Articles Unaffected By Algorithm Downturns

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   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   Here's one of those mysterious articles unaffected by the algorithm updates last September and November. Traffic is rising again now and higher than it was this time last year. If articles are more affected by the overall ranking up or down of a site and not because of their individual quality, how do these guides do so well and seem immune to updates? This doesn't get a huge amount of traffic, but all of it is organic. The higher traffic at the start of last year may be a seasonal thing. I've noticed some STEM guides do better at certain times of the year and that trend has been repeated year upon year, probably because that topic in the curriculum was being covered then.
   
   https://owlcation.com/stem/Simple-Machi … Lever-Work
   
   

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      OldRosesposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Traffic is slowly rising for me also but CPM is so low (half what it usually is) that I am not benefitting from the increase in traffic.

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         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         My CPM is a dollar or two higher, but last year's traffic was nearly double this year's. That screws up the comparison of CPM because of the way it's an average due to different ads on different articles. So higher traffic doesn't necessarily producing proportionally higher earnings.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

            My current situation looks similar to Caren's (OldRoses). Slow traffic rise and crap money.

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            OldRosesposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            In my case, I write exclusively about gardening so the ads are the same across my articles.  It is easy for me to compare cpm year over year.
            
            My niche is very seasonal, with rising traffic in the spring, peaking during the summer and then declining in the fall and dormant during the winter.  This is reflected in my earnings.

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               eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

               Mine is similar because of the tool and gardening articles. But the STEM articles add another trend onto that so sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between the two. Science and math traffic usually rises in the Fall as students return to school but also rises min the early summer, presumably when they're studying for exams and doing revision.

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2. 67

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   An algorithm measures the relative merits of multiple articles that are competing against each other. Therefore, no article can be assessed in isolation in relation to ranking.
   
   One possibility is simply that the competition is not strong enough to usurp your article. Google, by definition, thinks so if it's ranking well.
   
   At a glance, it doesn't look like your article is chasing keywords that there would be a lot of competition over, which helps, but that's just a guess.
   
   Generally speaking, a mediocre article can still do well if the competition is weak. An excellent article can dramatically drop because of strong competition.
   
   I'm not saying that it's the case in this specific instance. But it has to be a possibility. For sure, it could be a quirk of the algo, too, or it could be a combination of both factors.
   
   That's my two cents anyway.

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      WryLiltposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      This. If you're the only person writing on a niche topic, and there's no competition, it's very hard to lose that top spot.
      
      I suggest the author looks at the keywords leading readers to the article and see what competitors are doing in comparison.

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