Awaiting Panda 5 Redemption - Cargo Cult Ready, Bring it On!

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   janderson99posted 8 years ago

   There is great expectation that Panda 5 may finally offer redemption for past demerits and penalties.
   
   I have done all I can via a cargo cult: all my hubs have been edited recently and QAP-ed (hopefully?). They are well structured, good quality, topical, with few spelling and grammatical errors IMO.
   
   They are all featured and have been updated in the last month (all fresh). I only have 2 affiliate ads per hub.
   
   My cargo cult has been prepared. It is a cargo cult because no one really knows what Google wants and how it deals with a large site, such as HP. Bring it on! I'm ready!
   
   This will be a defining moment for me and HP. What do you think?
   
   

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think it's great that other writers here are upgrading their work.  I've been doing this forever!  The problem is those writers who don't care or don't want to bother.  If there are too many of them, it won't matter what the rest of us do.
      
      This is an issue I have worried about for some time.  We can fix ourselves, but we can't force others to do the same.  I know the team is now trying to sort the good from the bad, but I fear it is too little too late.  I sure hope I'm wrong.
      
      Don't know when 5 will appear, but hope that when it does, we will prosper.

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         "We can fix ourselves, but we can't force others to do the same. "  That is so true - I hope everyone will pay attention and review their hubs often to make quality a priority.
         
         I have always updated my hubs when needed, but in January 2015 I did a major overhaul of my entire site and brought every hub up to par - it took me about four months but, it was worth it.  I keep a close eye on any issues, new features, new rules and will update any hub that needs it asap.
         
         I am so glad you started this thread, janderson, thanks. We all need to focus on being the best we can be.

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   Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years ago

   I am with you on this one and ready for it. I have author Bios in place, all hubs featured, all hubs in stella mode / mobile friendly. Yep! Bring it on.

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   NateB11posted 8 years ago

   I certainly hope there is a redemption. Would be good news indeed.

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   jansharesposted 8 years ago

   I hope so, janderson99. My hubs are in similar shape so I'm as ready as I can be for whatever is coming. I don't think there's much more we can do, except wait. Good luck and blessings to all!

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   Snakesmumposted 8 years ago

   Hope you are right, janderson99!   It would be great to have our traffic improve, and earnings rise for a change.
   Like others, I've been updating, and trying to improve my hubs.
   Perhaps we should all pray to the great cargo cult god Google?  :-)

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   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   Panda 5?  What did I miss?

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      relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Nothing yet, https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
      
      Janderson99 is getting ready now to avoid the rush.

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      janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      See http://searchengineland.com/google-pand … eks-222243
      
      Paul E is hanging out for it as well (2 false alarms).

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   Jan Saintsposted 8 years ago

   Before we start talking about Panda 5, what were the effects of Mobilegeddon & Core Search Algorithm Update on HP?

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Mobilgeddon did not seem to bother HP at all.  The other one I'm unaware of.  Some time ago Paul Edmonson made HP a mobile friendly site, so that helped all of us.  What comes next?  Who knows!

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         The "other one" had a dramatic effect on HubPages:
         
         http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2015/0 … e-phantom/

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I don't know how I missed that one, must have been sleeping under a rock or something.  I think it's because I noticed no downward changes on my main subdomain, but I am shocked to see how much HP lost..
            
            If you look at the reasoning, it's pretty obvious that Paul's thinking about upgrading and editing already popular works rather than concentrating all employees on eliminating low grade work is not working.  The team has got to get rid of the garbage or this type of hit will continue to damage us.
            
            I don't understand how they cannot see this.  Paul insists that they are working hard to rid the site of spam, but that is not the only type of content that lowers quality in content.
            
            A 33% loss in ratings and traffic is huge!
            
            One of the problems seems to be 404 errors, of which I and others have many, yet when I checked Google WMT it said not to worry about them.  I don't have the first clue as to how to get rid of them because these are articles I deleted and asked Google to de-index.  Don't know why they're still there, but it's a problem.  Google does not tell us how to eliminate them...anybody know?

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   starme77posted 8 years ago

   updating can be a lot of work if you have a whole lot of hubs. I recently started updating my hubs. I only have 43 of them so I am aiming for 3 or 4 per day as a goal. Panda didn't do much to me so hopefully , with some fresh content I can get past this one as well ")

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   Fiction Tellerposted 8 years ago

   Tentatively seeing a return of one demoted hub today. Not sure if it has something to do with revisions I made a few days ago after it plunged with the recent core algo update, or if this is a Panda.  Stats are also complicated by its being a big holiday week in the U.S.
   
   Anyone else seeing stuff?

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    janderson99posted 8 years ago

    Update: Panda 5 could be later this week or next week
    
    https://www.seroundtable.com/google-pan … 20538.html

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       TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Question:  What's the big deal about Panda 5.  If HP took a 33% loss in ranking and views in that last deal, why in the world are we looking forward to a Panda update?  Seems to me that could make things even worse. What am I missing about this?

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          janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

          Paul E and HP authors are hoping for a redemption - forgiveness and a reversal of past Panda penalties. Paul E has spoken about being 'free of Panda'. That would mean an increase in traffic.

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             TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

             Hope is nice, and I hope his wanting this pays off, but I have some serious doubts.  Still too much garbage on this site, even after so many efforts on the team's part.  It's just too soon...but I hope I'm wrong.  What do you think?

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                janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                It depends whether lifting the average quality of pages views above a threshold is what is required, which is what HP is trying to do. BUT I suspect that all the poor quality, spammy and grandfathered rule breakers that remained indexed, and get crawled regularly, will still pull the site down in Panda's eyes (as occurred in the past before sub-domains). Hopefully Paul E knows that the former will work. There are some software filters and tests that could be applied overnight to de-feature offending pages, BUT HP shows no interest in doing this despite Panda 5 looming. I feel that this is a mistake - but I hope that I am wrong!. It could be a long wait for redemption via Panda 6 if HP's strategy is ineffective IMO.

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                   TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   What really irks me about this is that Google seems to refuse to recognize the good content that exists on this site and judges us as a whole.  Some say this isn't so, but there is great controversy about this point and so far, I haven't seen any indication that Google sees our subdomains individually, which was Paul's intent originally.
                   
                   BTW, I just noticed a huge spike in my traffic tonight.  I am wondering if this may possibly be the Panda  update you are discussing here. If so, I may be totally wrong.   Have you noticed this tonight on your stats?
                   
                   Paul should worry less about angering the poor writers and more about supporting the good ones.  If he did, he would find many of those who left returning to this site to replace those who might leave as the result of this.  If software is available to help him do this, he should take advantage of it.  This site could be great again and never have to worry about Google if all of the content was good, don't you think?

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                      janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                      No Quancast is down 10% and my GA is also down (4 July holiday I guess)

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                         TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                         Nuts...I was hoping this meant something!

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                   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   I don't know why anyone would think that the average quality of page views is what's required, when we've been told time and time again that the Panda score is based on the worst posts on a site, regardless of the quality of the good ones.

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                      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                      Where did you see this info?  If that's the case, why in the world would Paul think we will catch a break from Google!

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                         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                         I've read it so many times over the years since Panda was first launched.
                         
                         In fact HubPages is well aware of it, because it's the whole reason sub-domains were introduced.  It was felt that poor quality Hubs were  dragging the good quality Hubs down.  There was a need to find a way to quarantine the good quality Hubs, so their Panda score wasn't affected by the rubbish.
                         
                         The idea was that Google would evaluate each sub-domain individually, so if you were a Hubber with a suite of good quality Hubs, you could get a good Panda score and hence good traffic.   
                         
                         Although there has always been debate about how sub-domains are treated, that strategy worked - until the most recent major update.  It seems that now, Google is ignoring the sub-domains and treating HubPages as one big site again.
                         
                         I haven't seen anything that suggests Google has changed the fundamental premise of Panda - that the score is based on the worst posts on your site. 
                         
                         http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307 … pdate.aspx
                         (The relevant sentence on that page is "Google Panda is a site-wide penalty, which means a few poor quality pages can get your whole site penalized".
                         
                         http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/google-panda-tips/
                         ("Low value content can cause the algorithm to slap down your entire site even if a great deal of your content is unique and valuable.")

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                            TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                            That's exactly what I have been afraid of.  Sitting around and "hoping" that Google will cut us some slack is not the way to deal with this issue.  It's time to "s..t or get off the pot" if HP has any dreams of returning to its former glory.
                            
                            Every hub...and I mean every...needs to go through QAP as soon as possible.  None of this grandfathering any more!
                            All employees should be dedicated right now to weeding out low quality work here...no exceptions.
                            Every writer should flag low quality hubs, and the team should take immediate action on those flags, rather than making excuses and/or ignoring them.
                            
                            To do this last thing, the team needs to give very a list of very specific directions so that they do not get bogged down with faulty flags.
                            
                            For example:
                            
                            Which curse words are permitted and which are not.
                            Are hubs that have good content but are written in poor English acceptable?
                            What level of nudity is permitted.
                            
                            All of us should add to this list so the team knows what we want to know.
                            
                            I am sick and tired of working my butt off and then being dragged down two or three times each year due to Panda, etc. because others here are slackers.
                            
                            What think you?

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                               janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                               I agree! A lot could be done very quickly by simply applying HP rules to ALL hubs via a software tool and unfeaturing non complying hubs. Minimal work for maximum gain. Unfeaturing for low traffic is applied all the time, which is very similar.

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                               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                               I think we've got to be realistic.  To hire enough people to put every Hub through QAP would send HubPages broke - if you remember, that's why the Featured/Unfeatured system was introduced.
                               
                               However I do agree that the resources put into HubPro would've been better applied to a program of weeding out any poor Hubs still Featured - e.g.simple things like doing searches for prohibited topics and unpublishing all the ones they find.   In the several days it takes to edit one Hub, they could check hundreds of Hubs.

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                                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                  Well, if Janderson is correct and software is available that can handle the majority of this work, what's the problem?

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                               lbrummerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                               When I came over from Squidoo, I was made to understand that we only had so much time to get our articles in line with the Hub rules, then if we hadn't edited our lenses, that they would be unpublished.  Today I ran onto a Squidoo transplant that hasn't done anything to her articles and they are nothing but sales lenses, the kind that were okay at Squidoo.  So, I'm wondering why I worked my butt off making sure that I wouldn't be unpublished when evidently nothing was done about the lenses that didn't get fixed.  These are the articles I was looking at http://adriennejenkins.hubpages.com/         These articles came over 10 months ago and no changes have been made for 19 months or longer.
                               Let's be fair here.   Either the rules should be adhered to by all.....or why have rules at all.  This is no "grandfathered" article.

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    Mark Ewbieposted 8 years ago

    Sub domains was a nice idea - it worked for a bit.  But HubPages interlinks the entire site regardless of sub domains.  So we all join up - good, bad, indifferent.
    
    There is no quick fiddle round Panda.

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    Fiction Tellerposted 8 years ago

    I disagree that all grandfathered hubs should be unpublished in a sweeping move. Many of those are still getting significant traffic from Google and significant user engagement. Google likes 'em, users like 'em, and HubPages has more to learn about quality standards.

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