I need to get an offline job then :/

1. 0

   ryankettposted 14 years ago

   My traffic is in freefall.
   
   Every webmaster in the land seems to be affected today, pinning it on an algorithm change.
   
   I am losing 1000 views on my 24 hour total by the hour. It looks like Hubpages was not immune to the Google announcement afterall.
   
   I take it Hubpages will now remove every single Hubpage which trips the duplicate content filter? As I believe they should have done a long time ago...

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      Wesman Todd Shawposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Besides giving JC Penny a swift kick in the rear, today's Dallas Morning News reports that Google is lowering the page rank of Overstock.com from page one to about page five for having "run afoul" of policies

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah I read that too.
         
         The scary thing is that the major change is rumoured to be coming on 1st March, this is just stage one.

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         sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         cool - then overstock affiliates will fill the vacuum
         
         not seeing a HP traffic drop, maybe 10% and thats not enough for me to take notice.. could just be sunny out somewhere.
         
         The traffic drop is truly global and not specific to any topic, Ryan? Cant really make any conclusion without a couples days data.
         
         If you look at enough webmaster forums you could find a thread going every single day that blames algo changes for traffic declines
         
         I did find a cool google patent while searching for buzz about algo changes
         
         http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars … PN/7426507

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            ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            I sincerely hope that I am merely overreacting, but that thread has a lot of activity today, reporting overnight changes in rankings and traffic.
            
            Today has been very untypical of a Thursday, it has been like a weekend. I have checked my 5 top traffic hubs, no change in ranking. So fingers crossed that bodes well.
            
            Getting myself all worried, if anything just another gentle reminder of the need to continue my diversification plans!

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      lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I couldn't agree with you more on the dupe content thing.
      
      Sorry about the traffic stuff. Are you sure it's all from an algo change? My traffic is down about 10%, but I checked all of my top hubs/pages/sites and they have all retained their 1st, 2nd and 3rd place rankings.

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Well it might just be one of those days, and I hope so, because I'm down to weekend traffic.
         
         But I stick by the duplicate content thing nonetheless, there is a filter in place already, this site is too good to lower itself to syndicated content and too big to allow itself to fall victim to complaints about stolen content.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      What Google announcement?

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         About Content Farms being targeted with massive algorithm changes, the announcements which coincided with the new Google CEO.
         
         Whilt Hubpages isn't a particularly low quality content farm, it is a content farm nonetheless.

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            bgamallposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Hubpages Is is not a content farm. Content farms pay their people. We rely on affiliate income. Content farms have sophisticated methods for making keywords available, while we do it on our own. If you don't do it on your own get out.

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      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic is down a bit, but not anything resembling what you've described.  And my earnings for January are up from December. 
      
      I'm just going to keep doing what I do, and let everything sort itself out.  I feel no need to froth everyone into a panic.

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         With all due respect I am not the only one reporting big falls in traffic, neither was I the first http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/68521?page=2
         
         It should perhaps be noted that 1000 views in the hour for me is relative to a starting point of 27000 page views per day, I certainly haven't lost half of my traffic.
         
         But, I am effectively having a worse day than valentines day, sorry if my genuine concern in any way makes any other hubber unduly concerned.

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            bgamallposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Well it is two hours later, and maybe Relache gets it now.

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               ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I doubt that she would ever admit her mistake, but she is who she is.

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               relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I'm still not bothered by what I'm seeing. And like Nelle, I've got plenty of Hubs that have retained their 1st page Google placement for their key phrases.
               
               My web activities are diversified enough both in content and in regards to what sites I use that once this all shakes out, I will continue to be working for myself, writing about whatever.

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      David 470posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, this does not look good for me. My traffic has fallen 50 % plus. Many blue triangles are showing up more than I have ever seen before!

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      Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Every webmaster in the land is NOT affected.
      
      My main site is seeing absolutely no difference.

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Great saying that in hindsight Pcunic, but I was one of the first people to post this on here, you have the benefit of around 15 hours of discussion and surfing and analysis to reach that conclusion.
         
         Its all good bestowing your knowledge on me retrospectively. I am not an idiot, I happen to be on Wordpress right now, building as many standalone sites as I can.
         
         But its all good, kick a man whilst he is down, I have also been rewriting my CV. I will have a hard time justifying just 6 months of online working, good job I have my top level degree to balance that out.
         
         Anything to say which will make me feel better? Or do you just want to score some points? If so, go for it, no better chance to deliver a huge kick to my goolies whilst I am down.

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            Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Oh, calm down.
            
            First of all, it's far too early to panic and I'm not kicking you anyway.
            
            If you ARE affected by Google when it all shakes out, yes, you might have to do something else. but you don't know that to be true yet.
            
            I've been through the same thing.  I've had to change my business 180 degrees more than once. That's life.  Get over it.  If it happens, it happens. You put your feet on the ground and keep walking until you fall down and can't get up at all.
            
            I'm not kicking you, but I will say this: I have been saying for a very long time that Google needs to clean up search and that they WILL clean it up or die trying.  I've been told by certain people here that I'm a fool, that Google cannot or will not and blah, blah blah.
            
            But they can, and they wil, or die trying.  That's fact.
            
            Does it affect me? No.  Does it affect you?  I have no idea.  Do you THINK you write crap?  I doubt it.  But maybe you think that some aspect of your on-line activity is vulnerable to the type of algo change apparently happening now, right?
            
            OK, if so, figure out what you'll do to combat that.  Maybe your despair is justified, maybe it isn't. Wait a week or a month and see where things are.
            
            You are a smart guy. If Google has changed course in a way that adversely affects you, my bet is you'll find a way to rise again.  Maybe it won't be easy, but who ever said life is?
            
            And maybe, just maybe, you don't have to do a thing.  A week or so will tell.

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      Sunnyglitterposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic was terrible yesterday.  It was also the first time in months that I made .00 on AdSense.  Today I'm already at $1.71, so I guess yesterday was just a bad day.

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      cpvrposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Well, why do you think Google did those? If your hub is of quality and has a lot of incoming links, then you shouldn't have been hit

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         That comment alone shows that you have very little knowledge on the subject matter.

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            sabrebIadeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Ryan, when my blogs (not Hubs mind you) got the crap kicked outta them over a year ago in a Google algo change, I posted here asking what I could do and most of what I got here was "your quality must suck" and "you obviously have duplicate content or Google wouldn't have done that to you".
            Basically snarky comments and no help
            You were one of the few people (there were a couple of others) that actually gave me good advice.
            YOU hang in there because I consider you one of the good guys and I know you have what it takes to weather this, just like I weathered it when my blogs took such a hit.
            Improvise, adapt and overcome!

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   Cagsilposted 14 years ago

   Good luck with getting a job.
   
   As for traffic issues, I have no decline so far. Sorry to hear you have been hit hard.

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3. 0

   ryankettposted 14 years ago

   Judging by this thread:
   
   http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4261944-9-30.htm
   
   It can often be like this when an algo changes, but can settle back down.
   
   I hope it doesn't take too long, because ultimately I am only three months away financially from needing a bar job!

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4. 0

   ryankettposted 14 years ago

   One guy said:
   
   "I don't think that Google would instigate an anti-spam measure that would smack the innocent. We should all remember it is a Thursday and in the past these things settle themselves down by the following Sunday."

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5. 75

   WryLiltposted 14 years ago

   I'll be interested to see what happens due to this change. I certainly hope HP gets rid of duplicate content. It would make life a lot easier.

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      ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      There should be no place at all for it, irrespective of whether the author wrote it. If somebody wants to duplicate content they should stick with eZine or their own blogs.

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         bgamallposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Duplicate content is not the reason one of my hubs is tanking from over 300 visits per day. It is not duplicated.

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6. 84

   Rik Ravadoposted 14 years ago

   Yes my traffic is down a little but CTR and earnings have dropped significantly

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7. 70

   Laura Marieposted 14 years ago

   I have got about 500 views less today Hope traffic does not keep dropping. So typical when I have a record month of earnings. Seemed to good to be true.

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8. 80

   thisisoliposted 14 years ago

   Strangely enough the traffic on some of my websites has shot up the last couple of days. 
   
   If you read some of the more indepth releases from Google it does seem to say that they are focusing on the low quality and duplicate content farms, rather than sites like Hubpages.
   
   My Hubpages traffic is at a low right now, but jan-feb is a usual lull for me.

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   1. 0

      ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The algorithm would be relative though right?
      
      In a recent defence in a lawsuit Google stated that their algorithm imposes a duplicate content penalty based on the % of content on a domain which is duplicated. The more duplicate content the lower the SERPS. The site in question (owned by Microsoft) was poorly ranked as it had 75% duplicate content.
      
      Irrespective of whether Matt Cutts has denied the existance of a duplicate content penalty, they were happy to state it in a court case.
      
      Whilst Hubpages is not over run with duplicate content, it is technically permitted on the site. It is clear that a proportion of the content on this site is duplicated.
      
      I have no idea how much, but if the algorithm is going to work on relativity, Hubpages certainly isn't going to achieve 0% duplicate content.
      
      I have a few referrals who have used duplicate content: http://hubpages.com/profile/Mr_Invisible
      
      Under the current system I can't flag him, as I have no proof that he doesn't own that content. Under the system that I would use, anything which doesn't pass copyscape would be deleted. Bringing that % down as far as possible.
      
      If we are talking an algorithm change then I would suspect that any site with duplicate content will be affected, but to various degrees dependant on a level of abuse. I doubt that any changes in rankings would be manual.
      
      And for that reason, I don't see any place on here for duplicated or syndicated content. IB wouldn't allow it.

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         lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Dupe content is extremely widespread here at HP, probably more so than you think. I've been really diligent about doing a certain amount of hubhopping each day (it kills time while I have my morning coffee). At least half of what I've seen, if not more, is dupe content. A lot is plagiarized too, although I've seen a bit less of that this week. 
         
         There's one hubber who has published 280+ hubs in two months. I've flagged at least 30 or 40 of his/her hubs, mostly stolen from what I can tell and the rest dupe. All of his/her hubs are still up.
         
         I've had some correspondence with the HP team about duplicate content, and they seem to be just fine with it. I know that SunForged feels pretty strongly that it should be allowed. I always respect his opinion, but in this case, I don't understand the rationale or agree with it.

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            ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Here you go, found it!
            
            http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 … -complaint
            
            Specifically:
            
            "We built Google for users, not websites, and the nature of ranking is that some websites will be unhappy with where they rank. Those sites have complained and even sued us, but in all cases there were compelling reasons why their sites were ranked poorly by our algorithms. For example, Foundem, one of the sites that has complained publicly and to the European Commission, duplicates 79% of its website content from other sites,
            and we have consistently informed webmasters that our algorithms disadvantage duplicate sites."
            
            So much for no duplicate content penalty!

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               lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               @Sunforged -- Thanks for explaining what you meant. I knew I must have misunderstood what you said in that previous post!
               
               But....any response to what Ryan just posted?

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                  sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  sure:
                  
                  1. I rarely take anything Google or Matt Cutts says at face value anymore, their primary objective is to keep the algo secret and make tons of money. Anything else is just PR (the old school kind)
                  
                  2. The Dupe Content Penalty that most refer to is on a page by page basis and is a mistranslation of the domain level standards one can find in the Google Webmaster Guidelines, if the same content appear within your domain say an original post and an "archive" page then only one will be indexed.Non-webmasters often misunderstand that and think its a global rule no matter how many times official statements by google and experienced web users show examples otherwise.
                  
                  3. The Significant Duplicate Content Site penalty suggested by the link Ryan posted should not be of any news or concern to any of us. Spammers wouldnt be scraping and spinning if they could just scrape. There is an obvious difference between a site built on dupe content and a quality well organized site with some occurrence of dupe content
                  
                  In Tin Foil News: I wonder if Google would have any vested interest in limiting Microsofts rankings by whatever means they felt like and what anyone could do about it.

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                     lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     Well, I asked for it, and I got it! Thx SF!

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                     ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     The last statement is too true, and the basis of the complaint, although they gave Bing PR8 from launch!
                     
                     I am more interested in this dark horse: http://knol.google.com/
                     
                     Quietly building, started with PR0, recently fastracked to PR7. I would be very interested to see how they begin to rank that in the near future, perhaps using the slow growth as a defence against accusations that they are outranking the likes of Hubpages in a year or two
                     
                     100% revenue sharing, by the way.

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                        sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        At this point Knols 100% share isnt attractive as the ad placement is just dumb. All that I have read about Knol to date is that its a dud. It is interesting to see its got some PR love.
                        
                        Seeing a more obvious traffic decline at hp now, about 20% down  and adsense has been at all time lows for the year these past 3 days but interestingly product sales has been on a high so the adsense decline wasnt of interest to me.
                        
                        usually these things balance out, I already hit my monthly goals on the 20th so im ready to ride it out

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   Hauntyposted 14 years ago

   Interesting. I have plenty of red triangles today.

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   1. 0

      ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/68521
      
      Lucky you!
      
      I'm not too worried just yet, but if it's still like this well into monday then I will be very worried!

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         Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I hope it goes back to normal for you.

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            ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Me too....
            
            On the plus side, my first massive Excerptz click!

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               Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Gosh, I just registered there today, but I'm still waiting for a mail with the password.

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                  ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  It may be in the junk, I need to sort that!

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                     Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     You're right. Thanks. No need to bother, I got it.

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10. 75

    Eaglekiwiposted 14 years ago

    Well Ryan ,I dont know what kind of job you are looking for ,but New Zealand will be hungry for all kinds of employees now!

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       ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I would happily just pick kiwi fruit in New Zealand in fairness!
       
       Not for life, but maybe for 6 months, and may well just go and do that!

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          Eaglekiwiposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          lol @ Kiwifruit
          ( Actually my bro lives near the largest Kiwifruit Production place,beautiful area goggle Wanganui-NZ) yea there are worse jobs.
          
          Good luck dealing with all the C.E.O's or S.E.O'S,but similarily ,I need a J.O.B too. All the best.

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             ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             They are one of the few fruits with a 12 month long season!
             
             I would happily slum it in a hostel with travellers and go and pick fruit, hell I might even develop some muscles!

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11. 80

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    nah, I dont think Dupe content should be allowed for dupe contents sake (especially since I have no vested interest as I dont use any). I believe that sites such as Hubpages shouldnt make drastic tos changes after creating a user base from a certain set of terms without repercussions (ie Xomba, Factoidz)
    
    Hubs could stop all new submissions of dupe content w/o a peep from me.
    
    and yes the same content can exist in many places as a means to access different user bases or target different terms without bothering my sensibilities. Neither I nor Google has specific issues with content existing in multiple locations. I dont think they ever will.

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12. 0

    ryankettposted 14 years ago

    My post crossed with Sunforged's by the way, else I would have tailored my post accordingly

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13. 74

    Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

    My hub traffic is the same as always, so is my sites. However this once again shows how it's best to have many of your own sites and use other content sites as well.

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       ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Yep, this is my year of diversification remember
       
       I will be diversifying across rev share sites, Bukisa, InfoBarrel and Xomba (articles only).
       
       In respect of sites, I'm concentrating on getting Exerptz functioning, adding one at a time.... that could potentially be a big winner for me in the long term.
       
       I also have a new domain InterviewGazette.com, inspired by this site: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/
       
       Which I want to get running this year. BestLaptopCoolers will be back (I saved the cache pages, so I don't have to rewrite all the articles.
       
       So that's plenty to keep me busy

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14. 77

    sabrebIadeposted 14 years ago

    My blogs are normal, maybe a tad better than normal.
    My Hub Pages traffic is cut about in half so far today. 
    Though this could just be a "glitch".

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    Len Cannonposted 14 years ago

    It is pretty ugly, around a 40% drop from this time last week.

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    caninecrtiticsposted 14 years ago

    Yea I saw a huge drop in traffic about 3 times less than normal.  I'm a little concerned about this.  I know I don't copy or have duplicate.  It's no fun I like to show I worked for it.  This may change the way things need to be done.  Get ready for a whole new wave of "Ways to make money with the new google" if it's not out their already.

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17. 87

    Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

    My traffic to HubPages is rock-steady so far (fingers crossed). Then again, I don't have anything like your volume of traffic, Ryan.

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       bgamallposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       This has only affected US google, not offshore google, Marisa.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          By far the majority of my traffic is from the US, and I'm sure Google can't tell which Hubs are written by Aussies and which by Americans!

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          Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Why would you say that. Google is worldwide and Hubpages is Hubpages, wherever you write.
          
          It has certainly affected RyanKett.

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       3. 0

          Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Okay, I just read the Google Blog where they said they were rolling it out in the US first. But it should still affect foreign nationals (Marisa and ryan) who write for HP - shouldn't it. But Marisa is okay and ryan not okay. Hope Marisa is still okay. And skyfire reports his traffic is holding as well.
          
          It's going to be a loooong few days.

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             WryLiltposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             Every hour my traffic is going down (I'm also in Australia.) I still have some red arrows but this is probably the lowest traffic I've had since before Xmas.

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    sofsposted 14 years ago

    Oh now this! when things really got moving..oh no..

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19. 0

    Will Apseposted 14 years ago

    My traffic is down but my pages seem to be in the same place in the SERPs (though I only checked half a dozen). As long as hubs are not falling in the rankings, the traffic will return.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    It could be that Marisa's hubs are older and that age matters. Some of my older hubs are still showing #1 placement for phrases. The newer ones aren't doing as well.
    
    I've been busy on other stuff today, so I wasn't aware of all this. So I could be all wet too. I just went through my Google Analytics and tried to figure out how bad things are.
    
    The fact that some hubs are holding their own, is a good sign I think. But perhaps G isn't finished with us.

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       Mikeydoesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       This is a definite possibility.
       
       I'm down nearly 400 views. It is EXTREMELY irregular. I haven't been this low in months.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    If you only write under Mikeydoes, your hubs are pretty young. I agree, this is a major Google sea change. We just have to try to understand it.
    
    As of now it feels to me like hubs over 18 months have an advantage. But I've only spent a short time evaluating - and as I said G might not be done with us. It could be still worse tomorrow.
    
    I'm just trying to decide if I write hubs or work on my own sites - probably my own until I see how this stabilizes.

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       Mikeydoesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I thought of that as a real possibility as well, seeing if anyone would mention it.
       
       I never thought to make it clear, but I certainly could have had other accounts, however this is my first What I was getting at was I'm probably almost at 6 months, and I haven't had views this low since the end of my second month or maybe third.. either way, I'd say new content may play a role.
       
       So basically my data is consistent with what you are saying. But like you said, we have to contrast and compare and find a pattern. Just doing my part
       
       It seems like you have a cool head, being young, I think it is much harder to control that. Look at Ryan as well, haha.

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22. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    I've always had ice water in my veins when it comes to business.
    
    As I said in a forum post a few days ago, I'm a veteran of the November 2003 infamous Google Florida update. When that happened I lost all of my Google traffic in three hours. It went from over 100,000 unique visitors a day to ZERO.
    
    I was also wondering if long-tail phrases are holding up for some people. I'm NOT seeing this.

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    Mark Ewbieposted 14 years ago

    I never get much traffic anyway - I'm an amateur and a newbie.  However I know what I expect on a daily basis and it's well down for Google.com, but the others are as normal.  So they rolled out the change on Google.com first maybe.
    
    I checked a single hub on google.uk versus google.com.  Page 1 for the UK, page 3 for the US.
    
    So what happened to my content in the last 24 hours?  Did it suddenly become much more rubbish that originally thought?  Was it not unique enough or interesting enough for the new system?
    
    IF this change is related to content farming or spamming then I am well hacked off - I thought and wrote every word of my pages.  Not brilliant and not necessarily informative - but a small drop of goodness (so I thought) in a cesspool of advertising, monetising, spamming and spun crap.
    
    The number one culprit for the web becoming a sea of waste?  Adsense and Google of course.  Encourage people to write for money and what do you expect?
    
    I guess when they roll the change out to the other Google sites my traffic will drop to zero.

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    Dale Nelsonposted 14 years ago

    It seems like the effects of the change in the algorithm are now being felt a few weeks later as the bots start to cover more ground.
    
    I notice about 75% drop in revenue in the last 4 days on average and strangely, surges on alternate days of two types of hubs. Traffic has climbed about 20% in the last two weeks.
    
    My websites have lost some links form certain article directories in the last two days. Could be converted to no follow if that directory got penalized.
    
    I think I will give it another 2 weeks before changing strategy.

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    recommend1posted 14 years ago

    I thought the Google tactic was pretty clear and if they are implementing measures to do what they said they would do - why is anyone surprised at dropping traffic on some hubs.
    
    As I understand it Google are trying to make their webstuff more useful and correctly indexed - this means quality and uniqueness by default.
    
    Why is anyone surprised that the link machine traffic would be down in this case, millions of backscratching links that add no value to the information or the index, just manufactured links.
    
    Why would anyone be surprised that explicitly advertising hubs would show a drop, your hub may be the most fantastic short appraisal of a set of commodities, among countless thousands all the same and all with little or no unique information or quality review.
    
    Why would anybody be surprised that poor quality writing and grammar would start getting penalised, poor quality writing is often (not always) linked to poor quality information.
    
    I may not agree exactly with how PCUnix sees things, but I do agree with his basic outlook on the quality of stuff published to the web and over-used number pumping poor quality backlinking.

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    Dorsiposted 14 years ago

    I usually get about 1,500 total views a day - and I was pretty shocked when I saw my traffic was down by a third today - about 500 less views than normal.
    
    I hope this settles down and is not a pattern for the future with these new algorithm changes Google made.
    
    Sigh....

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27. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Actually I think we'll be in for bigger dips as the algo travels around the world.
    
    I was just checking my hub traffic for today, and the google.com is shrinking but say the google.uk is still strong. As the algo continues, the .uk and .es etc. should shrink. Oh joy....
    
    It's 3am here. I'm going to bed. Tommorrow is another day...

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    CASE1WORKERposted 14 years ago

    Glad it's not just me- about a 20 per cent drop overall.
    Disappointing as I am so near my first pay out. I thought I would do it this month, but not so sure now!
    I think it is probably so much more noticeable if you have bigger traffic, it must be quiter frightening. The thing is - all those blue arrows- the joy when you get a red one!

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    frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

    I'm down too, steadily over the last couple of days. Now at around 30% and dropping still lower. Can't see that anything's moved from where it was either. Odd.

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       Susana Sposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Same here. Traffic down to Saturday levels today, which is about 1000 - 1500 less than a normal weekday, but serps positions are the same for the main phrases on first look.
       
       Did a bit of research in my analytics stats and I'm wondering if I've gone down in the serps for some phrases, though the main ones have held position. ie: where one page was ranking number one for 5 phrases, it's now ranking number 1 for one phrase and at positions 2 or 3 for the other phrases.

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30. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    I'm starting to see large drops in google.com traffic - across all hubs. Now I am going to sleep. No point in watching this any longer.

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31. 74

    frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

    Night Nelle - no point losing sleep too

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32. 64

    ns1209posted 14 years ago

    Lots of blue arrows and a couple of red does not look very good!

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33. 69

    lrohnerposted 14 years ago

    This is really, really weird. Last night I checked my top hubs/pages/sites. Traffic was only down around 10% overall and everything had retained its rankings.
    
    I wake up this morning to a 60% drop in HP traffic. All of my hubs that were on page 1 yesterday are still on page 1, but many have been bumped from the 1, 2 or 3 spot down to 5, 6, or 7.
    
    And one of my own sites that's held the #1 spot for its keyword for around four years has been bumped to #2. That's my own fault though. I haven't touched it in at least a year.

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       rebekahELLEposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I had one knocked down to page 3. It had held on to a top spot on p1 for a long time. I just checked the sites ahead of it and some of them are copied content, one is a site that pretends to be the brand. Google has some tweaking to do if they're going to get it right, they can't just 'assume' something from a certain site is junk.
       
       I did go in and edit the hub last night to see if that will help bring it back up.

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34. 0

    Virtual Careersposted 14 years ago

    Sometimes change is a good thing, as I perceive this to be, just adjust, adaptive and keep going.

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35. 42

    Mikeydoesposted 14 years ago

    I woke up this morning and my views are nearly the same as last night.

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36. 66

    simeonvisserposted 14 years ago

    Lots of blue arrows here. But my hubs are new and not that well backlinked yet. It's probably not due to the algorithm change.

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37. 60

    Mark Ewbieposted 14 years ago

    Ryan - I'm seeing some strange results.  I compared a search last night on google.com v .uk and it showed me lower in the com as I expected.
    
    But I'm not getting that difference today.
    
    I haven't tried many searches, I'm supposed to be working.. and I'm not a web expert.
    
    But it might be a semi scientific exercise to see what some keywords are returning in the com and the uk googles.
    
    That's if someone else would volunteer...

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38. 75

    sofsposted 14 years ago

    Blue arrows out number the red... Google.com traffic is down by 50% ... this is scary.

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39. 60

    Randy Godwinposted 14 years ago

    Well, at least the staffers are here to console us and reassure us about the changes! 

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       ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Too true, they are very much active on the InfoBarrel forum!
       
       They are probably jumping off the top of a San Fran skyscraper.

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          Wesman Todd Shawposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          <-----runs to info barrel to see what's going on there.

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    2. 63

       Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Randy,          That thought did occur to me too.   

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40. 60

    Mark Ewbieposted 14 years ago

    Ok guys - please will someone do a bit of research on this.  I have been checking some search terms and it looks on some quick tests that I am ranking HIGHER on Google.com than Google.UK.
    
    Yes, my search traffic has gone to nothing, but then it isn't usually much and not all the US has woken up yet.
    
    Is it possible that the tweaking is a continuous thing - bit savage yesterday and a settling down today?

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       ThomasEposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       From experience, when a major algo change happens, search engine traffic can sometimes go all to heck for a while, and then actually improve.
       
       One days screwy results do not a disaster make.
       
       That's why I keep on trying to calm people down... guys, we don't know what is happening yet. If we still have very low traffic in a week, that is the time to worry.
       
       But, given the size of this site, the site owners will get an explanation and then fix whatever needs to be fixed.
       
       That is what google did to squidoo... they explained what was wrong, fixed it, and were unslapped.

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          Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, that's what some of us have been saying: give it time.
          
          But people like to panic. It gets the heart racing and takes less time than coffee.

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          TopUniverseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Any idea after how many months did squidoo come out from google slap?

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41. 75

    Uzdawiposted 14 years ago

    It´s raining in my hub statistics as well, traffic is falling, I have lost about 20% of my traffic from Google.

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42. 80

    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    If you listen to many of the interviews that Matt Cutts takes part in he does state that there is no duplicate penalty, and this is actually correct.  However, there is also much less duplicate content value.
    
    To try and explain it a little more clearly, imagine the algorithm was a points system. Duplicate content is not really penalized as such, however if an article is a duplicate of an already established article it will not really get any points.  This is not really a penalty, it is just an evaluation.  An original article on the other hand would receive a lot of 'points'.
    
    This is of course a massive over simplification, but I feel it is important to point out that while Google does deny a duplicate penalty, they do also state that duplicate content is worth much less. The will 'choose' the article with the most 'points' to rank in Google and duplicate content simply has less 'points'.
    
    There are also sitewide and page specific metrics in the formula and they do affect each other, confirmed by google.

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    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    In other news, I am on a ~40% drop in Hubpages traffic since last week, This is a larger drop than I would have expected at this time of the year.

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    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    In terms of removing duplicate content from Hubpages.
    
    I think articles submitted to Hubpages should be unique.
    
    It would be a big policy change.  And it may annoy people who spam their articles across the internet.  However, If google is starting to crack down on sites which use a lot of duplicate content I think it is about time that the people who spam duplicate content need to realize that this is simply no longer an effective marketing technique.

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    1. 85

       Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I agree.
       
       HP says they want unique content; they should enforce it.
       
       I have one hub marked "Duplicate" right now.  I can't seem to find the dupe, so I assume it is an error and will straighten out sooner or later, but if not, and if HP eventually said it had to go, so be it.  One hub won't kill me.
       
       I also have some hubs that never did well and may never do well. If HP told me I had to trash those for the good of the site and to the benefit of my other hubs, you wouldn't see me crying over those either.  If I have sentimental attachment, I'll find a home for them somewhere..
       
       I've had to pull up stakes and move camp more than once in my life. In 1977 I was in a partnership that did not work out so in 1981 I just walked out the door.  In 1987, I had to restructure my entire business and had to do it again in 1993, 1997 and 2005.
       
       Life brings change.  I have no idea what the ultimate result of this Google algorithm change will be. I don't know if it will hurt or help me. 
       
       I have other business interests that could evaporate overnight. I've been through that sort of thing so many times it barely makes me blink now. Life is change, change can hurt.
       
       I do know this: whatever happens, I'll keep plugging.  I'll put my feet on the ground and keep trying to move forward for as long as I can. I'll survive or I'll go down kicking and screaming all the way. I'll scratch at the walls with the bloody stubs of my fingers trying to climb back if I have to.
       
       
       Life is not always fair.  That's as true as it gets.

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45. 88

    Len Cannonposted 14 years ago

    I have like six "duplicate" hubs because people post my stuff to yahoo answers and similar sites and I can't get them taken down. I don't know how much harm it is doing me, but it is very frustrating.

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       ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I am not talking about hubs which are stolen AFTER you post them, I am talking about Hubs which are duplicated WHEN they are posted.
       
       So in other words, if you were to walk over to my website right now, steal and article, and post it on here.... Hubpages would assume that you own that piece of duplicate content unless I complain about it. That is am awful policy.

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          recommend1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

          It is not only an awful policy - if that is what it is - it is a very simple issue to deal with. An academic essay can be internet matched for ANY duplication, down to a set of common phrases - it is not likely that a similar process cannot be duplicated automatically at the point where a hub is published and if duplicate materials are found then stop the pub publishing.

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          1. 0

             ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             Exactly, so you agree with me.
             
             I don't know how many times I have to say this, but there is ALREADY a duplicate content filter applied to new hubs.
             
             If you go and steal somebodies blog post now, publish it as a hub, it will trip the duplicate content filter.
             
             But it won't unpublish the hub. We are ALLOWED to post our content from our other sites. I am saying that we should NOT be allowed to post that content.
             
             Just for the avoidance of any doubt, here is the duplicate content flag in action on a LIVE hubpage:
             
             

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       Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       It's easy to get your stuff removed from Yahoo! Answers, I've done it several times.

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       1. 69

          lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          I've tried and haven't been successful. Any pointers?

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          1. 87

             Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             For Yahoo! Answers UK, you have to email them at:
             
             ukie-copyright@yahoo-inc.com
             
             For Yahoo! Answers US, the email address is:
             
             copyright@yahoo-inc.com
             
             The related webpage is:
             
             http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html

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46. 87

    Sufidreamerposted 14 years ago

    There is a lot of uncertainty - age seems to be coming into play. Spacey Gracey pointed out on another thread that the first few pages of results are dominated by ancient forum threads - I noticed the same when searching for woodwork-related sites. That is pretty annoying if you are trying to perform serious research.
    
    I don't get a lot of traffic, but I have noticed that my older Hubs are rising - a few of those are blatantly duplicate content, too
    
    All very confusing

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47. 88

    Len Cannonposted 14 years ago

    I understood what you're talking about, it is just a pet peeve. I apologize for the side conversation.

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48. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Back to Ryan's original question about getting a "job."
    
    I think that you should spend today and tomorrow and the forseeable future working on your own websites. (And watch if your Hubs bounce back.) This is more about shared content sites I think. Even if the content isn't technically duplicate - are they producing really new and groundbreaking content? Or just a rehash of what's already been on the web? I think this is more the issue. Is the content innovative and genuinely pushing information forward?
    
    So Xomba, Squidoo, Snipsly and other stuff like that is going to probably get hit as well - if not, now next month or next year.
    
    Man of us have gotten to feel like this home in a way because of the forums. Yes even me. So it's sad. But the internet is alive and kicking.
    
    Today I'm going to try and focus on my local interest website, which has very high user value and a one-of-a-kind experience. It will give me something positive to think about and do.

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    Sufidreamerposted 14 years ago

    The thing that worries me most is the indirect effect on my main business. My fear is that, if loads of the poorer quality affiliates start to feel the pinch, they will flood the freelance writing sites looking for work and start offering to write articles for a couple of dollars a throw.
    
    That did not go well last time it happened, a couple of years back - freelance writing rates plummeted and have only just recovered.

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    venrad1posted 14 years ago

    Other sites are feeling the pinch too. I've heard Associated Content, Suite101 and eHow all got hit. Xomba just posted a staff blog on how they are handling the changes.

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