What Can I Do About This Physics Article?

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   I don't often ask for advice, but I just had a look at the traffic for this guide since 2017 and noticed how much it has dropped since the end of 2019. Maybe it's not my fault and it's just the site ranking that's affected it. I've changed the title over the years. It did best from September 2018 to October 2019. I checked the Waybackmachine and it seems that there was no snapshot in 2018 or earlier, so maybe that was before Owlcation existed. Graph shows daily views.
   
   https://owlcation.com/stem/Force-Weight … y-and-Mass
   
   
   
   When were the niche sites created? I checked several URLs and nothing appears on the Wayback machine before 2019. (Possibly the URLs have changed slightly)
   
   Edit: 2016 it seems.

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      chef-de-jourposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      You I already consider a bit of an expert on how to improve an article!
      But.....
      Major update?
      Split into sections with one or two capsules answering a specific question?
      Title tweak?
      New graphics?
      Refresh keywords/SEO?
      
      I update my 'best sellers' once or twice a year, reading through and improving text, adding an extra capsule or two (200 - 350 words) if possible.

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         eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I'm thinking a new, more appealing title image. I need to add more infographics, it just takes ages to draw them all. I've experimented with changing the title several times, but I checked and the title I have now is the same as the one from 2018 to 2019 when it was doing well. I think I probably scare people away with too much text at the beginning of articles too, so maybe I should try and split it up more into more bite-size capsules with titles?

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            chef-de-jourposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Worth a try for sure.
            
            Also when I google 'Undertanding Newtons 3 Laws of Motion' there is an Owlcation article by Ray on the first page. Couldn't find yours in the first 4 pages for that specific google.
            
            Googling 'Force, Mass and Acceleration' your article appears on page 2.
            
            What to make of this? I'm not certain - can two Owlcation articles with similar/identical titles compete for Google's first page?
            
            Or would it be better splitting your article into two (or more) separate ones? One concentrating on Newton and his laws, the other on F,M,A?Lots of extra work I realise.
            
            Perhaps streamlining the current article, updating etc etc would be best to start off with.

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            1. 64

               eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               It used to be near the top on page 1. Maybe Ray wrote that article in the meantime, I'll have to check. Google mostly only shows one result from niche site domains if the keywords in a title are similar, because of the Google Site Diversity changes a few years ago. I had two articles called "What is Calculus..." with an additional bit of text added onto the end. Only one would rank. I recently changed the first part of one of the titles to "How to Understand Calculus...." and now both rank. That's the problem with splitting up articles and just adding "Part 1", "Part 2" etc onto the end. They're unlikely all to be listed, although it would look better and show them as being related.

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   Beth Eaglescliffeposted 3 years ago

   I do something similar to chef-de-jour; I update each article at least twice a year either by adding or deleting 200-300 words or by changing an image.
   
   I know very little about your subject, but here are a few things that I would change.
   Your link to Engineering Mathematics is to an old edition. Update the link to the latest one.
   I would delete the two images of the book covers. There are so many ads breaking up the article and these images further interrupt the flow and don't really add anything.
   I would change the heading "Questions and Answers" to something like "Worked Examples" as I think that's a phrase students are more likely to be searching for.
   
   Hope that helps.

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      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Beth, I'll try that.
      The only reason I added the old link to Engineering Mathematics on Amazon is because that's the version I actually own, but I guess it's possibly best to reference the up-to-date version.
      Where do you see "Questions and Answers"?
      
      Edit: This is weird. "Questions and Answers" doesn't appear in edit mode. Actually it's all coming back now. We used to be able to turn these on or off I think. Now it doesn't seem we have any control over these?

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         Beth Eaglescliffeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Maybe you should create a new text module and copy and paste the contents of the old "Questions and Answers" into it. Then you can add the new "Worked Examples" heading (and delete the old Q&A box).

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            eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I wish I could delete or hide them, but it doesn't seem to be possible to do so. I think Hubpages just copied and pasted all this stuff on at the end as a text capsule that we don't have access to.

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               Beth Eaglescliffeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               In edit mode isn't there a little x in the top right corner of the module that allow you to hide it?
               
               Or try this. On your account stats page go to Q&A on the top menu and then disable Article Q&As.
               
               If that doesn't work, you could email Matt.

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                  eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  No, there's no Q&A module.
                  Disabling Q&A from the accounts page only stops people (or used to) submitting questions.

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3. 64

   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   I don't think Google likes long articles and mine tend to be comprehensive, epic monstrosities. Splitting seems to be the way to go, but then would the shorter guides rank as well amongst the competition as something comprehensive? I'm not sure whether it's the length Google doesn't like or the amount of detail, or it's the readers backing out when they see lots of text. Anyway I reckon avoiding long paragraphs is probably a good idea and breaking them down into smaller chunks with graphics between.
   I wonder is there a limit to the number of adds, or do they keep stuff them in, ad infinitum and ad nauseam?

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   Beth Eaglescliffeposted 3 years ago

   Hmm, the title and/or topic could be the problem, rather than the way the article is written. When I put your title into Google, all of the first page contains articles with identical (or one word different) titles. These include authority sites like NASA and the BBC. You are competing in a crowded market.
   
   Maybe the topic has become over-saturated since you first put it online and that's why your traffic has dwindled? It may not be worth putting a lot of time and energy into rewriting it.

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      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Traffic was ok until late 2019, then just seemed to collapse within the space of a month from around 150 views per day peak to about 25 views peak.

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   I notice now that Google seems to more closely match the search term with the words in the title of a page. So if there are lots of pages with the same title and your article doesn't include those words, it won't be listed, even if it's of superior quality and have those keywords in the article text or in subtitles.

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   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   So my plan is to create a new article from the first section and call that "Understanding Force, Mass and Acceleration" or something to that effect. Then I'll keep the next bit as a guide on Newton's laws. Possibly I might turn the last bit into another guide too.

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