Traffic has dropped unbelievably low!

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   Michael Willisposted 11 years ago

   This is the worst traffic I have seen since I began with HP. The NFL season is my money maker, or it was. This year's traffic is non-existent. If this is the way at HP now, I guess it is time to move everything somewhere else before the season is over. I am use to several thousand a day on weekends to my main money hub. It started to grow before the EC stuff started. I hate  when HP uses the late summer/early fall to change things here!!! By the time any recovery can happen the season is over.

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      Dale Hydeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hurricane season is my best time of the year here, normally, for making the most money.  The views here, this year, have been so low, I simply have stopped updating my Hurricane hub with the various storms and information that I normally provide.  Totally discouraging.  I have already laid the ground with a hub for next year's season, but I feel I will pull it and move it to another site and do my seasonal writing from another platform.

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         Michael Willisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         This hub I have mentioned is/was a money-maker. If HP's platform no longer works, then I have no choice but to move it. Hopefully I will have time to make money somewhere else.  The hub even has a 100 score and has ranked on page 1 in all 3 search engines for the major keywords and phrases people look for.  I don't know what HP is doing, but it is time to now look elsewhere.

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            pauldeedsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            When I look at Hub I assume you are talking about for its main search term, you are sitting behind a big Google integrated module with news and score, nfl.com, and ESPN.   Maybe Google didn't have NFL data to show last year and you beat out ESPN, I'm not sure.  But, it is going to be tough to move past those sites regardless of what you do or where you move your content.  Welcome to the new normal.  You are certainly welcome to try though ...

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               hazelwood4posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               When I first started, Hubpages, a couple of years ago I was seeing about 250 views per day. One of my articles has had 1000's of views, but now sadly all of my TRAFFIC is down to a trickle.

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   Barbara Kayposted 11 years ago

   My traffic has started to go back up. I am hoping this is the start of a trend here. I hope yours will start having  traffic return again soon.

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   aa liteposted 11 years ago

   I think with all the google changes, sites such as these can no longer rank for a lot of the keywords they used to rank for (The new normal as Paul Deeds says).  It is still possible to rank for keywords for which there is no decent competition.  Of course such keywords bring in a lot less traffic, even if you are the top result. 
   
   If you find a site that works better, I would certainly love to hear about it!
   
   Still it is possible to get modest traffic and make modest money writing here.  It is when my low competition targeting keywords are outranked by utter rubbish that I get angry.

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      Free Gamersposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Maybe your low competition keywords are being outranked by rubbish because the competition have a couple of very high pr dofollow backlinks pointing to them.
      
      Try and find out where they're getting their links from and copy them. Your better written content will outrank them then.

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         Michael Willisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I am seeing personal sites now ranking higher and Google traffic non-existent. Yahoo and Bing have really grown in its place. I have decided to delete half my hubs tonight. If traffic is no better after a few days I will continue to delete the rest. This is/was my money making period and second year in a row that a Google algorithm and Hubpages change has occurred together. They have killed my traffic together so I am looking elsewhere.

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   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   Good luck to you wherever you go.  I hate to see people leave.

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   AK Chenowethposted 11 years ago

   Michael, let us know where you go!  All the best AK

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   Writer Foxposted 11 years ago

   If you noticed a significant traffic drop in the past 30 days, it could be due to Google's new Hummingbird algorithm.
   
   Here's the forum thread about Hummingbird:
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/117484
   
   If that is what happened to your Hubs, moving them to another venue will probably not help.  I think what could help is fresh keyword research using the new Google keyword planner and finding out what people are searching for now.  Search habits do change over time and what people searched for last year may not be the same this year.

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      Michael Willisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I read about the Hummingbird. In sports there are only certain phrases and keywords to be used. Google has decided to use the major sports sites to rank first. This may sound like good ranking. I know from searching for information on these sites that you have to go through pages and be blasted by videos on automatic and Ads to find just some of your information you want.
      This is not a career for me. I have a good career. This is a hobby and I have made money from it. If Google is constantly pushing out "direct information" for paying sites, then I want lose sleep over it. lol I can find another hobby.

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