Panda 2.5 happened circa 28th september

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   Silver Roseposted 12 years ago

   Here's the article with the google confirmation:
   
   http://www.webpronews.com/daniweb-panda-2011-09
   
   There have been some big casualties, but it looks like hubpages overall survived.
   
   If you are a surger and have stayed up, or your surge started on 28th Sept, looks like you might be safe for another few weeks - till G begins the whole saga again!

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      psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Very good news for me.  My hits rocketed up on that day.

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      Karen Nposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I saw that article, Webpro is reporting that DaniWeb has once again lost half its traffic. Right now they are removing all advertising for one day to try and see if something with the ads might be causing the problems with google.

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         Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I doubt it will help them. Once Panda has run you don't get a re-appraisal till the next Panda run 4-6 weeks later. Unless they do some a/b testing in the meanwhile.
         
         Am really glad that hubpages has survived. This was the first really big test of the sub-domain strategy and it looks like it is mostly working

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      SirDentposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Que sera sera.  My views have been down since Sept. 6 and have not rebounded.  They have seem to have stabilized, but it will take time to tell for sure.

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         Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'm sorry to hear that. Still, they will run Panda again next month and perhaps you will rise again.

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      SirDentposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Que sera sera.  My views have been down since Sept. 6 and have not rebounded.  They have seem to have stabilized, but it will take time to tell for sure.

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      MoiraCrochetsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What's wrong with google? One of my hub ranks well in Yahoo and Bing, I even have 2 +1's, but I haven't got a hit with Google.
      Supid Panda...

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      Don Bobbittposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Jeez! My "google traffic" dropped in half about 5 days ago, and 2 days ago was and still is at about 20% of what it was. I asked a question about this yesterday and got a hint that there were duplicates of my stuff out there. About 30-40% of my stuff is informational,and most of that is about RVs. I used Copyscape and the first one I checked (and my highest traffic) had two sites that had copied 400-500 words of my article. Since then, I have found another one. I looked at the dates and my article has been out there since 2009, and it looks like the duplicates have been out there at least a year.  What is Google doing? just dropping traffic to everyone that has significant duplicate text?

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I doubt if its that - everyone has had their work copied at some point. I think that the problem is that while your subdomain is ranking well, the copies are kept well down the SERPS so you don't see them.
         
         When your subdomain drops, the copies float up and even overtake you, as has happened in my case.
         
         All 600 of them on one article alone. It is just too much to expect someone to file 600 DMCAs. If Google can't see they are copies and published after the original, then Google is broke.

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         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         My RV hubs were hit hard too, Don.  I thinks someone mentioned certain keywords being targeted by Google in these Panda slaps.  We may have been penalized for this very thing.

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            Don Bobbittposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It is becoming very hard to be a writer, when you have to micro-manage your works FORMAT on HP, rather than use that time to actually be creative. My HP traffic is steady, and even growing as well as my sub-domain traffic, but I like so many of our fellow writers are not WEB-MASTERS. Oh, well, hopefully, someone will read this forum and give the rest of us more hints on how to recover our traffic.

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   Aficionadaposted 12 years ago

   Hmmm.  I'm not sure how to interpret my numbers.  Either Tuesday or Wednesday (I will check) saw a big bump for me, but I thought it was just a midweek high.  Months ago I reported that my numbers seemed to be higher on weekends than midweek, but when I checked more exactly, I saw that I was wrong. 
   
   Anyway, during these recent weeks when I have not been hit by the plunge, I have had a couple of great spikes, one of them this week.

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   Aficionadaposted 12 years ago

   After checking, I believe that my spike this week must have come from HP, because Analytics doesn't look like anything special - neither lower nor higher than before.  Okay, I'd best get back to work. 
   
   Thanks for keeping us posted on this, Silver Rose!  You always have such helpful analysis of Google's shenanigans.

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   Aficionadaposted 12 years ago

   I just now read the linked article and watched the video interview with Dani from DaniWeb.  (The interview was back in May.) She was discussing some of the things she had tried to make her site visible again.  There was a very good discussion of User Generated Content (like HubPages) and how Google has a hard time evaluating it - in the video around 11:30 (not sure of exact time; I didn't write it down when it first started.
   
   I think it's awful that Panda has hit her site so hard, and it makes me wonder how the Senate committee hearings on Google are going - or how they turned out.

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      Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think there will be any outcome from the Senate Hearings. Not every site can be at #1 and for every DaniWeb sinking there is an AficionadaWeb rising!
      
      If the question was would you like your rankings taken away so that DaniWeb can have hers back, the answer would be No!
      
      The govt try to interfere in the algo and force current winners down so others can rise, they'll just have a new set of people complaining about how they should be ranking instead.

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   What with the 28th being a Wednesday, this weekend would be a good time to study the week's traffic of each hub. Those that went down wont reveal much, what with down being normal as the week reaches the weekend. But those that were flat or went up might be worth puzzling over.

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      Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think the survivors have more informational hubs than Amazon hubs. Over 55% of my account is informational. I think Aficionada has a lot of informational hubs too.
      
      Anyone else want to chip in with data?

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         Will Apseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I noticed the surge that precedes the Panda roll out (or is part of it). Fortunately, my traffic just returned to what is now normal and well up on pre panda.
         
         I think there are a lot of reasons to keep highly commercial pages to a minimum (just unpublish any that are not making money after a few months). I am keeping my commercial pages down to around a third of my account.
         
         One thing I have noticed recently is that scrapers and copyright thieves take will almost every commercial page. They are much less likely to take your latest recipes or detailed account of a holiday in an obscure location.

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         Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I've seen the same thing. When my traffic went down to the lowest of the low in August I decided to have a little clean up of my account and made a few minor changes. I unpublished 11 hubs that were all pretty crappy and had low time on page stats - the majority of which were affiliate sales hubs and amazon sales hubs. This took my percentage of informational hubs to sales hubs from 40%/60% to 55%/45%. Straight after doing that my account recovered and is doing better than ever.
         
         I've been cautious in saying for certain that this is what made the recovery as Sept 6th, when my traffic had a huge surge, was a day that many others had big traffic changes, but I do think it's worth looking at the % of sales to info hubs and also the % of affiliate links across a whole subdomain.
         
         Other changes I've made since Panda include removing RSS feeds, removing nearly all of my "sign up to hubpages" affiliate links, removing my tracker code from other internal links and making sure that broken links are fixed quickly.

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            Hauntyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yours is the most amazing recovery I guess, as you now have more than double the traffic compared to the highest pre-Panda days. Congrats!

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               Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Haunty Traffic is at about double pre panda which is nice to see, but earnings are the same as I had with half the traffic....still at least I am earning a good amount on here again. It comes at a cost though - I am in a permanent state of anxiety! Google could take it away again tomorrow.

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                  Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Susana S, I live in that same constant state of anxiety.    (traffic, earnings, whatever - it's always a matter of waiting to see what direction something takes, and thinking something awful might happen at any minute.  )
                  
                  Toward the end of the pre-Panda "era" my earnings had dropped quite a bit (some of it may have been January and February.  Some, I know, was from stuff being copied/stolen - hence my interest in the "authorship thing").  My earnings have dramatically improved with my traffic (not at the same percentage, but pretty dramatic).  I've seen some of the copies sink off the screen too, which may be helping.  I know the stolen stuff that I knew about was only the tip of iceberg (still is).  I'm hoping that "establishing the heck out of my authorship" will in time, and more and more, prevent major earnings losses in that department.  Honestly, I'm happy things are being done to try to cut down on some of the "Wild West" environment in Internet writing.  I was awfully close to just packing it all in in the months immediately prior to Panda (and the "the authorship thing").  Things had gotten worse and worse in the overall Internet-writing picture, as far as I could tell (still are, but at least now a few more steps are being taken to try to cut down on some of it).

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                     Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Glad I'm not the only one Working from home was supposed to be less stressful - ha ha! And it was before Panda - some days I even used to go out and do my own thing. That is a distant memory now. All I do is work. Luckily I picked up a long term client just after panda struck and that has been paying the bills all these months.
                     
                     I'm not on board yet with the authorship thing - I don't like the idea of google knowing everything I do online, but that's just me. Your positively will probably keep you saner than I have been through all these ups and downs

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   CASE1WORKERposted 12 years ago

   Ilost it all on the 23rd September so maybe it was a little earlier. It literally was from midnight ( probably pacific time) there one minute and gone the next!

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      CASE1WORKERposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Just to blow your theory, I write mostly info hubs, just a few amazon. However on all my hubs I do include 3 or 4 items from Amazon- reference books or perhaps the volume of the book I have just written about. At all times I am well below the words/product ratio.

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         Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's what I meant - do you have pure informational hubs with no Amazon at all. On my account 55% are pure informational with no Amazon.
         
         I think Google has an issue about every single page having Amazon on it (I wrote a hub about why I think this is the case)

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            paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I wonder how thrilled they will be when the ebay thing happens.

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               CASE1WORKERposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               i was thinking that- I could try it on the basis that things cant get worse- but in reality I will forget it- not worth the effort with slumped trafffic

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               Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Don't know. But I firmly believe G is working off percentages. I had a look at psycheskinner's hubs (as she has reported a rise). She has amazon hubs, but also info hubs that link out a LOT to other sources.
               
               I think it's when you trip over a threshold that you get hurt - a guess, say over 80% of links out on your subdomain are to Amazon/Ebay, combined with a look at the % of info hubs v product hubs and probably some other stuff too.

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                  Florida Guyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm sorry to disappoint you, but i don't think it is related to amazon products.
                  I have to accounts and in both of them for each hub i add 10 Amazon products.I write mostly informative hubs in both of them.Bothe of them had quite good traffic, however after panda one has lost all the traffic and the other is doing just fine.

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                     PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I take your point, Florida Guy.  I think that Silver Rose's theory is necessarily an over-simplification, however.  The actual Google algo is likely to calculate a multitude of factors and compare them relatively - of which, the Amazon capsule ratio is likely to be just one factor (if it is indeed a factor at all).  However, I do still suspect that SR's theory may well be true as a *tendency*.  Finding cast iron rules with regard to the algo can be almost impossible much of time, as Google deliberately makes things complicated.  Finding approximate patterns is often our best hope, it seems.

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                        Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        
                        
                        Not to be picky here, but I think it could be useful to make a distinction between sales Hubs (which includes other types of Hubs besides mainly Amazon Hubs) and informational Hubs that contain Amazon or other product capsules.
                        
                        Am I indulging in wishful thinking to believe that Google can see the difference between (1) a Hub that focuses on the products that are mentioned in the Amazon/eBay/whatever capsules (describing, comparing, analyzing, recommending) and (2) a Hub that has a great deal of other information - How-To's, history, science, literary analysis, etc. - but also includes some (maybe even a lot of) Amazon or eBay capsules related to the content?
                        
                        Either way, I agree with the importance of looking at percentages and general trends.  (And I also acknowledge that this distinction would not account for Florida Guy's experience.)

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   wildernessposted 12 years ago

   Interesting.  Thursday, which is usually starting the weekend slide, was the second highest day I've ever had and higher than any other Thursday.  It wasn't a great deal either way, but it was an increase.
   
   Today, however, looks more normal, with traffic seemingly falling down to weekend levels.
   
   I have probably 2/3 informational hubs, but very few with 0 Amazon hubs.

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   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   My traffic is still as bad as ever, BUT - fingers crossed/touch wood and all that - my traffic isn't tumbling further like it always does on a Friday. Not yet anyway, in fact usually my traffic starts falling on a Thursday.
   Oh the new avatar stays until my traffic is back, if it comes back.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      A most appropriate avatar, Izzy, but I am far more interested in seeing what it will be when you surge.
      
      Actually I like the idea.

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         LOL, so do I! (like the idea)
         
         I am beginning to look more closely at things like google crawl stats and things that we couldn't see before to see if there is anything indicative there of things changing or bouncing. That plus the bounce rate in Analytics - my bounce rate has been falling for the few days which I believe is a good thing, or is it?
         Sometimes the more you think you know, the less you really know!

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Dropped today instead of yesterday! Oh well, no recovery for me then.

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   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   Can anyone else see the post I made before this one? I keep getting a message saying it is no longer available, yet I can see it when I hit the reply button?
   
   Edit: I can see it now too!

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      Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's a weird glitch I experienced a few days ago.  Cagsil says that it has been happening to one Hubber or another for a long time.  I guess it just has to make the rounds!  (I love the avatar too!)
      
      @Silver Rose - In the next few days I'm going to try to analyze my Hubs in terms of links, Amazon, etc., and see if I can contribute any thoughts about those things.  There are only two-three things that I know of for sure right now about my Hubs that could possibly make them "different."  (And keep in mind that my traffic is not all that high in the first place.)
      
      1) Fairly early on in my time here, a high percentage of my traffic was from Google, as opposed to HubPages, and that has continued consistently - even when my traffic was lower after Panda 1.  I'm always grateful for the HP traffic, but of course I really do want SE traffic even more. 
      
      2) I'm pretty crazy about trying to make sure of correct spelling, punctuation and grammar.  I do find slips from time to time, and other people might find even more.  But I check, double-check, triple-check until I feel I have every one.  Sort of like weeding (which I'm no good at, by the way).
      
      3) I don't do a whole lot of tweaking, and definitely not much tweaking at a given time.  When I do, I tend to spread it out over several days.  (I understand that may not be possible for someone with a high volume of Hubs.)
      
      I don't mean by any of this that other Hubbers don't have these same characteristics.  I'm just trying to throw out any ideas I can think of that may provide some understanding of the whole Google thing.

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    viking305posted 12 years ago

    Yes IzzyM I can see 2 posts belong to you here

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    wordscribe43posted 12 years ago

    Oh my gosh, Izzy.  That avatar is priceless! It's good to keep a sense of humor!

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       LOL, it has such a sad expression, doesn't it? Or dour might be a better word! Well as a member of the plungers club it's appropriate.
       
       By the way, it is official 2.5 has been released, - love this - they made a mistake with the url!
       
       http://searchengineland.com/confirmed-g … week-95222

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          wordscribe43posted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, it reminds me of Eeyore and the way he says: "Well, it's just gonna fall off anyway..."

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       Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       That avatar, alone, should be reason Izzy's subdomain ought to skyrocket, as far as I'm concerned.     I love it too.  (Of course, watch out - a day and a half from now copiers of it will be showing up in droves.  )

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          IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks Lisa - that was a really nice thing to say

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    SirDentposted 12 years ago

    Well, maybe since I didn't lose any traffic I can at least stay where I am.

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    PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

    Thanks for posting this info, SR!  I did suspect something big was happening with the big G.  I had a big boost in traffic.  Numbers are slipping back now, but I'm hoping that it's just the standard weekend drop!

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       Silver Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Paul. Glad to hear of your surge.
       
       You alternate between writing amazon hubs and pure information hubs, going for a 50-50 split, right? Looks like the strategy was right.
       
       I'm convinced that if you have a high % of amazon hubs they class you as a doorway/thin affiliate site and ding you.

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          PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Well, my 'surge' has died back somewhat, but I don't seem to be plunging, which was and is my main fear!  The plunge is brutal in my experience.
          
          I agree that the Amazon hubs might be one factor that can cause plunging.  I have no idea what ratio of info to Amazon might be significant but I am erring on the side of caution!  lol

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          EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          If that's true then there are also other reasons why people get dinged, because my main account has just been plunged and it contains only a small percentage of Amazon hubs.

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    laralposted 12 years ago

    I hardly understand what this panda means. I understand that Google wants to re-fine and promote the best of the best and using panda system to skim websites and content on the web. I am a bit concern because this month I haven't had any click from Google Adsense. In the last 2 month I accumulated just 0.52 cent. However my hubpages program is more lucrative. I don't write often, I am trying to promote my articles outside hubpages so I am concentrating on that first and I will come on writing here consistently later. Still my hubs don't fetch many readers. I have written 28 hubs and try to promote the hubs with backlinks, social media etc. I still have no more than 25 readers a day overall but I am pretty happy that one of them has accumulated over 500 readers in less than 2 months. Still I haven't found the magic formula to start them off once for all.One question: do I need to configure my Google adsense account better?

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       Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       If your HubPages affiliate settings (the Google one) show that your Google affiliate number is in there, that's all the configuring you have to do.  Having HubPages ads can cut down on Ad Sense earnings, so people have to figure out if they do better with one or both ad programs.  (That probably explains your drop in AS earnings.)  28 Hubs isn't very many, and it's only been within the last couple of months that a lot of Hubbers have seen increases in traffic (which it seems you have). (In general, a lot of people who have high overall traffic and/or high-side earnings have a lot more Hubs to help them do that.  Not everyone - but a lot of people.)  Too much promoting could potentially hurt, not help, your traffic; so be careful about how much of that you do (and how you do it).  The traffic increase should be encouraging for you. 
       
       I don't know your Hubs, but you may want to run a grammar and spell-check on all of them, just to catch any typos and that type of thing.  Other than that, you may want to give it a little more time to see what your traffic does - and then take it from there.  For the most part, hoping they all get equal traffic (especially if you have a mix of subjects) may be hoping for too much.  Some will always do better than others.    A lot of people have tested (for a few weeks or a month) to see how they do better - with Ad Sense only or with HP ads added in.   It means risking losing all or some of the earnings from either of the programs, and what works for each person is different.  Then again, it can mean seeing better earnings once you've figured out what works for you. 

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          laralposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you Lisa. I will test your suggestions

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    Dolores Monetposted 12 years ago

    so, it seems that panda can be our friend. thursday, i almost fell off my chair when one of my hubs (about regency fashions of early 19th century) had over 1,000 views. it's gone down, but thursday was pretty exciting!
    i have weeded out overdone amazons. a few of my older hubs were a total mess with amazon ads. did not get rid of all, just neatened everything up. rss feeds, i never go into at all. amazing how many 'weeds' i find in a hub that i think i've checked over.

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       Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Nice.     Maybe part of the decrease is related to the weekend - who knows...   I've trimmed most of my Hubs down to mostly words (with a picture here or there - not many at all; but my subjects don't lend themselves well to pictures.  I often add what I think is a particularly nice or meaningful video to make up for the lack of pictures.  Your fashion Hubs are beautiful, and you always have great pictures in them (besides having substance to the writing, of course).  If "The Panda" liked your Hubs I'm not at all surprised. 

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          Dolores Monetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you, Lisa!

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    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    I had one of my best weeks, Monday was highest traffic day, with Tue and Wed not far behind. Most of my hubs are informational and grouped. Since sub-domains, I haven't experienced the plunge or significant fluctuations in traffic, [except a few surges which were very nice.] Weekends are generally slower. Traffic has increased above pre-panda. I have found that some of my older hubs are performing best.

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    WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

    My traffic is now 6 times what it was immediately post-Panda and 3x what it was pre-Panda. My hubs are mainly informational, but I do put in a few related Amazon products if I can find them.

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I am so pleased for you!! That's really great! Hope it stays up

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          WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you, Izzy. It's still nothing compared to some people's views, and not translating into good CTR, however, it's a start
          
          Hoping your views will find resurgence soon.

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    Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

    What annoys me is the dumbness of the internet.  I don't know if I'm slapped or not but I do have some Amazon stuff.  So shoot me!
    
    I did a fun / mock 12 days of Xmas thing ages ago - where I chose inappropriate Amazon adds for the verses - it's the sort of thing I like doing, I'm not proud.
    
    But chances are that the algorithm will simple count the words and count the ads and make some sort of boring straight decision that it looks a bit spammy.
    
    It will not say "ho ho, this fella's a bit of a hoot - let him have some traffic".
    
    No.  The world has to be straight, boring, useful (I hate that word). 
    
    Thing is, for me, and I hope for others, the internet used to be the place to wander in and find some oddities, some bizarre stuff - that makes your day slightly lighter than it was.
    
    Not exactly in-bloody-formative.
    
    Rant over.  12 days of xmas ads are staying.  Screw Google.

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I was reading a techy site about the algo change (one in which Matt Cutts particpated) and this search engine was linked there.
       
       http://duckduckgo.com/
       
       I like it! It has some of my hubs really high - I think Google should follow their example!

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          WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I have given it a Google +1, my only one so far LOL!

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       Stacie Lposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       the internet is owned by Google and we have to play by their rules...if only we knew them..

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       Dolores Monetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Mark, I love your stuff and so enjoy reading your hubs. Occasionally, I'd like to post a hub just for fun, something a bit creative, silly even. But I've been intimidated by the whole new panda thing. Doing well, I'd hate to hurt my good stuff by putting up something, not not good, but not what they want.  I feel like HP used to feature a lot of really good writers who were here to write, and to have a good time doing it.  Glad you are here.

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          IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Go ahead and write it! I'll tell you why I suggest that.
          I have two hubs in total that are a bit 'off the wall' shall we say. Now obviously out of 500 odd hubs this is nothing, and so yeah I'm Google-slapped, but not for that reason.
          
          Like everyone here who has plunged and not recovered, I was feeling down, thinking that I am wasting my time, that I am a crap writer, that I will never make it as a writer or marketer or anything else.
          
          That is such a depressing place to be.
          
          Then as I was searching Google for copies to my hubs, which I do periodically now that I know half the world are thieves, I came across a blog post where someone had linked my first 'silly' hub, and made the comment:
          
          "NOT THE ONION, but as good as".
          
          I will take that comment to my grave. Loved it! Stuff Google!

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             Stacie Lposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             good for you!

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                IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Thanks Stacie, its such a silly thing really, but it boosts your self-confidence no end when you read something like that.
                As writers, I think we all need a bit of that. None of us are really all that confident of our abilities, are we?
                I never tell someone they are a good writer unless I think they are.
                
                Year ago, I used to go to this karaoke night. Two brothers were always there, 'Care in the Community' types.
                They were awful, but we all clapped and cheered and told them how great they were, even though they were awful.
                We thought we were cheering them up, but all we did was egg them on. They believed they were good because we all told them so, because we didn't really want to tell them they were awful.
                So they entered themselves into a national contest....eeek! Then they were publicly humiliated, and I feel guilty for that to this day, even though we meant no harm.

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                   Hollie Thomasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Well, if it's any consolation I have to agree with EmpressFelicity, I've spent a total of 81/2 hours today trying to find relevant information which is coherent, and I mean coherent. for 3, 400 word articles I'm writing for someone else. All I have found today is complete and utter rubbish on the first page of Google. My 14 year old could have done a better job. I've literally had to use other search engines, and if I've had to then so, probably, have many other people. Hope G is taking note.

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                      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                      Actually, I agree. I think Google is broke, no offence intended toward those who are doing well.
                      
                      the results are pretty awful just now. Was it Edweirdo who suggested back in March that maybe Google panda was a new 'learning' program, one that has to go through all the poor results to 'learn' what are good results?
                      
                      
                      Something like that anyway. But I wish Google wouldn't mess with people's livelihoods while they are trying to learn how to give good results in the serps.
                      
                      As you say other search engines seem to manage well enough, better even, and without all this disruption.

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                         wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                         I'm not sure who it was (Edweirdo sounds right) but yes, Panda is a form of AI that must learn what is good and what is not and probably how to tell the difference. 
                         
                         If so, it would have been nice to have Panda running the background, but performing no actions while it learned.  Although those actions may well have been part of the learning process.

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                         Hollie Thomasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                         I actually think this is the problem Izzy. G seems to be testing rubbish in order to evaluate whether this is what the surfer is looking for. The results often don't even match the search terms, it's stupid. In the meantime though, G may find that these silly experiments have just cost them a whole load of business. I don't have many hubs and I don't rely on HP for my income, but it must be frustrating and even devastating when you've put the time and effort into writing quality hubs and G penalizes you while conducting an experiment into how c*** performs.

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             EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Of course you're not a crap writer Izzy, but I don't think "good" writing necessarily has all that much to do with rising to the top of the SERPs, not when I consider the amount of junk that I keep finding there anyway! I've been doing a writing job for someone recently and many's the time when I search on Google that I have to ignore the top five results and drill down deeper to get real, relevant, well-written and credible information. (Sodding Yahoo Answers. 'Nuff said.)
             
             Which brings me on to my next point. Would I be correct in thinking that all or most of your income comes from your hubs and maybe a couple of your own blogs/sites? If so, then maybe it's time to look for other online sources of income, by trying the freelance writing sites.
             
             I personally use Elance. Like pretty well all online writing sites, it's got more than its share of $3 per 500 word "article writer" gigs, but there is better-paid stuff on there too. I personally think it might be worth your while bidding on jobs that pay the equivalent of $10 per hour (give or take), just so that you've got money coming in *right now*.
             
             Watching your hubs and agonising over their Pandalized status must be enormously stressful, and you might benefit from taking a bit of time off from them to look for work elsewhere. And you can use your hubs as a sort of online portfolio when you submit proposals too - that's what I've done with mine.

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                IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                I signed up with Elance, then got lost because they were asking for something that I can't even remember now what it was now. But it wasn't a simple, sign up and get work.
                Sometimes my head isn't too good these days!
                
                Yes this is my only source of income. I am sickened that the UK government put the retiral age for women back to 65, and caught me up the process so now I have to wait even longer for my pension which I paid in to the system for 35 years for.
                
                I did do some freelance work, but never got paid more than $2 or $3 for an article, and I think they are worth more than that, so stopped.
                
                I have several websites that still cost me more in fees every month than they bring in.
                
                Oh I never said but I have a new job as Spain correspondent for a new travel magazine but I'm on a commission, not a pay, so not holding my breath for anything solid there except something useful to put on my portfolio.
                
                This is heartbreaking to be honest.
                
                I keep firing out new hubs in the hope they they will 'trip'something, but they don't.
                
                I've decided to concentrate on backlinking for a while. I haven't done any at all for months, and of course not picking up any organic backlinks because no-one is seeing my work, so it's a vicious circle that I have break.
                
                I remembered tonight that I have two really bad blogs that I started a couple of years ago when I knew nothing.
                
                I think I will start with them, remove adsense and use them to promote my hubs.
                
                My adsense blogs are propped up by HP as I have linked out to them. I know two-way links are bad, so those blogs that are doing nothing but ageing seem a good place to start.

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                   EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes, it's maddening. But inevitable unfortunately - demographics always gets us in the end.
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   I agree, $2 - $3 per article is an insult. But $10 or $12 per article isn't so bad. That's the stage where I'm at now, and my aim is to get to a point where I'm being paid $50 per article. Probably not going to happen in the short term, but there you are.
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   Still, it's a start!
                   
                   
                   

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    jcmayer777posted 12 years ago

    I'm down today, but my stats are always down on Saturday and then have a gradual increase with Tuesday or Wednesday being the top peak.
    
    I hope my traffic remains where it is and I certainly hope anyone that experiences a dip gets back up where they were.
    
    It wasn't the first update and it won't be the last.

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    ThomasEposted 12 years ago

    Hmph. Nope, no change there. Didn't expect any change anyway, my changes have only been recent.
    
    I find it depressing I am familiar enough with Panda to know the signs of when it is about to be run.
    
    My current strategy is to abandon Google altogether, and try old school strategies for hubpages.
    
    We'll see if it works... my theory is it will take me at least six months.

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    EmpressFelicityposted 12 years ago

    My #2 account was Pandalized on 10th August, and still hasn't recovered.
    
    Now it looks as though my Empress Felicity account has experienced the same fate - it's gone from over 850 views on Monday 28th Sept, to 85 views yesterday. It always does dip a bit at weekends, but 90% traffic reduction???
    
    Frankly I'm a bit fed up. Despite having huge increases in views over the last couple of months on this account, it hasn't really translated into actual cash - I've been earning just over half of what I was pre-Panda, and that's with twice the number of views. If the views stay down to the levels they're at now, then I will be earning virtually nothing.
    
    I'm just incredibly glad that I'm not relying on this as a main form of income.

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       EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Update: now my EF account is back up to nearly 800 views a day. It's bonkers, this Google thing!

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    laralposted 12 years ago

    Can I ask something to the most successful hubbers in the forum? Your Google Adsense's success is totally coming from Hubpages or have you got also websites, blogs, other articles websites linked with Adsense ecc? I agree with Lisa that probably my 28 articles are not enough to gain anything, but some people claim that even with no more than 30 hubs, lot of back links and keywords strategies it is possible to have a decent income from here too. Anyone agrees with this? Thank you

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       jcmayer777posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       It's possible, but not an easy task.  IMO, keyword selection is probably the most important.  Study up on SEO as well and it can happen.
       
       I"m not a big-time earner on HP, but I do pretty well.  Finding relatively untapped keywords in areas that have at least some commercial appeal has worked out pretty well for me.

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    David 470posted 12 years ago

    How many times is Google going to have updates to the search engines? I thought this was only done a couple times a year? I think that I survived, I was not even aware of this Google Update until I saw this post.
    
    Glad to hear HubPages is in the clear right now.

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       ThomasEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       It has hundreds a year, but panda is being run every month or so, and as far as I can see will be for the foreseeable future.

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    Rik Ravadoposted 12 years ago

    My traffic has risen further over the weekend when it would normally fall.  It looks as if 2.5 may have had a positive impact on both my accounts but who knows?

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25. 79

    Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

    Looking at Quantcast.com's traffic tracking, I don't see the slightest sign of Panda 2.5 impacting any of the sites where I write, including Hubpages.
    
    I am extremely curious what happened in the last week of August that caused Hubpages' traffic to hop to the level where it has settled in for now. It did NOT coincide with a known Panda update. It happened between two of them.

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       wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       It did happen shortly after we all got subdomains and most hubs were finally indexed into them, though.  Just saying...

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    Howard S.posted 12 years ago

    A sustained boost occurred about Aug 23 or 24 for many hubbers. There is quite a thread about it somewhere in the forums. If I recall correctly, HP staff said they made some changes to effect that.

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    michifusposted 12 years ago

    There was definitely an update on 28th as some of my sites took a bit of a dive. I had 4 sites drop around 10 places in Google, recovered 2 of them within 24 hours, although not to former levels. Hubpages stayed the same.

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    Stacie Lposted 12 years ago

    my traffic is still dropping..don't know what's going on..

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    Janet21posted 12 years ago

    My hubs were hit on Aug 10 and even after the Sept 28th update, I have seen no improvement.  No ups or downs, just keeping steady.  Overall down 70% from pre-panda high.
    
    On the other hand, one of my blogs that was hit on Sept 6th has seen a huge increase in traffic with the Sept 28 update.

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       Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Similar to mine, Janet.  Aug. 10th plunge with no spikes since.  75-80% traffic loss with miniscule google hits.  Sucko!

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    Eleanor's Wordsposted 12 years ago

    Well, I plunged on the 10 August with no signs of recovery until 01 Oct when my traffic suddenly shot up and all my best hubs were on the first page. Had my highest traffic ever for three whole days and then almost all my hubs disappeared into oblivion again. I'm starting to think it's not worth the bother anymore...

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