Will Traffic Keep Dropping?

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   You know the way traffic seems to ramp up slowly after a beneficial update? I don't understand the reason, I would have thought there should be a sudden step increase. Well does the same happen after a detrimental update? Personally for me there seems to be a steady weekly 10% drop and it's not stopping.

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      chef-de-jourposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I hope things turn around for you Eugene. This is a turbulent time no doubt what with Google updates, pandemic uncertainty and the trauma of CPM slides. I'm ploughing on and writing fresh articles, say one a fortnight, and updating old ones, just to keep up with rival websites. Most of my traffic reflects educational timetabes so now is the low season but I'm optimistic for the near future.

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         eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Same here, updating but I haven't got any inspiration to write new ones that I think will do well. A lot of the time writing new guides is like throwing mud at a wall and hoping it sticks, but often it hits the fan instead. Things should improve towards the end of the month when kids start returning to school (hopefully).

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      bravewarriorposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      It's like a yo-yo. Up and down, up and down. My GA reports shows traffic is down 20% as of 8/4/21. A week ago it was double that.

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         Kenna McHughposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Yes. Up and down for me, too. Rollercoaster ride, no steady climbs before the plunge, just straight up and straight down. My stomach can't handle it!

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      dougwest1posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      My page views are way down too. Since all my stuff is non-fiction/educational I normally have a low during the summer. I am hopeful that things pick up September.

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      NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      It's been worse, it's been better. A lot of up and down. I'm glad I get something monthly for it though and it's residual, so that's good too.

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      erorantesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Good morning mister eugbug. Last night, I was looking one of your article about dust. It is creative and longer than most articles on hub pages. I did not see your other articles. You are great. You have to figure out why your traffic is dropping. I love writing. You do too.  Have a wonderful day.

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         eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Ana.

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      cheaptrickposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Many years ago..I heard about the drop...which never stopped..but year after year,the Hub is still here,and we can do naught, but persevere...

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      Thelma Albertsposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic is dropping, too. I hope it will go up again.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 3 years ago

   I feel your pain, Eug. I generally had losses too this week on my accounts.
   
   Things may indeed appear to improve soon for seasonal reasons, but that's not solving the underlying problem here.
   
   I'm focused on writing at Medium at the moment for reasons that you've raised, essentially demoralization.
   
   This feels almost worse than the 2019/2020 dire period as things keep falling at an alarming rate. The Google gods are clearly unhappy about something.

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   CPM is dropping too, heading to half of what it was last year.
   Anyway, time for dinner.
   

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      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I literally just had beans. Heinz baked beans on toast, an English comfort food.
      
      (Is it just me, or is this the worst Google algo hit against the site since Panda? Maybe I'm just more invested in the site nowadays...)

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         eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know. Overall, my traffic is only about 5% below last year's level for the start of August, but the drop in percentage terms since June is a lot greater.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I was thinking more in terms of the size and speed of the drop.

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               PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

               If we start using 2020 as the benchmark for traffic, I feel that we're doomed. That was a terrible year.

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                  lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  That was the best year for me by far both in terms of traffic and revenue. I joined a month after the Panda update and so do not have any pre-panda experience.

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         lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         No, the worst one was the one that killed Caloriebee and the other YMYL (or whatever the term is) sites.
         
         But this one is pretty bad too. Year on year for the month of July and the first week of August my traffic is down 55%.
         
         I do not have the time to test, but from what I have been seeing from others who know their way around these updates don't use the same main keyword in your title and subheadings. That seems to make pages recover. Would be nice to have someone test. I will try and test on one of my hubs this weekend.

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            Kenna McHughposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I have a client that requests KW in title and SKW in meta.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I believe that the "others" you speak of are right, Brandon.
            
            One should always use the main keyword or phrase that you're chasing in the main title. But the use of keywords in subtitles is a more difficult and subtle area. This is where you're more likely to get slammed for keyword stuffing.
            
            The use of *related* keywords in subtitles can often be a good idea, however. This method can be used to advantage on high-performing articles to bring in views from other search keywords, not just your main one.
            
            This has been the case for some time, however. I'm not aware that much has changed in this respect.

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         Kierstin Gunsbergposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I don't think it's as bad as Panda, lol! But It's definitely been lackluster. I always look forward to a little bump in traffic after a big algo update and this was definitely not it.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            No, definitely not as bad as Panda. But it feels like the worst since in some ways. Difficult to compare it though with that period following subdomains when things were shooting up and down in an extreme way.
            
            That said, I think it *feels* worse because it follows a good spell.
            
            In reality, it's more like a return to the miserable mediocrity of 2020. All it takes is for both traffic and CPMs to turn mediocre and the overall effect is awful.
            
            Not forgetting the Amazon rates getting slashed in half too, a terrible blow for hubbers and the site.

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   Shesabutterflyposted 3 years ago

   My traffic is up a bit from this time the last two years, but cpm is down quite a few dollars that I'm making less than I did the last two years. Although only a few cents more than 2020. 2019 was my best year to date, I'd love to see those kind of cpm numbers again.Especially with the slight increase in traffic.
   
   After the update I had an article spike in traffic for 2 days. I was initally hopeful as it was the article that has been losing traffic for the last year, but no luck. It's back to it's new dismal low which is half of what it had been. After looking at traffic sources it was due to being shared on FB verses being searched on Google.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, 2018 and 2019 up until around August/September of that year were the peak for CPMs. I'm not sure if we'll see those CPM's again. I got good earnings then, despite fairly mediocre traffic levels.
      
      I think individual hubs getting super-high traffic for a couple of days is often Google doing sample testing. They boost an article purely to get more data to make their analysis more accurate. It happens more in the periods before and after algo updates, in my experience.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 3 years ago

   Mmmmmm... beans.

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   Gloriousconfusionposted 3 years ago

   My traffic was a lot higher during lockdown and continuously wet weather.  Now that lockdown has eased considerably and the weather is better, people are going out a lot more, and thus not using their computers etc. to read articles and search for information.  My reasoning is that this is at least one of the reasons why traffic has fallen in July and August.
   
   Does anyone else also think this may have had an adverse effect?

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      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      A lot of my DIY technique articles have suffered. You could be right. People may be getting fed up with home improvement or doing other creative activities and are out and about more as lockdown rules become less strict.

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      lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      This makes sense, but unfortunately, I track rankings and not just traffic. Rankings seem to have taken a hit. But if I look at SEMRush which gives a gauge of traffic to a site based on rankings, the niche sites in general at least the few I looked at have like 1-2% drops not more month on month. Owlcation seems to have a 1% increase.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I think DenGarden showed a 17% drop in June at algo time, 1.8 million views down to 1.5, but even that is much lower than one would expect.
         
         Owlcation slightly up, as you said.
         
         The truth is that I find it hard to tie SEMRush traffic graphs with my own experience, and I have multiple accounts so relative large amount of data. It doesn't tally with HP stats or even show standard seasonal ups and downs.
         
         But yeah, I believe most traffic is lost through hubs that get a lot of views dropping just one ranking or so and losing hundreds of views in the process.

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   Another algorithm update today. Traffic is down anotherl 10% since yesterday.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      It's death by a thousand cuts!

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   Another update Saturday and another 10% traffic drop. Levels down to what they were in 2017 now.

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      viryaboposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Lawd!
      

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      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Just when it seemed like things might be at least stabilizing...
      
      There would appear to be some issue(s) that Google doesn't like and it keeps hitting HP over and over for it. (I don't know if that's true or not)
      
      I hope HP know how to resolve the problem(s) and the solution will arrive sooner rather than later.

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         Kenna McHughposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Another update is killing this platform. It's also playing havoc with my research for other clients. One item I googled, "benefits of...," brought up Amazon products. The results in the past brought up informative articles. Crazy! I am sure Google will sort it out. In the meantime, it's nuts.

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      NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think this is across the board, I'm getting an uptick. Knock on wood. We might want to hold off on doomsday scenarios for now.

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         bravewarriorposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         As of yesterday, 8/14/21 my traffic is down 1.6%. However, it's up by over 20% from 8/11/21. My GA graph shows a major dip on that day.

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            NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Long-term, I'm doing better than I was same time last year. I would think long-range measurements are more telling because of the tendency for fluctuations to constantly occur and the way Google updates create hiccups that subside eventually.

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               eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               This was my best ever year too, but traffic is about 40% of what it was in June which is greater drop in percentage terms than any year previously.

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                  PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  Same for me, I've not had a percentage drop in traffic like this since the subdomains fiasco period ten years ago. My earnings are down over 40% and that's happened in just a matter of weeks. (I write for a range of niche topics, so I know it's not just a few niches).
                  
                  It's horrible. I'm generally just updating and housekeeping here and focusing on Medium for now. I feel powerless.

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                  PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  According to the weekly newsletters: overall, my traffic went up around 5% last week. That might just be due to seasonal factors, but I guess it's better than a kick in the teeth.

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                     Kenna McHughposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                     It's a bit better this week. Fingers crossed.

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                     bravewarriorposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                     I don't know which stats to pay attention to. The HP newsletter stats and what GA reports are never the same. For instance, HP newsletter shows my hub views are down 11% for the past 7 days (profile views up 5.9%). GA shows that users are down 1.2% and sessions down 3.7% for the same period. I'm more apt to hold credence to GA's reporting.
                     
                     Any thoughts?

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   Sustainable Sueposted 3 years ago

   Have you tried looking at Hubpages without signing in lately? It's disgusting. Just like the other niche sites, it's all ads. You can hardly find the main article. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that's one reason our reads are dropping so steadily.

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      hclpdposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I just did. The hard-coded video on the top is a bit overkill. I sure won't' spend much time on a site ridden with ads.

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      chef-de-jourposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I take it that those in charge of these things will be monitoring traffic and income and algorithmic reactions and so on AND doing something about it if the trends are downward!! I know the pandemic has affected viewing - perhaps when we're clear of this Covid business the figures will recover...said the eternal optimist!!

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    dougwest1posted 3 years ago

    Sue:
    I would have to agree with you. I've noticed the same thing. I click off sites that have too many ads. It makes it challenge to find the article through all the noise.

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    Kenna McHughposted 3 years ago

    I agree. It's a mess.

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    Solarasposted 3 years ago

    Yes, the ads cover 50% of my screen, all of the time.
    
    The related articles that used to be on the sidebar are gone now from Pethelpful.  Which is particularly egregious since the editors have chosen to promote only one author, exclusively, on the home page for the topic of dog names. So the rest of us writing in that space will have to rely on our wiles in SEO, and receive none of the old benefits of being on HP.

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    alexadryposted 3 years ago

    Solaras, I went on Pet Helpful homepage and it looks like you are seeing that one author only featured because the articles on the homepage are the ones that were most recently written. In other words, they are displayed in a chronological manner with the latest articles displayed first.

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    alexadryposted 3 years ago

    Somebody correct me of course if this is inaccurate. I recently wrote  an article and after being transferred it has moved to the homepage and now showing.

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       Solarasposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       I don't know if they are recently written or recently updated. I have recently updated articles within the same timeframe as his bevy of promoted articles, 6 months. I find it hard to imagine that he is the only one of us who have written any articles this year.
       
       You have 21 articles on the Dogs home page; were they all written recently?
       
       There are a total of 11 authors featured, out of 52 articles.  I know Dr. Mark used to featured regularly, he is not represented. And there are others whose names escape me, but I do not recognize the names on the page except for yours, which is well deserved.
       
       I just don't know how the old formula of related articles or "you may be interested in" links which are gone from my view on articles, are going to send us any traffic within HP.
       
       If SEO is the reason they have been removed, surely the screen covering ad I just experienced is going to be a bigger issue.

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          Sam Shepardsposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          I have 1 or 2 on dogs homepage at the bottom and they were written some month(s) ago. All the ones that are higher which are 50% Adrienne are written more recently I follow her and she has published them all the passed 2 months or so, she's very active. In general there is a featured author section, I've been featured once or twice over the years. There used to be multiple popular lists per section, but now only on the general homepage it seems etc. My readership dropped about 40-50% passed 3 months or so.
          
          As a side note, of course it would be nice to see the income rise again, but I only use the earnings to pay for my own domain, hosting etc. so that my personal website is ad free, I can write about what I like there without selling anything or thinking about what google or others would prefer me to write and in my native language.

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          alexadryposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, the articles shown on Pethelpful Dog section were mostly recently written (chronologically from August up to March).
          
          It appears to me that articles that are updated (unless they were updated and moved from Hubpages to the niche site) are not showing. I recently updated a couple of articles and they are not showing on the homepage.
          
          I looked up your most recent articles and they are about cats, so I did a quick check and they are  indeed displayed on Pet Helpful Cats main page.
          
          https://pethelpful.com/cats/
          
          So if my theory is right, if you were to write a dog article and it moves to the niche site, it should show up on Pethelpful Dog section pretty soon.

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