Woooo Hoo!!!!! I'm on the first page of Google!! How did THAT HAPPEN?!

1. 93

   JessBrazposted 10 years ago

   So I was bored and decided I would Google some of the topics of a few of my most recent hubs... Two of them popped up on the FIRST PAGE!! WHHHHHAAAAATTT?!??! lol. Sorry, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this, but I almost swallowed my own tongue I was so excited and I need to tell someone! 
   
   I didn't notice though that the two hubs that pop up, don't have my photo beside them in the search results. I have a Google+ account and I followed all of the steps in the HP Learning Centre about setting up your profile. I even used Google's fancy little Authorship snippet tool majigger and in there it shows my photo and says everything is working properly... Maybe it's just my computer for some reason? Has anyone else had this issue and do you know how to fix it?
   
   I farted around in the settings in my Google+ account and I don't see anything that would prevent my photo from showing up in my search results. Such a little detail, but it's bothering me. The hubs I have on Google's first page, none of the other search results on page one have photos beside them, so I feel like if I can get mine working properly, it might make my hubs stand out more and make people choose my hub to read.
   
   Any advice?
   Thank you!
   Cheers!

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      kidscraftsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I have no advice for you but congratulations to you!  Enjoy :-D
      I am glad that you didn't swallow your tongue ;-)
      Enjoy the weekend!

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      isaacasanteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Superb! With which hub do you appear?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry to burst your bubble, but your Hubs may not be doing as well as you think.
      
      When you search on Google, your results are personalized.  What you see is not what anyone else sees.  Google looks at places you've visited previously, or sites you've bookmarked, and gives them priority.  Even if you've turned on all the privacy settings you can think of, they still do it to some extent.
      
      So it's inevitable that when you search, your Hubs will appear high in the rankings, but that's just for you.
      
      There used to be a site called Scroogle where you could browse anonymously.  Google managed to get it shut down.   There's now a new extension called Disconnect.me which looks promising, I'm trying it out now.

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         JessBrazposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Well that's disappointing. lol.
         Though I did tell a few of my friends about it, and they all google searched the subject of my hub, and I was on their first page as well... Soo, who knows. lol...  Let me know how this Disconnect.me thing works out for you! I'd love to try it out in the future if it works.
         
         I'm still trying to figure out how my photo isn't showing up on my search results. I don't quite understand the Google+ thing... I'm not sure I like it very much.
         
         Thanks for the cheers of support from everyone on here!

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            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Were they logged into Google when they searched?  Are they friends with you on Google+ or Facebook?   The Google algorithm also takes that into account. 
            
            Also bear in mind, if you type in the exact title of your Hub, your Hub will come out on top unless there's another article somewhere with the exact same title.  That doesn't get you anywhere, because how many people are likely to be typing in the exact title of your Hub?
            
            Disconnect.me is free so I suggest you give it a try!

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            1. 93

               JessBrazposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Not friends with me on Google+... I don't have any friends on Google+.. lol.. Still trying to figure that site out.. They whole bit with the "circles" . Not sure I like it.  Some of them maybe on FB.. Ether way, I guess it doesn't really matter. lol. It still gives me a rush seeing it on Google, even if I'm the only one who can see it. lol.
               
               I'm on the Disconnect.me website right now checking it out. I love the idea that you can put it in your smartphone! Looks pretty promising. I never really realized how many invisible forces watch your web browsing habits. I always figured I was covered having virus programs, etc. I never input my email into forms, I'm very careful about things like that... And yet, I still get dozens of spam emails from companies I've never used or hear of before.. It's kind of creeping knowing that companies watch your every move, lurking, waiting to get your info just to try and sell you something.
               
               ANNNNNNDDDD, THAT'S the end of my paranoid rant. lol.
               Thanks for introducing me to Disconnect. me and for the useful info about Google.. I guess maybe I got a little too excited about nothing. lol.

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               1. 71

                  isaacasanteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I just wanted to add something about Google Personalized Search results, since you guys were talking about it. This only works when a user is logged into a Google account (be it via a simple Google application like Gmail, or via a browser like Google Chrome). Whenever a user is logged into a Google Account, all his/her searches in Google Search are recorded in Google Web History, which then customizes the user's search results based on the sites that particular user previously visited or based on the searches the user previously made. But that ONLY works for logged-in users.
                  
                  Tips you can use to avoid this:
                  
                  - If you are using Google Chrome, try making the search in Incognito Mode (private mode).
                  
                  - Use a different browser which you never use to log into your Google account. The results returned on that browser should be the default ones for the Google versions selected (ie: Google US, Google UK, etc).
                  
                  You can try that and see if you still appear No.1... Kudos if you do!

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     That's not quite right, Isaac.   Even if you're not logged in, Google is tracking you via your IP address.  If you have a dynamic IP, that makes it harder - but they're still tracking what you're doing during that particular session, and they can also see what you have bookmarked.

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                     1. 71

                        isaacasanteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        Marisa, you said it very well, my bad. JessBraz, the bottom line would be, use Google Webmaster Tools to determine your position for specific keywords across the web. This will enable you to find your average position for specific queries, and the number of impressions (estimate) for each. Even better, it'll let you check how your HP pages fared in search results with stats.
                        
                        I recently associated Webmasters tools to my HubPages website and the data so far are impressively shown by Google.

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         Pearldiverposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         +1
         MW.... my exact post
         
         Sorry OP but this is 100% accurate information and is something that you shouldn't let deflate you in any respect... May I suggest 2 things?
         
         1 - Have a friend search from another site - but do so using just the keywords in your hub title... this will then give you a better perspective to consider and allow you to make new improvements to your title keywords if they don't rank as high as you expect them to.
         
         And
         
         2 - I believe that 'farting around' (as you stated) may also impact on your personal results with a great deal more than just search engines...

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            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Nice to see you, Pearldiver, how's things in NZ?

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      myeffortsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Congrats JessBraz..... This is really an achievement. I too have one of my hub about family on top of Google search. This is really an amazing feeling..Keep up the good work.

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   Michael M Griffinposted 10 years ago

   Hey, that's awesome! I've got hubs on the first page, as well. The reason this happens is because of SEO, or search engine optimization. You optimize your hub for a certain keyword, say "how to lose weight quickly," or "how to make extra money." Those two keywords are highly competitive, but if you go for less competitive keywords, you can rank on the first page easily
   
   You can even rank websites this way, and make money doing it!

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      isaacasanteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Michael, what do you mean by "You can even rank websites this way, and make money doing it!" ? I'm curious...

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         Michael M Griffinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Well, there are many ways to make money with websites (Google Adsense being one of them), but the most profitable, by far, is affiliate marketing. Basically, you can become an affiliate for a company and promote their products/services on your website. If you make a sale, you get a certain percentage of that commission.
         
         Let's say you were promoting an electric guitar for some music company that sold for $1000. If your commission rate was 10%, you would get $100 per sale. Likewise, if your rate was 50%, you would get $500 per sale. If you had a website ranked for a high traffic keyword, the sky's the limit to your success.
         
         I'm just beginning my affiliate marketing career, so I have no success yet to speak of. However, there are countless people who have made hundreds of thousands, even MILLIONS, by simply using this technique.

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            isaacasanteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Wow, I see... Sounds pretty interesting. Thanks mate for explaining.

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               Michael M Griffinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Hey, no problem! My pleasure! I'm really into this kind of thing
               Take care!

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3. 59

   sprickitaposted 10 years ago

   We need a hp email to verify from g+ to hp ...IE the  rel=author attribute or tag is not in the html of your mine any hubbers content so it wont display.... we need hp email or ability to add html more than the text tags like bold  etc
   BUT CONGRATS!!! 8-)

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   1. 59

      sprickitaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi um sorry I totally4got about the highlighter when I was posting my response 4 give me, then it just popped in my head sometime this afternoon and this is my 1st chance to correct my negative (more of a pout really) outlook on your (mine, ours- as in all fellow hubbers)  lack of  ability to properly stand by our brand with attribute ability... blah blah sorry I no im rambling so
      http://tinyurl.com/kwlh6s8
      http://tinyurl.com/kxqlvao
      these links (Google both are complmints of my hero Google) anyway these will ramble about the highlighter 4me ,? ur probably fully aware of highlighter, already knowing  if so boy i feel silly? idk but thank you n sry again 8-) happyu hubbing

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4. 81

   scoopposted 10 years ago

   If you want to see if your Hub is ranking for whatever term you are finding it by, try to use Google Incognito, and this should work. Just as Marisa has said, Google tracks you and if you visit Hubpages, then the chances are when you search for keywords relating to your Hubs, then the chances are your Hub will be on the 'first page'.

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5. 70

   Dale Hydeposted 10 years ago

   I have hesitated to respond here for several days, but I would like to share a valid point.  If you are signed into Google your material will show on the first page nine out of ten times.  Try signing out and then do your search.

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6. 67

   Mary Cimeniposted 10 years ago

   very nice! Congratulations to you! My advice is, just keep it up !! ;-)

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