Search Results in Google not reflecting Article

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   Pollyanna Jonesposted 18 months ago

   Good morning Hubbers!
   
   I'm trying to learn on how to make my articles more search friendly, so have been ensuring the title and description match more what an internet user might enter in the Google Search Bar.
   
   For example, this article is entitled "Top 5 Haunted Campsites in Wales".
   
   This was published on 9th September and is featured.
   
   When I go into Google and directly type "Haunted Campsites Wales" then it does appear on the first page, but 46 websites down. The header in the preview on Google is nothing to do with Haunted Campsites though. It's "Visiting Europe".
   
   I've taken a screenshot so you can see what it appears as.
   
   I found it strange that articles about alleged haunted places to stay in England and Scotland appeared above this, and not one of the 45 articles above mine was a campsite. Any idea why it is doing this and what is going on? As far as I was aware, this was a unique article so should be hitting quite high in the search results, and I would have expected to see the title appearing in the search results not this.
   
   

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      Jan Stepanposted 18 months agoin reply to this

      Search results can indeed be very odd. Many times, it's puzzling as some sites/articles found at the top of your search may not be as relevant or well-written as one would have hoped.
      
      Nobody exactly knows how the algorithm works. There are so-called experts, and there are some general things one can read from it and use, but all in all, everybody's just playing a guessing game.
      
      It's a mega-complex system that we can only scratch the surface of, at best.

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      Pollyanna Jonesposted 18 months agoin reply to this

      This gave me a (sad) chuckle this morning! Whilst the Haunted Campsite article isn't appearing in the Google search results yet, this is! First page, 12th one down.

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      Pollyanna Jonesposted 17 months agoin reply to this

      A little update on this, I'd been monitoring this since making my original post and it wasn't coming up in internet searches. Funnily enough this forum post was appearing, but my article was reflecting "Visiting Europe" on HubPages and was really hard to find. It wasn't even showing up when I directly worded my search to match the title of the article. I could get it to appear when I added my writer name to the search. With this going on, I wasn't ever going to get much search engine traffic!
      
      Well yesterday, the team kindly added it to the Sky Above Us site and wow what a difference! It's on the first page of the search engine results and is currently the fourth result down.
      
      Just goes to show how much difference having a article on a niche site makes, and the importance of trying to write quality articles. Generic HubPages articles don't do well in internet searches at present.

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         Jan Stepanposted 17 months agoin reply to this

         It's delightful to hear that it got picked for a niche site! I hope it stays on the first page.

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            Pollyanna Jonesposted 17 months agoin reply to this

            Thank you, Jan!

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   EricDockettposted 18 months ago

   The result you are seeing is from the subdirectory page on Discover. It doesn't look like your article has been indexed yet. Has it recently moved to Discover? Sometimes it takes a little while for Google to figure things out.

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   Pollyanna Jonesposted 18 months ago

   Thanks Eric! That could be it, this was only published on Friday and was approved/featured a couple of days later. I'll try again in a week and see if anything has changed.
   
   Trying to get smart about search engines!

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      EricDockettposted 18 months agoin reply to this

      You're very welcome. It's good to learn as much as you can about search and SEO if you want to do well on HP. As I'm sure you know, getting your articles accepted to niche sites makes a huge difference as well.
      
      Good luck!

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         Pollyanna Jonesposted 18 months agoin reply to this

         Thank you! Yes, I'd just written and run before. I'm being far more careful now, and the niche sites certainly do appear higher up in the search results - so making something of quality to suit that niche site is now my goal with each article. Wishing you every success too

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      Pollyanna Jonesposted 18 months agoin reply to this

      Interestingly, I'm having the problem where an article isn't appearing in the search Engines at all. Even if I enter my name and the full article title. This is the one in question:
      
      https://discover.hubpages.com/education … of-the-Wye
      
      I'd tried "Goddess River Wye" , "Vaga River Wye", "Pollyanna Jones Wye" and nothing appears - funny though, it does bring up my article on Sabrina and the River Severn!
      
      If I enter the full web address in the search Engine, it still doesn't appear! Crazy. Obviously if I put this in the address bar on the top of the browser, it loads up.
      
      This one went up on August 28th and is also published and featured. I'd have thought it would be showing after 2 weeks?

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         EricDockettposted 18 months agoin reply to this

         Right. Searching for the url in Google (as you said, make sure it is the search bar, not the address bar) is a good way to find out if your article is indexed. It should be the top result if it is.
         
         It should be indexed after two weeks, but things get a little confusing the way new articles are noindexed and then redirected. Google will figure it out in time. 
         
         IMO, the best thing to do is focus on getting articles to niche sites. I don't worry much about what happens on Discover. It's just a pit stop.

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            Pollyanna Jonesposted 18 months agoin reply to this

            Thank you for explaining so well and your encouraging words!

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