Nose Dive in views

1. 91

   jansharesposted 7 years ago

   My total current view count for "1 day" is less than the amount I usually get on a good day for my 2 top performers. I have 85 hubs, 17 on niche sites. Something is not right. Anyone else?

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   1. 80

      jackclee lmposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Check this out - do a seach on google with - janis evans hubpages
      and you will see many sites rank high but lead to fake contents...
      
      I created a hub on this issue -
      <link snipped>
      
      I am pretty sure it is being done to many other hubbers.
      I have reported this to google...

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      1. 91

         jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, jackclee. Will check it out.

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      2. 84

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I looked and some of the things for "Timetraveler2 Hub Pages" direct to sites that have absolutely nothing to do with my work or HP, while others direct correctly.  I have emailed the team about this but it appears to be some sort of glitch that may well be affecting our page views.
         
         Thanks for the heads up

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   2. 92

      Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yep. It's been a problem. My views dropped suddenly on the 9th, and they have not recovered. People have been talking about this Google algorithm update that happened that day, so I'm pretty sure that's what is causing this, for me at least.

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   3. 60

      TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      My total views have also dropped. I've been watching this for the last few weeks. Not sure what is causing it. I also noted that flipboard is no longer giving me views whereas it used to. Channge in algorithm from Google?

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   4. 81

      peachpurpleposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I have 132 hubs and my daily views are 60-90, never above than that. I had been used to these views ever since the Google Panda issue

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      1. 87

         theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I think you should rework some of your titles to reflect what people are searching for. For example, not many will be looking for "angry puppy", but they might be looking for "nervous puppy" or "aggressive puppy".

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2. 95

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   This is being discussed in another forum:
   
   http://hubpages.com/community/forum/140 … k-a-tumble

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   1. 80

      jackclee lmposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the info. I am not sure the two is related but in either case, something is going awry with google search...

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   2. 91

      jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I've been on the other forum, too. But I posted here because I'm now wondering if there's a tech issue, like ads and formatting which was mentioned on one of the forums. I haven't seen any updates from Paul Edmonson and wondering if the problem is bigger than we know, from a technical stand point.

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3. 78

   GodsOfRockposted 7 years ago

   This may be of some use: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4838449.htm
   
   New tighter Google standards...and unfortunately quality content gets caught in the switches. All of my sites are down 50% since early Feb. and some are down 90% while competitors with spun content and loads of ads are ranking above me.
   
   Ironically though, my little HP account is not down nearly that much. Lot of people especially in the niche site realm are taking a bath right now...even those with ZERO affiliate links and no adds above the fold...
   
   My theory is to wait it out a while, and not do anything too drastic... maybe it will level out, but maybe not?
   
   Nobody said it was easy:(

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   1. 91

      jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      GodsOfRock, thanks for your words of wisdom and the info.

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4. 87

   theraggededgeposted 7 years ago

   Views on HP account gradually sinking, but Wordpress blog having best week ever and Sunday still to come. If only it made me a bit more $$s

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5. 84

   tony55posted 7 years ago

   It seems my earnings are at an all time low, compared to an all time high barely 3 months ago. There are a lot of weird thing happening, probably due to several changes on hubpages. i also stumbled on a few sites that use my exact hubpage titles and name with zero association to the subject matter. strange times

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   1. 95

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I noticed that too with my hubs. There are copies all over the place on new sites. I'm also having trouble locating the abuse agents for the hosting services. I have a list of five new hosts of plagiarized hubs and they are not registered with copyright.gov. I don't know how they achieved that. But it's a way of hiding with no one to send dmca takedown requests to. Something stange is happening.

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      1. 89

         Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Just send DMCA's to search engines if it is easier. Search is the only real issue for getting views back.
         
         https://support.google.com/legal/troubl … 4905?hl=en
         
         Select 'web search'.
         
         The recent loss of views is almost certainly down to a google algo change, though.
         
         I suppose if the niche sites have lost authority, in some way, copies will become more of a threat.

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         1. 95

            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I know of that link. I've used it before, but only after getting the copy removed. I appreciate your desire to help Will, but you can't ask Google to remove indexing until after the webmaster or host has removed the plagiarized copy. The option to select via that link makes that clear: "A piece of content I am concerned about has already been removed by the webmaster but still appears among the search results"
            
            If you know of an actual way to get Google to remove indexing when the copy still exists, please show me specifics, and let me know if you actually succeeded doing it that way.
            
            By the way, if all you do is remove the index, you have to do it with all the popular search engines. It's more important to get those copies removed.

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            1. 89

               Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I have several times. Given the small amount of effort involved it is worth jumping through the early hoops.
               
               A little help:
               
               Do not select 'A piece of content I am concerned about has already been removed by the webmaster but still appears among the search results
               
               Select:
               I have a legal issue that is not mentioned above
               
               Then
               
               I have found content that may violate my copyright
               
               Then
               
               Yes, I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf
               
               Then
               
               Other
               
               Then hit 'use this form' at the bottom
               
               You get this:
               
               
               
               When it comes to 'what is the infringing material', just say 'the text concerning...' whatever your page is about.
               
               You fill it in carefully and sign it
               
               Type your real name as the signature.
               
               Send it off.
               
               Incidentally, see if this link gives you direct access to the relevant page:
               
               https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools … &pli=1
               
               Chasing hard to find hosts is just too much trouble and, since it is ultimately for Google's benefit, I don't see why we should be expected to do it.
               
               Once a copy is gone from search it will not affect you in any tangible way.

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               1. 88

                  lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes this is what I do too. I have never bothered contacting the host. I just get the page out of the goolge index.

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                  1. 84

                     Marketing Meritposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, this is what I always do, although I do follow up with a DMCA.
                     
                     For me, it is more important to remove the copy from the search engines, especially if the copied content is ranking above my original article. This is most likely to lose views and income.
                     
                     Also, when I first started issuing DMCA's, I found that Google would not remove the plagiarised entry from the search engine results if the copied content was not found on the infringing url. In those instances, I had to wait for it to be de-indexed naturally by Google bots.

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               2. 95

                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you Will. That is extremely helpful. I never tried selecting "other" before. I'm actually a little surprised that Google would remove index just because anyone submits a request. Nevertheless, I'm going to try it this way as you suggested. I do need to try requesting the same from Bing, even though I don't get much traffic from them, Bing is responsible for a small portion of traffic has dropped too.
                  
                  Since contact info is not available for those new hosts, it may be easier to get all search engines to appreciate the request. I'm going to do it your way today. Thanks again.

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               3. 95

                  wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Will, (or anyone else) what is your procedure for spun copies?  Articles that are not a copy, but are obviously a copy that is spun into something that is very similar (and often unreadable) but not a direct copy?
                  
                  I've got a couple dozen of those and have never filed on them because they aren't direct copies.

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                  1. 88

                     lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I don't bother with those as there is nothing that can be done to them.
                     
                     Most of them read horribly and if at all they ever do rank higher than mine I am sure that the person reading would just go back to search and click on the next result.

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                     1. 95

                        wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        That's about my conclusion as well, but I'm a little concerned that Google is seeing them as duplicates and down-checking the hubs because of it.

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                        1. 88

                           lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           There is an update that ranks sites based on performance and my high view time hubs are ranking better and so are the individual pages on my website. So I think Google is smart enough in that sense.

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                           1. 95

                              wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              I hope you're right, and have a strong suspicion you are.  At least I haven't been able to see any large decreases in the better hubs that have also been spun.

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                              1. 88

                                 lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                 This update does exist, that is for sure. How good it is, is a different story.

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                                 1. 95

                                    wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                    As long as it isn't another one aimed specifically at HP I'm happy.

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                                    1. 88

                                       lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                       Haha, fair enough.

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                  2. 95

                     Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     wilderness, Funny you ask!  In my process of tracking down copies of my hubs today, I found seven idiotic articles that make no sense whatsoever. They took individual sentences from many different places all over the web and combined into a "story." 
                     
                     Even though only a few sentences were from my hubs, I decided to report this to Google since they need to be made aware that they are indexing content that is spun from random pages around the Internet, providing a disservice to their customers (people searching with Google).
                     
                     This is useless stuff, serves no purpose, and doesn't give any meaningful information. I think they must be trying to make money from AdSense just for the traffic they generate. They must get traffic based on the various random garbage on their site.
                     
                     So, to answer your question, I reported them to Google via this form that was suggested by Will Apse earlier: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools … &pli=1
                     
                     In the box under "Identify and describe the copyrighted work" - I used the followed explanation (feel free to use it too):
                     
                     Took random sentences from my content and combined with random sentences taken from other content. The mumble-jumble makes no sense as you can see.  I found these copies with a Google search for the following random sentence from my content: “xxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxx xxx xxxxxx”.
                     
                     Replace the xxxxxx's with the content sentence you used from your hub when you found these copies.
                     
                     You can list the URLs of all the spun copies you found, one per line, in the box under "Location of infringing material".
                     
                     Good luck with it.

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                     1. 95

                        wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Thanks, Glen - I may do that just to have it off the index.  Can't hurt!

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                  3. 92

                     Suzanne Dayposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I report those mixed ones to google webspam. Get yourself the Google Webspam Report (by Google) for your internet browser and then click the flag when you see one of these sites and type in the box "spammy website with stolen content". Press OK and you're done!

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            2. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               You certainly can get it removed from the index without getting the copy removed. As Will says, it's in a different section which they make difficult to find.
               
               Personally I always prefer to get the copies removed, because I will usually do that by complaining to the host and/or to Adsense.  My goal is to do more than just remove the copy - if enough people make the effort to complain  to Adsense, the thief will lose their Adsense account and get banned from every host they try to use, so it will put them out of business.  If I really get stuck, complaining to Google is my next step.   
               
               And yes, I agree that ideally you need to complain to all the main search engines - but if I look at the source of most of my own traffic, and of HubPages as a whole, it's Google.   So getting them off Google will fix most of the problem.

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               1. 95

                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, I always report AdSense abuse too, when they use Adsense on plagiarized copies of my articles. That has always worked — getting them to lose their business.
                  
                  However, in these recent cases, none of them are using AdSense. I can spend a lot of time tracking down the abuse contact agents of those other ad agencies. I've done that before, and I don't really look forward to doing it again. I'm going to just file with Google for now as Will suggested.  I want to get on with my life.

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                  1. 84

                     Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     What I was saying was, you don't have to contact the abuse agent to file a legal DMCA.   At least that's my understanding.   If the host hasn't nominated an agent  - and some never do - then they are directly responsible for handling their own DMCA's.  Which means you just use their main email contact to send the DMCA.
                     
                     If that wasn't the case, then every host on the planet would simply delay appointing an agent forever!

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                     1. 95

                        Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        I know. Non of this is new to me as I'm sure you know, but I appreciate your input as it also helps others who read this thread. 
                        
                        I have always done it either way: If I find the agent (listed on copyright.gov) then I email them, and if I don't I just email to the host support or abuse emails. However, these last few days were so different since I was finding host services that had no valid contact information. One even had a phone number (123)456-7890. I'm not making that up.
                        
                        A few had contact info and they were taken down as requested. I reported all the other plagiarized copies to Google to remove from their index. So I'm done for now. I need a rest.

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                        1. 84

                           Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           How weird. How on earth do they get clients if people have no way of contacting them?

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                           1. 95

                              Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              I was wondering that too, which caused me to spend a lot of time with it. Just a guess, but maybe they do it just for themselves.

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                           2. 95

                              wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              I've seen theorizing that such pages are created solely as backlinks to the real page, the one that counts for them. Don't know if it's true, and suspect that it's a losing proposition since Google "smartened" it's SE, but it might be.

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                              1. 84

                                 Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                 We're talking about the hosting company here - it just seems weird how a hosting company could exist which doesn't have any contact details, since that clearly means they can never get any clients.

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                                 1. 95

                                    wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                    I see.  Sorry about that - it does seem a little odd that the host isn't letting information out.

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                                 2. 88

                                    lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                    Actually, it's not odd at all. I can set up my own hosting from my laptop back home. I just need a stable IP address to point to. It could just be a handful of individuals doing this and scraping other websites entirely. Why they would do this, I have no idea, but it's not that difficult.

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                                    1. 95

                                       Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                       Good point. In addition to that, they have until December 2017 to register an abuse agent contact with copyright.gov, due to the transition period.

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                                       1. 88

                                          lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                          Do people all across the globe have to register with this organization? Or just the US.

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                                          1. 95

                                             Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                             I don't know the answer to that question, but it's a good point and can be another reason why there are hosts that can't be tracked.
                                             
                                             By the way, I recently learned that one of the hosts of my copied hub is a reseller host service. They actually bought bulk host services from another host, who refuses to abide by the dmca. They said they forwarded my dmca takedown request to the reseller and claim that satisfies their obligation under the safe harbor rules of the dmca.

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                                             1. 88

                                                lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                                But does it? I think not. Not a legal guy here, but it doesn't make sense to me.

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                                                1. 95

                                                   wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                                   It does to me (make sense).  The reseller isn't the one with the server containing illegal work.  Nevertheless, they have made a good faith effort to have that material removed from the 3rd party's (4th party?) server, but of course they cannot force them to do anything at all, any more than Google can.
                                                   
                                                   A loophole, and I don't like it, but it still boils down to just who has the material.  The reseller does not.

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                                                2. 95

                                                   Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                                   I can't comment on the legal standpoint because I'm not a lawyer either, but as wilderness pointed out — they may have found a loophole.
                                                   
                                                   In the meantime, I reported to Google with two online forms: (1) AdSense usage on plagiarized content, and (2) plagiarism of my content. The first may get their AdSense canceled. The second may get it removed from indexing. It's the best I can do.

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                                                   1. 88

                                                      lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                                      Yes, Wilderness does make a good point.
                                                      
                                                      Good going on the Adsense front. Hope it gets their account banned. I love when that happens.

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                              2. 88

                                 lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                 I think you are referring to something known as PBN's (Private Blog Networks). No those aren't going away anytime soon. Because these are built to look like real sites with real followers. I know quite a few people who are ranking pretty well with these.
                                 
                                 Also, if they are spinning content and just copying and using this as their PBN, you can be happy that Google won't just deindex these domains, but would also give their main site a big drop in rankings as a result.

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      2. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         All I usually do is Google the name of the host and words like "abuse" or "DMCA" (e.g. "Crazy Domains DMCA) and one of the results will usually be their form or page regarding copyright. 
         
         If I can't find their official form then I just write an email in the standard DMCA format, that is perfectly legal.

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         1. 95

            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks Marisa, the problem is that these are new hosting services that seem to have found a way to hide their contact information. None of them have copyright complaint forms and none of them are registered with copyright.gov, which is where I always find the abuse agent listed. So I'm stuck as far as doing it that way. I wrote to copyright.gov and they are going through a transition period right now where all hosts need to register online. The old way was a form with contact info that was scanned. It looks like this gives crooks a period of time to avoid listing DMCA contact info.

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            1. 85

               Stacie Lposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               This is useful information, Glenn. I wonder if there is a way for any search engines to reject websites that don't abide by some rules of transparency.

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               1. 95

                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  That would be great if they would do that. I'm surprised they don't make that a prerequisite to getting indexed. It may be because the problem is a new one, and it will only last until December of this year. Then the problem goes away since everyone needs to be registered by January 2018. So the search engines really don't need to bother with it. Companies that don't register just won't be able to host websites after January.

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               2. 80

                  jackclee lmposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  You have to wonder why it is so hard for google or any search engine to block spam sites...
                  Do they really want to?

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            2. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               The DMCA process does not require the use of a form and it does not require the use of a special email.  You can send an email to whatever contact address you can find for the host. Of course if they are dodgy, they will ignore you anyway, but it's worth a try.
               
               The reason Google is willing to remove an item from the SERPs on your say-so is that you supply them with a link to both your piece and the offending copy.  If they can satisfy themselves that your original is of an earlier date then the evidence is clear.

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            3. 96

               alexadryposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I hear you. It is very difficult finding who is hosting a website and reaching out to them lately. It shouldn't be this way. I have emailed dozens of alleged hosting companies at times, only to find out they really weren't hosting the website.
               
               Even more painstaking, is that I found some hosting companies that won't even tell you if they are hosting a particular website because of privacy issues! I find this ridiculous and have blamed them for conspiracy of plagiarism. They then suggest me to file an abuse form with them reporting the website which wastes lots of time if they are not truly the hosting company in the first place!
               
               I recently noticed though that the same companies that protect the identity of website owners also have abuse forms. Like nameguard has an abuse form. I yet have had the opportunity to use it, so not sure if it can help but it might be a way to get around things. I think through a company like nameguard by using their forms you can contact the website owner, problem is, you might never get a reply!
               
               I filed many times DMCA, but don't really like it. The page with your content still remains up, and even though Google doesn't crawl it anymore, it's my understanding that it can still be reached through internal links or it can be shared through social media as a direct link.  Social media can get a lot of page views these days!

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               1. 84

                  Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  The thing is, Alexadry, that the official form is not the waste of time. If a host has a system for reporting abuse, they won't accept notices any other way, so it's a waste of time writing to them in the first place.
                  
                  When you find a host, don't bother writing to them.  Google their name with "abuse" or "DMCA" (e.g. GoDaddy abuse) and if they have a form that must be filled in, that will give it to you.

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6. 93

   alikhan3posted 7 years ago

   Something is surely wrong. I am at an all time low of past 4 months today.

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   1. 91

      jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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7. 96

   EricDockettposted 7 years ago

   There is a lot of discussion here about copied content being responsible for the drop in traffic. While I think it is important to corral thieves by filing DMCAs, I don't think stolen content in itself accounts for the drop.
   
   I think it's more likely that this content is simply more visible because of the shakeup in the SERPs due to the Fred update thing. It has always been there and will always be an issue, but because of the change in the SERPs more people are noticing it. And, yes, it is possible there is some traffic siphoned away because of it, but the real problem is the change in the SERPs, not the stolen content itself.
   
   I have a copied Hub on another account that I was unable to get taken down for reasons that make me too angry to discuss. Its on a crummy Blogger site that consists mostly of stolen content. While my original outranks it, every time a shakeup like this happens that copy rears its ugly head on the first page for those keywords. It's there now, since this update thing.
   
   It eventually sinks into the depths where it belongs, which is what I am hoping happens once this update sorts itself out. I am trying to be optimistic that some or all of our traffic will return, but also hoping HP is working behind the scenes to make few change that might help.
   
   On a more important note: Why Google willfully makes changes that allow things like this to happen is beyond my understanding.

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   1. 95

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Eric, this isn't a debate on what's causing the drop in traffic. None of us really know. It may even be a combination of everything that's happening.
      
      There basically are three things going on: The Fred Algorithm, the ongoing copying of hubs, and the new rules that the copyright office is requiring hosting services to register online, with a transition period where they don't need to submit a new designation until December 2017. This gives crooks a chance to hide this year, in my opinion, and may be the reason for an uptick in plagiarism.

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      1. 96

         EricDockettposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Fair enough. I was just concerned that some people seemed to be working under the illusion that frantically filing DMCAs would somehow correct the recent traffic loss. There are suggestions to that effect in this thread and others.

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   2. 91

      jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your insight Eric and Glenn. I think we are all on the same page. I definitely think the experience and knowledge both of you share in your last posts pretty much points in the right direction as we try to understand and recover. As GodsOfRock said, we may have to wait it out a bit.

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   3. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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8. 60

   TessSchlesingerposted 7 years ago

   I have never found that getting somebody to remove my copy has upped my figures. So I don't think that has anything to do with the loss of traffic. I think Google has adjusted its searh engine algorythm again.

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   1. 91

      jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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9. 53

   hamza33posted 7 years ago

   i just creat account can u tell me about hubpages actually for what

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   1. 89

      Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      https://hubpageshelp.com/

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10. 53

    hamza33posted 7 years ago

    what i need to do how can earn?

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    1. 87

       theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       HubPages is a site for writers, so perfect English would be helpful.

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11. 89

    Will Apseposted 7 years ago

    Probably Hilary and her private server up to no good again.

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    1. 88

       lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       

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12. 39

    Oliver Twist 2021posted 7 years ago

    Sorry I am new here.

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13. 87

    theraggededgeposted 7 years ago

    LOL! No spam here. Nope, I can't see any, can you?

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