profiles with PR poorer than the Topics pages their hubs were featured on will need to make some big improvements to regain traffic loss.

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         habeeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Richard. That's good to hear! I'm not so sure I have a "strong profile," however.

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            livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            You do... compared to the Topics pages which are all between PR4 and PR6... your profile is PR4.  I can also tell you that while doing an experiment on G+ a couple weeks ago, I was searching the index volume of hubbers that I know have lots of hubs.  At the time, you were only showing 600+ hubs indexed to your subdomain, which was fantastic compared to some others I checked.  Hal Lincino for instance has nearly 2500 hubs for which only 9 were indexed through his sub.  Today, Hal is up to 687 and all of your hubs are indexed.  So, what that means is you have roughly 400+ hubs that need to catch up to where they were on the Topics page and the other 600 hubs should remain unaffected. Since your profile PR is nearly where those hubs were on the Topics pages, it shouldn't take long to get back to where you were.

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            1. 93

               habeeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Wow! Thanks for all the info, Richard. I feel a little better now.

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      2. 83

         Marsha Musselman1posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         @livewithrichard,
         
         What do you mean by this: "Those with profiles with PR poorer than the Topics pages their hubs were featured on" (?) More specifically, what do you mean by PR poorer and how do we get the PR richer?

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         1. 72

            livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            PR stands for Page Rank and it is one of the 200+ metrics that Google uses to measure the value of a web page.  Before this latest update, which is still going on, we were seeing a problem here at HP where Google was indexing our hubs through the Topics pages instead of indexing them through our subdomains.  Newer hubbers, mostly those that have joined in the last year or so, haven't seen this problem.  Topics pages have high Page Rank so hubs that were indexed through them were getting a little boost from that PR.  Now that the update is going on, Google is suddenly indexing our hubs the way they should be, through our subdomains.  Most subdomains have very low PR or at least lower than the Topics pages so now hubs that were indexed on Topics pages and now on subs are experiencing loss of position in the results pages of Google search thus also losing traffic.

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      3. 93

         Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I agree somewhat with your first paragraph - hubs that were indexed through hubpages.com got a nice boost and when reindexed via subdomain are no longer benefiting from that.
         
         But the second paragraph doesn't really fit for me. The highest profile PR I've ever seen on HP is 4, whereas the main topic pages have mainly PR 5 (and have had for all the time I've been here), so basically what I'm saying is that I've never seen any hubber achieve what you've proposed is needed?

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         1. 72

            livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Most of the Main Topics Pages are PR4 and PR5, however most Hubbers do not post to the main Topic, they post to Sub-Topics (which we should do.)  For example:
            Fashion and Beauty»(PR4)
            Perfume and Fragrances»(PR3)
            Eau de Toilette (PR2)
            
            I'm not going to test this out, but if I were to write a hub related to Eau de Toilette, my PR3 subdomain should give that hub a pretty good boost in the rankings of that Topics page and the links that the Root Domain of HP send to that page should help my hub get a little more boost in the SERP's. That said, and as I'm sure you know, PR is only one of over 200+ metrics that Google measures for position in the SERP's so the hub would have to be well researched against current competition.
            
            Our Subs are never going to outrank the Root but we can match other deep pages from the Root. Before the switch to subs, my profile page was a PR4, after the switch my sub became a PR2 and now PR3 so it is possible to build PR on Subs to at least meet the PR on 'most' of the Topics pages they were on.

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            1. 93

               Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I'm nowhere near an expert on PR flow, but I see it working as a kind of feedback loop on Hubpages. The better your hubs perform, the higher they get on the topic pages (initially the subtopic and then over time the main topic), therefore the more PR they get from the main domain, and the better they perform in the SERP's. I have no idea how much flows the other way ie: through profiles back to Hubpages topic pages. Certainly an interesting thought though.

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   4. 76

      Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Paul mentioned in the other thread that it seems to be the older hubs that are losing traffic. That is why the newer writers are faring well and the older ones aren't.

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      1. 93

         Rochelle Frankposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'm 'older' and mine are doing ok-- though I have reworked or removed some of my more elderly hubs.

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   5. 55

      mcxniftycallsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic is as same as 2-3 months back, best performing articles are still on first page of Google.. there is 20% - 30% variations some time but there is no change in SERP. Articles are still on first page of Google search.

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      barryrutherfordposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Got the lowest stats today since starting out on Hubpages  six years ago

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      soulfullyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Check out Hubpages on semrush.com. It shows traffic for Hubpages is dropping significantly, and continuing to drop. The peak was at 7 million visitors in Jan of 2011, now at 1.8 million in July 2013, and it's still dropping. The stats don't look good at all.

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      1. 93

         Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         You'll get much more accurate traffic stats for HP on Quantcast.com because they are actually measured.

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            soulfullyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I've never used Quantcast before, Susan. Thanks for the heads up! It looks like a good site. They display age groups and other stats for websites which might come in handy one day when I learn how to sell stuff.

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               Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               You're welcome

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   8. 69

      cornwall_UKposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      August 2011... matches my best traffic on hubpages and my own websites... although my own websites haven't dropped as much as Hubpages' traffic has.
      
      And. my websites have a good CTR, while my Hubs have halved their already poor CTR.

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2. 67

   Gypsy Willowposted 11 years ago

   Mine is at an all time low.

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3. 88

   Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

   Yes,it seems that the summertime slump is on...and views are suffering...or just maybe Google has another "adjustment" going on. :rolleyes"

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      Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Stacie, Sorry, but it isn't just summertime. It is another Google change.

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4. 80

   Patkayposted 11 years ago

   So what could be "eating" our traffic? My traffic is also down on its knees and it looks like it is suffering from pneumonia.

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5. 86

   georgialgal1984posted 11 years ago

   My traffic and earnings have been high the last couple days. I am consistently making more now than I was weeks ago. I guess traffic depends upon many factors. Hope your traffic rises Habee! I enjoy your creative and informative hubs!

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   1. 93

      Rochelle Frankposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Mine have been a little better, too, during the past several days. I hesitate to mention it because  I don't know why-- and so many people are saying traffic and earnings are down.

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6. 72

   KoffeeKlatch Galsposted 11 years ago

   Mine is tanking too.  This is the lowest I've been in almost three years.

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7. 72

   Reality Bytesposted 11 years ago

   What is a good/average pagerank for a profile?

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      livewithrichardposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It should be as near to the PR rank of the Topics page your hubs are featured on.  Most are PR4 - PR6 so I would be building my profile with guest posts and linking to high PR sites until my Profile PR were at least PR4.  Right now, mine is a PR3.

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      1. 90

         brokenmeadowsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         How do you know what your PR is?

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Enter the URL of the page you want to check into this tool, fill in the captcha, and it will then show you the PR of that page. You can use it for your individual articles, websites, profile pages etc.
            
            http://www.prchecker.info/

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8. 92

   vocalcoachposted 11 years ago

   I can't remember when my traffic has been this low.  I'm not seeing many blue arrows, but earnings are way low as well.

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9. 80

   sallybeaposted 11 years ago

   Mine is at an all time high and has been for over a week - must be doing something right.

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10. 80

    SimeyCposted 11 years ago

    Just went into the dreaded Webmaster tools and noticed only about half my hubs are indexed - so hopefully that will change soon!
    
    I noticed something strange - If I look at 'impression' stats - I had 1600 impressions /  50 clicks on 7/17 - today I have 5500 impressions / 170 clicks - this isn't being reflected in my HP stats though - is this a 'crap' stat to look at or am I missing something!

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       If a Hub was indexed under hubpages.com, it's impression and click stats would not appear in the webmaster tools account for your subdomain.  So the increase there is the result of more of your hubs being indexed "properly".

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          LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          A quick question; I regularly check my views in Adsense. and today I have been noticing that my views have actually gone down from what they were two hours ago. Is this a glitch or something new?

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11. 61

    paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

    Amazingly, my traffic is ok. It's drifting down a little, but nowhere near the disaster that others are reporting.

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12. 70

    luisj305posted 11 years ago

    Hmm, I see the same big drop in traffic. However, a very nice rise in earnings. Confuses me, but I think the fewer readers are worth more because of geographic location.
    Could also be a new ad provider which pays better or something like that.. I'm really not sure.

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    indian cookingposted 11 years ago

    You are not alone. I am seeing down arrows on 80% of my hubs now. I think the traffic decrease is because of Google indexing hubs on subdomain.

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14. 0

    delleaposted 11 years ago

    All of my hubs have had very consistent daily traffic and I have noticed no decreases at all. My best suggestion is for all of you to not put all of your eggs in one basket. Try posting your HubPages links in social media sites where appropriate, submit your hubs and profile links to other search engines besides Google, use free self-promotion whenever you can with your friends, family and co-workers and urge them to forward on the links to your hubs that you send them. Last but not least, consider making up some business cards with your name and a link to your HubPages profile and hand them out to whomever, whenever possible. All in all, if you want real self-sustaining traffic, you have to push hard with self-promotion and make your hubs and your profile go viral!

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15. 0

    delleaposted 11 years ago

    Barbara Kay, if you are relying solely on Google for traffic to your hubs then you're making a mistake, you need to diversify and self-promote...

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       georgialgal1984posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I personally don't post my hubpage links on other websites, nor do I do any extra advertising. I like to make MFP Images that readers will post on Pinterest for me. I continue to see a rise in traffic and earnings, without me spending hours promoting my hubs.
       
       I think if you are able to write informative, unique, evergreen hubs, with MFP images, you will have to do little to none self-advertising. When people enjoy our hubs, they are quick to share and promote them for you. I get a lot of traffic from Pinterest and I do not use my account, nor have I ever pinned any of my hubs. Hope these helps and everyone has a wonderful week~

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          susi10posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          +1

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16. 97

    PaulGoodman67posted 11 years ago

    I've tanked too.  But still hoping for a quick bounce back, as happened in March.

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    Dorsiposted 11 years ago

    Mine was surging ahead for the last few weeks and is falling again.
    
    
    sigh.

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18. 89

    mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years ago

    My figures at best can be described as 'terminal' or even 'tragic' right now! Today's views less than I would get on a bad Friday or Saturday (about 600 views down on a normal weekday) and over 8500 views less than they were a couple of years back on a normal week day. Sigh, really losing hope now for HP's future long term (sad though this is).

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       Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Misty, Mine has gotten so low too that I am ready to forget it. It seems to only be hitting the hubbers that have been here for awhile.

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19. 85

    Ayu Biposted 11 years ago

    im just a new member, but yeah, same here. the longer my hub, the lesser the traffic.

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20. 69

    Mommymayposted 11 years ago

    My traffic was up yesterday but I have noticed a crazy trend...the more I write, the LOWER my earnings are! When I take a Hub Paged vacation...I earn more! CRAZY!!!!

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21. 87

    moonlakeposted 11 years ago

    Last week and for more weeks than I can count all my hubs were featured. Now some aren't featured and it's because of traffic. I have worked on two of them but I'm done I see no reason to work on more until the fall in traffic changes if it ever does. If we're not getting traffic what good will it do they will just go back to unfeatured.

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22. 72

    LeanManposted 11 years ago

    Well I sailed through previous updates and changes on Google with some slight fluctuations - this time................. "Oh poop!!" Officially my lowest traffic in a long time on HP although my personal sites seem to be little affected.
    
    Not to panic just yet, Google always has its ups and downs when it makes any major updates and things settle out  - eventually (I hope!)

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       PaulGoodman67posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, hopefully there will be a bounce back soon.  I'm not panicking.  I actually had an awful crash in March, but it came back stronger within a week.  Weird how the turbulence always seems to hit HP worse than most other sites...

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    Dorsiposted 11 years ago

    Traffic back down to post Panda and Penguin levels again. Depressing after I was on an upward trend.

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    PaulGoodman67posted 11 years ago

    How low can it go, I'm wondering...

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25. 87

    Nell Roseposted 11 years ago

    Never been this darn low, what the heck?

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Yep mine are at the lowest in years now, and today just a little over half of normal for the same day of the week a couple of weeks ago.

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          rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Same.  I've seen a tiny, slight increase, but it's pathetic. I haven't done anything. I may work on updating summaries to see if that helps.  I feel bad for people like you that I know do this for an income.
          I hope at some point it gets better.  I think the switch back to our subdomains was the big kicker for those of us seeing a significant traffic loss.  It may take some time to settle down.  I don't recall seeing views this low when we initially moved to subdomains.  I'm pretty certain I saw an increase.

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          1. 89

             mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks RebekahELLE, it is really depressing, and to be honest I don't think all the tweaking in the world is going to make any difference, I feel this goes deeper than that. I am going to watch my traffic closely until about October, and if it doesn't start to dramatically pick up when the weather starts to get cooler and people come back indoors, I am going to start moving content (again) and definitely not bother adding much new content here when it could earn elsewhere (ideally on my own sites, or new ones I could build). HP is a great place to write if you thrive off the feedback in comments left by Hubbers etc (and let's face it, we all love to physically see people are reading our stuff and enjoying it), but it does become a bit pointless if you also need to earn from it and are not just doing it for fun or for a hobby (plus few people outside of HP are reading it anyway if Google aren't ranking your pages in the SERPs). I have become frustrated by the amount of time and effort I have put in here only to see my earnings dropping lower and lower, and the last week or so has really been the final straw. I think giving HP until October is fair, and if Google don't lighten up on them by then there is no reason to stay here as a writer unless it is purely for fun.

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          theherbivorehippiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          At my all-time lowest views right now. Absolutely disgusted.

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       LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I have been checking Adsense and my views are actually declining; they are lower now than there were two hours ago and the same thing happened yesterday and the day before!!!!!

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26. 88

    Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

    Is it better to crash during the summer slump than in the holiday periods? Hoping that doesn't happen again!

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27. 78

    sabrebIadeposted 11 years ago

    My traffic was cut in half down to where it was after the last Panda hit.
    Now it has recovered slightly (up about 100 to 200 hits a day) but my CTR is 0...which does me no good.

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    PoeticPhilosophyposted 11 years ago

    Mine is tanking for the upside It's rolling in the numbers but I've been doing a little extra promoting. All of you who are experiencing lower traffic keep your head's up, when summer's done I'm sure everyone's gonna be on there computer back to looking up information, but right now. It's summer! They gotta enjoy there time outdoors.

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    1. 91

       Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       This is not just the summer, it is a Panda update. My traffic is almost 40% down on this time last year, ie last summer. I have considerably more hubs now, too. Take a look at Quantcast and you will see that it is true that traffic goes down in summer, this year's figures are far lower than previously.

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       1. 93

          Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Yep, absolutely nothing to do with Summer (totally fed up with reading that little tidbit of misinformation!).
          
          Though also, there's no way to see HP's Summer stats accurately on Quantcast or do any kind of comparisons with the number of Google updates over the last few years and how they've affected HP traffic.

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             SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             +1

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    theherbivorehippiposted 11 years ago

    Is anyone recovering from this? Yesterday I thought my traffic cannot possibly can any lower, but sadly it can. I'm still dropping. I have less total views right now than I typically get daily off one of my top hubs. I'm sick over this. To the people who keep saying it's summer, please just stop. Those of us who have been hear for years know better. It's insulting...and annoying.

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    1. 89

       mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Mine is definitely not recovering, it has simply stabilised at an abysmal level that is a figure that just one of my top three hubs used to get daily about two years ago.

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          theherbivorehippiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Bleh! Sorry to hear. Sadly, this may be my final straw. I deleted so much about a year ago already. It may be time to move everything else to my own sites. I hate to leave completely, but I might just have to. These constant updates never affect my personal sites the way they do HubPages. This is killing my income. I just checked my PR on one of my top earning Hubs that was a 4...now it's a 2.

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             mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Yep, I checked a few random ones and mine were now 2's as well. I am starting to feel much like you do, it is probably a good time to begin shifting content to your own sites. I might have to build a few new ones though if I am going to stick to niche sites, and I won't have the time to do this until the winter kicks in (too much to do on my vegetable allotment right now). I hear Xobba is doing well though and that Josh who owns it has had a big surge in traffic since the latest Panda update. It might be worth putting some articles there too.

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    andromidaposted 11 years ago

    I have lost two-third of my daily traffic.The only way to get back your traffic is improve your Google Plus activities and build a niche.Google is showing irrelevant results from the well known sites, not recognizing the quality posts from hubpages. We need to concentrate on alternate way to bring traffic to our hubs.I guess  Squidoo has been hit even harder than hubpages.

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