Did Google Reverse The Panda 4.2 Update on August 14, 2015?

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   Solarasposted 9 years ago

   Sorry if this has been discussed already ad nauseam (I was out of town a bit), but I was experiencing an uptick on several sites following the rollout of Panda 4.2, that seems to have been eradicated on August 14, 2015.  In fact my website went almost to 10% of normal pageviews since August 14th with no recovery in sight.  Here it is discussed:
   
   https://www.seroundtable.com/google-pan … 20837.html
   
   Is it possible that the update was hurting big advertisers sales, and Google knee-jerked a reaction with some unintended consequences? Has anyone else seen this in their stats over the last 2 months? Of course Google has no comment - or Alphabet, Inc whatever.

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      ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Solaras, both of my own sites appear to be doing better, especially today. One of the revenue-share sites I used to write for appears to have taken a hit. Nothing seems to have changed on my HubPages account. I'll definitely read your link. Thanks for posting.

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      aatifmazharposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The Phantom 2 hit hubpages. It was on CNBC they just penalized hubpages across the board no discrimination the whole site got hit bad.  I am just tired of google playing god all the time. Just focus on other traffic sources and create kick a** content for your readers. Fb, Twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, Stumbleupod , Reddit and other great social networks. Focus on creating a following the only factor google considers these days is social sharing. Even with niches with moderate competition if your content is being shared a lot you land on first pages .
      One word beats all good for nothing smart google algorithms and that's "Viral Markiting" .  Bad content getting shared a lot due to catch phrases lands on googles first pages.

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   sheyi kojoposted 9 years ago

   My site traffic has been terrible this past couple of days

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   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   My sites had been earning very well over summer, much to my amazement, but have dropped back a bit.  I think the big problem is the way Google now gives its own answer at the top of the search page.  I know it's been doing that for a while but I'm seeing it more and more frequently in the last couple of weeks.
   
   By the way, you've tried to put both your websites on the blog link on your profile and that doesn't work - you have to pick one! 
   
   If your traffic doesn't recover, I'd recommend revisiting the idea of adding your "Modern Bark" blog to your main website to boost its size and authority.

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      Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Marisa:  Yes I plan to link the blog as you suggested, but first I want to move my site to a new, more friendly domain wagsandwhiskersgifts - without all of the hyphens and such. Once I get that done I will link the blog.  I'll go fix my profile thing lol. Thanks for the heads-up!

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         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Wagsandwhiskers is a useless choice for SEO, worse than having hyphens. How many people search for wags or whiskers?
         
         If you're writing about dogs you must have dogs in the name, no alternative.
         
         Also I thought your main site was about breeding collies so why would you call it that? If you're going to combine the main site and the blog, the blog would not have a separate domain name , at the very most it would be a sub-domain or sub-folder.

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            Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I think wags and whiskers is a nice name.  Quite often these days I think f*ck Google.  People could just write genuine stuff and stop trying to please the algorithm when its only purpose is to make money for Google.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               I think wags and whiskers is a nice catchy name for a business.  As a URL for a website, not so much. 
               
               We'd all like to say f* Google, but if you want visitors, you can't afford to.   For most people it's where 90% of traffic comes from, even now.  You're in a different position, because people don't search for creative work anyway - so whether you please Google or not makes very little difference.

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                  Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  That is a good point Marisa.  I have no chance anyway so I may as well ignore them and their rules.
                  
                  I have spent a year on my site.  It has mostly been hell.  The last straw has been the cookie nonsense and Adsense saying I must comply.  I checked the top selling App today - it is Crystal the ad-blocker.
                  
                  So after all the effort to have a responsive design, grab that mobile traffic, get the ads right and the cookie warning - it is all for nothing.
                  
                  I will write and draw what I want and if it sells some tees that's OK.  If it doesn't - I can earn more selling my body on the streets... and believe me that IS a niche market.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     What ads are you using?   I haven't used Adsense on my sites for years because I found it didn't work for me - I think the problem is that there aren't enough dance-related advertisers using Adsense so the ads were never relevant.  I know all that stuff about Google targeting the person not the subject of the site these days, but I still think readers are more likely to click if the ad is on the same topic as the page it's on. 
                     
                     Good example - for the last week, every site I visit is plastered with Adsense ads for Sketcher shoes, because I searched for Sketcher shoes a week ago.  Hello, Google - did it occur to you that I already bought the darn shoes and I don't need to buy any more?.  Obviously I'm not going to click on any of those ads.
                     
                     Anyhoo, the point is that the way to make money is not Adsense ads, it's selling stuff.  If you put photos of your T-shirts on your blog and link them (with a no-follow link) to the product on Zazzle or wherever it is, the ad blocker won't know that's an ad, so it won't be blocked.

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                        Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        I was using Adsense - responsive.  I was using Amazon - a variety of targeted, banner, non-targeted, etc.
                        
                        It was pointed out to me - quite forcibly - that I had plastered my site that I supposedly care about with random spam advertising.
                        
                        Now you sell ballet stuff I think.  So you have a clear reason and sensible onward choice for your visitors.
                        
                        But I am somewhat random.  People don't search for stick figures and humour.  Those that do MIGHT just be interested in mugs and tees with the same content.
                        
                        That's my game plan!
                        
                        So no more ad partners of any kind for me.

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                     2. 83

                        Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        I'd like to make a shout out to Marisa and Linda for recommending Skimlinks.  I have not had much time to put into it, but I did add some links to one article on my blog for Skimlinks to convert into its own links. The results are astonishing me. 
                        
                        In 20 days the one post has earned $97.00 through Skimlinks. I hope to recreate that with another 100 posts LOL.

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                           NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           I remember Marisa talking about Skimlinks too and keep hearing good things about them. I went ahead and joined yesterday, got approved today. I got the wordpress plug-in for it and installed it to one of my sites. Is that all I have to do? I already had links to products going to my affiliates, are those going to be changed by Skimlinks? Totally confused about how it works. Also, I noticed they have something called Skimwords in which, I guess, it changes words into links to products: Is this worth trying out?

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                              Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                              No you have to make new links to your products.  Delete some of your Amazon links, then create new links just to the sales page.  I made 3 links on one page (I think it still had an Amazon link or two) and so far this month it has earned $110.00 for the one page.
                              
                              If you have links to pages that are in the Skimlinks network, they will create links with cookies for you from it.  If it is already an affiliate link, they will leave it be. So you can earn from both - but skimlinks is far better than Amazon affiliate links so far, in my opinion.

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                                 NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                                 Thanks, Solaras, I get it now. I'm going to have to go into those pages and add links.

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                              Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                              Skimlinks will ignore existing affiliate links - except if you look on the Skimlinks site, there's a place where you can tell it to take over Amazon links, so you don't need to change them.
                              
                              Skimwords will find linkable words automatically in your text, if you switch it on then you don't need to do anything more.

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                                 NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                                 Thanks, Marisa. That sound like good to me if they just take over Amazon links.

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         2. 83

            Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            My main site is a store that sells cat and dog supplies.  Most sales are dog related though.  The Solaras Border Collies site is really just for hobby breeding I only have a couple of litters a year if any.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               OK that makes more sense! It doesn't change the fact that wagsandwhiskers has NO value for SEO though.

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      Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Also, my sales were going like gang busters over the summer, right up to August 14th.  Then a nose dive in traffic.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   Glad it helped. I don't use skimlinks in a big way but I have had a similar surprise from themwhen I got over  $200 from one post.

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      ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Solaris, I think wagsandwhiskers is a really cute name. It's really good branding and people will remember it and search for it. I'd rather visit wagsandwhiskers than dogsupplies dot coom or some other generic. If you have a blog with low-competition titles people will find you.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I think it's a great name for a business too. There are lots of reasons why it's a good choice.
         
         However, she said she had chosen it for SEO purposes and I'm just trying to point out that for SEO purposes, it's less than useless.

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            ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Marissa, that's right, people won't be searching for that specific term, at least not right away. I see what you mean for immediate SEO purposes. But the blog posts and other titles can have good keywords.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               No argument with you - but she said SEO was her reason for changing the name.  I'm just concerned that if that's her reason, someone has given her bad advice!  As you say, there are lots of other things she should be doing for SEO purposes but that's not one of them.

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   systotechposted 9 years ago

   I think Google is still rolling out Panda 4.2 update very slow that's why some of us are seeing effects on his/her website traffic. It may take a few more months according to Google. So we can just wait and watch...

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      ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Marisa, someone has definitely given her bad advice. Although I'm not an SEO expert, I'm starting to see good results with picking really low competition keywords for my blog posts. This was really good advice that I received.

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