What Is Going Wrong Here?

1. 96

   EricDockettposted 4 years ago

   Over the past few days, traffic to my biggest and most successful niche account has dropped by 37%. My other niche account fell apart last year and hasn't recovered. Now, this account, which did horribly all fall but picked up after Christmas, has dropped overnight.
   
   My overall traffic is currently around the level it was at in early 2016. This was before the niche sites rolled out. The niche sites were a great idea. All of my accounts together will surpass 25 million views soon (or were going to) and that wouldn't have been possible without the niche sites.
   
   So, what is going wrong?  How is it possible that I have something like 125 more articles than I did before the niche sites rolled out, yet my traffic is significantly worse today? How is it possible that all of the traffic gains made by the niche sites are being slowly wiped away?
   
   Yes, I know there was an update, but this is just the latest problem in an ongoing backslide. Something is happening that Google doesn' t like.
   
   I have my theories, but there is nothing we writers can do except to continue to update artices and write new ones and hope traffic comes back.

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   1. 86

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Yesterday I had a massive drop in views.  Same today.  Is it possible that people are not reading right now because of the political things going on in the US?  The Impeachment trial started yesterday, so it's possible this may be the culprit.

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   2. 96

      chef-de-jourposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      What with updates and plagiarism and competition from YouTube and fickle flipping habits of visitors it's a wonder we bother writing at all! It's a bit disconcerting. But many of us do continue to churn out good stuff despite the curse of Google and must because by writing new articles we keep the pressure on. In time, if our articles are useful and evergreen then they should in theory climb high and gain good traffic, mistakes by HP notwithstanding. There'll always be highs and lows, gains here losses there, but the bottom line is quality content. From my 7 years or so here that is the one constant. My traffic is holding up quite well and I'm writing new articles, but income is down relatively speaking probably as a result of AdBlockers. Most of my views come from studentland and according to an article I read recently younger people are more likely to set it up. At the moment there is no way to combat this...some sites suggest to the visitors that without ads the site may not even be there so for free continued quality please turn off the adblocker, as this is the source of income. Perhaps in the near future HP will have to follow suit (they will also have to refine the niche sites) but in the meantime there is only one way to go for those who want to stay on HP because it's been a great journey so far and wouldn't want to go anywhere else...learn more....write more quality.

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   3. 93

      OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Most of my articles are on Dengarden and it is normal for traffic to be way up on weekends when people are thinking about gardening (my niche) and then to fall steadily all through the week, bottoming out on Friday only to pick up again on Saturday and Sunday so I never panic at a loss of traffic on a Friday.  I would suggest that you wait a few days and see what happens.  There are occasional days when traffic falls precipitously for no reason.

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2. 95

   DrMark1961posted 4 years ago

   My Pethelpful account is close to 20M but traffic went down last year when I lost Google android traffic. The articles have not lost their position on Google search, but one day I was getting thousands of Google android hits, the next day almost none.
   I aologize for harping on this issue, as I am not sure it is the reason for other people losing so much traffic, but I wonder if you have any idea on how we can get our articles back into Google androids good graces?
   Can you comment on the theories you mentioned?

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   1. 96

      EricDockettposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Android adds up to a big chunk of traffic on my biggest niche account and doesn't appear to have dropped, at least according to Hp stats. I get very little Android traffic on this account, where I have a lot of PetHelpful articles. I wonder if that accounts for the drop on this account starting around the end of the summer.
      
      I'm not sure there is anything we can do to improve, except to continue making smart edits and writing good articles. I do think there are a few things HP /Maven might be able to do. Or maybe not. I don't have all the information so like I said I only have theories.
      
      One of them has to do with the way Google decides what sites are about. Unfortunately, while the niche sites are somewhat focused, they still cover a range of topics. So, if Pethelpful covers dogs, cats, and fish (and other animals), and there is an abundance of articles on dogs on the site, Google might decide the site is mostly about dogs. That not only means people who write about cats or fish will lose traffic to other websites that focus directly on cats or fish, but Google might even decide the site as a whole should lose rank.
      
      That's just an example. Actually, PetHelpful seems like one of the most focused sites, but I can certainly imagine this happening with some of the other sites.

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3. 94

   jansharesposted 4 years ago

   Yup, traffic is way down today, and earnings!

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4. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 4 years ago

   I am likewise not impressed as to what I was hoping. I and others have made this speculation before; I am now beginning to think of that speculation as more of a fact: the trend is more users are selecting videos over text articles, as simple and deadly as that.

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5. 88

   lobobrandonposted 4 years ago

   There was a new core update that began rolling out 2-3 days ago. Maybe it had some effect? I have personally not come across any website that was hit or gained in a big way from that specific update yet.

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6. 89

   Butterfly67posted 4 years ago

   My traffic went up about 40% a couple of days ago but I am not holding my breath! It's still nowhere near where it used to be.

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7. 93

   FatFreddysCatposted 4 years ago

   I always imagine it's some new hire at Google HQ, randomly spinning the dials that control the various algorithms, like "What does THIS one do?"

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      viryaboposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      

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      DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Is there an episode of the Simpsons where Homer is hired by Google? If not, there should be. Imagine all the fun he would have tweaking those algorithms!!

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      1. 93

         FatFreddysCatposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         

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8. 84

   CMHypnoposted 4 years ago

   My traffic is at the lowest level for several years this week, so something has changed. Not sure if there is anything specific that can be done by us writers, but hope the HubPages staff is looking at it.  It has happened before in my many years on the site, so can only sit back and ride it out. Not very motivating for writing new articles, especially as it is much harder to gain traction and get traffic to a new hub than it used to be.

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