Hey Izzy! 6 months in the sandbox today! Anything?

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   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   Well Izzy, today's the day we've been waiting for!  Our six months is up at midnight west coast time and suddenly my traffic is dropping even worse!  What about yours?
   
   oooooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Same as yours...dropping even worse

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         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         So much for the six months theory!  Unless of course, something suddenly happens overnight.  Well at least this gives me a reason to spend more time on other things I now have in the works. 
         
                                                    oooooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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         Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         One of my client's landing pages was 2nd on Google UK and has disappeared.. I think the bot crawled while I was editing some of the buttons on the page

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            PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            How awful, Richie!  Will the client think it's your fault?

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      Bendo13posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You guys are crashing yet again? 
      
      Man, I don't know what's up with this site or Google...
      
      Luckily I got out of the sandbox a long time ago and I'm doing OK for a weekend... hopefully this isn't a site-wide thing.
      
      I've got 856 page views for today so far when I had 1,413 yesterday... it's only a little after 5 PM right now so I think all is well in the Bendo household for now.

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         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         My views still suck! 
         
         
                                            oooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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   MelissaBarrettposted 12 years ago

   I am there with you guys.  0 google views in 48 hours.  7 first page hubs buried.  I think the cat used my corner of the box before I got here.

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I would not be surprised if the entire site went the same way, Melissa.  Somethings up or there wouldn't be so many reporting such losses lately.  Izzy and i just got hit earlier than most, it seems.  Have you read your hubs aloud?
      
                                oooooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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         MelissaBarrettposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No, but my chihuahua wrote them and while English may not be his first language he really is a wonderful writer.
         
         Seriously though when I went looking for the wtf reason I found some of my hubs had been copied.  The site took them down immediately yesterday (after I fired off an email in SWEDISH no less) but I wonder if that was part of the reason.

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            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I doubt it. Just about every hubber has their work copied without the traffic collapse. It's just more noticeable when your site is being suppressed by Google as they put all the copied content higher than yours!

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         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Did you check Qantcast recently?  Traffic is rising for the site as a whole. 
         
         As for me, my traffic is still chugging along at about 25% of what it used to be - but clearly, judging by Qantcast, I'm in the minority.
         
         I'm still trying to work out what I did wrong - if I could only remember what I changed in early December!  I did publish some Hubs on asthma late last year, so that may be it - I've just unpublished them but will have to wait for the next Panda to see if it helps - I wonder when that will be?  Apparently asthma is one of those topics highly subject to spammers and since I'm clearly not an "authority" site on the matter, I may have been penalized.

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I've given up trying to figure it out, Marisa!  It's not worth my fretting about even if I have lost thousands of bucks since I was "chosen"! 
            
            
                                             oooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah I got the message about how a low quality hub could bring down my whole domain.
            Got that a long time ago.
            
            Trouble is, I don't know which hubs are considered 'low quality'.
            
            Once I hit Google's pulse, I turned out all sorts of hubs. some of them full of info, others' less.
            
            I think they were all low quality, in fact all my hubs at that point in time were probably 'low quality'.
            
            What the hell is quality, anyway?
            
            If your subdomain, or, that time, my HP username was getting a little love, what is so wrong about dancing to it?
            
            Sometimes I think  my hubs are shite, then other times I go "whoaa" - hey that is quality info,
            
            Does Google know they difference?

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               Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, I know - I'm playing the same guessing game myself now. But say you've got 400 Hubs and you know just a few of them are bringing down the rest.  Add another 100 - what have you achieved?  Those few pesky Hubs are still going to bring the rest of the domain down, it doesn't matter how much bigger you make it.  You could write another 500, and those few mystery "low quality" Hubs will just drag the whole lot down.

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   Beth100posted 12 years ago

   So it isn't just me??   Don't know whether to feel good about that or not.... 

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Nope!  I think many are afraid to speak up about their traffic losses lately.  Did you wonder why the sudden suggestion of "Spring Cleaning" was introduced in the middle of winter?
      
                                oooooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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         Beth100posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Oh yea!  I definitely wondered about that.  I cleaned up about 1/4 of my hubs just to see what would happen.  They seemed to increase for a short period, but now, they're dropping again.    I've lost first page ranking for several.... they're now on 2nd, 3rd and 4th pages.  Not too happy about that!! 
         
         On a brighter note, I've had one that is consistently first/second on the first page.   
         
         Frustrated like everyone else....  can I throw sand?? 

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Sure you can throw sand!  Watch out for the poop though, as we are quickly approaching full capacity! 
            
            
                                                   oooxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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               CMHypnoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               No sand throwing in the box please!  I spent hours raking my corner clean this afternoon
               
               But Happy Half-Year Birthday fellow August 11 plungers!

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               Beth100posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                 I'll make sure it's only "clean" sand I throw in my hissy fit!!! 
               
               Weekends and holidays produce numbers that are frightful!    Don't know what to do!!!! 

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   theherbivorehippiposted 12 years ago

   I just dropped to nothing again today. I'm exhausted from all of this. Serious whiplash.

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      habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      (Note to Herbi: I'm playing the Megamillions tonight. I haven't forgotten about that island!)
      
      Okay, guys. I just checked my traffic. Mine is okay - about what it was in Oct. and early Nov., but not as high as it was in most of Nov. and Dec. I honestly think because I have so many hubs, I haven't been greatly affected. If a few of mine drop down in rankings, others rise. Just a theory. Of course, I don't do much checking, so maybe my hubs have fallen and my blogs and websites are doing better. I could be getting zero traffic tomorrow, so I'm not kidding myself. lol
      
      Oh, and Randy and Izzy, I REALLY hope you guys quit playing in that dang sandbox!!!! You'll get sandworms!

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         andromidaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Your theory is what Google emphasizing to every online writer: write more quality hubs.My traffic is comparatively higher than any other typical Saturday Nights.

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            MelissaBarrettposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            You mean us getting drunk and faceplanting the keyboard might be affecting the google ranking?  Last time I believe the damn dog when he tells me he can write.

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               andromidaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Google has made the SERP for each search phrase random.If your one hub is tanking in traffic, there is a possibility that the other one on similar topic is on the rise.I guess Google need to faceplant their algorithm,which is losing the battle to show the right info. to the searchers.

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               habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I tried getting my dogs to write for me, but their paws are way too big for the keyboard. (Great Danes)

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                  rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I could totally make them an adapted cuff so they could type

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                     habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     
                     
                     You're a true friend, Rosemary!

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                        rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Hey, if you've got multiple computers, put them to work, and you'll hit 1000 hubs PDQ. 

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            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I have written about 100 quality hubs since the sandbox effect hit. I mean quality ones, full of info and photos and videos, well over 1000 words kind of hubs, and its made damn all difference.
            
            Something is broken in Google's algo.
            
            I do get some traffic from them, but they keep sending me the wrong traffic. In analytics they'll send someone looking for cold sore problems to my hub about pressure sores, or they send a query about a topic, that I know I haven't covered in the hub in question. Not something exactly similar, but using keywords words I haven't used, stuff like that.
            
            This is turn pumps up my bounce rate as people quickly realise they won't find their answer.
            If the other search engines can send the correct traffic, why can't Google?

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               Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Izzy, adding more Hubs to a domain which already has posts identified as "low quality" was never going to make an iota of difference - read this quote from Google:
               
               "Our recent update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites... We looked at a variety of signals to detect low quality sites. In addition, it’s important for webmasters to know that low quality content on part of a site can impact a site’s ranking as a whole. … Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content."
               
               As we've discussed many times, the problem is working out what the heck they mean by low quality content - especially on such a huge account as yours.
               
               However I do keep seeing commentators saying keyword density must be under 4% these days to avoid a Google slap for keyword stuffing. If you've got your keywords in every heading and sub-heading, as advised by MS, plus your ads, that doesn't leave you many times to use the word in your text!
               
               Apparently Keyword Academy has totally rewritten its course post-Panda - is Market Samurai still teaching the same stuff or have they revised their keyword advice?

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                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Without knowing which posts/hubs Google considers to be low quality, a lot of us are were and are confused.
                  
                  Do we delete every hub we have?
                  
                  
                  I'm sorry, but this 'directive' is worse than useless.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     A lot of webmasters have done exactly that - unpublishing their Panda'd blog and splitting the posts up over several new blogs, then watching to see which ones recover and which don't (which gives them a clue which are the offending posts). 
                     
                     The biggest issue is having to wait for the next Panda, to find out whether your changes have worked or not.  Would be nice if they would tell us!

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         theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Oh Habee....I played Mega Millions tonight too...clearly I'm not jumping up and down. Will try for the Powerball tomorrow; must get us an island!

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Just need to wait and see. It's been a long six months. And thanks!!

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   recommend1posted 12 years ago

   OK - so this thread sent me over to look at my poetry in another name stuff - and it is flying in comparison to the past generally.   My website is also starting to lift off at last and views are steadily rising, not exponentially unfortunately but steadily all the same.
   
   I got to thinking about how things definately started to get better on myh own site once I started submitting a site report to Google etc once each week - and I wonder if HP can do this for the whole of this site, are they keeping it up to date etc, and how would we know if they were or were not ??

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What is a site report you submit to Google?
      
      I also have other sites, and some of them are doing pretty well, but I've never submitted them to Google that I know of...

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         recommend1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I am with Hostgator and get this free   http://www.attracta.com/   I can submit my site to Google, Yahoo etc  and get into various other basic SEO necessities through them.

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            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for that. I will look into it later when my internet speed is back to normal (its really slow again!). I'm also with hostgator, might be worth looking into

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               recommend1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               It's an easy click through from your gator dashboard.

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               theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Izzy I use attracta.com as well on my sites and I'm with Bluehost. I love that I don't have to remember to submit a site map...it reminds me with a polite email. This profile is a lost cause. I'm ready to shut it down and start it over. Who am I fooling though...I don't have the time. It's dropped even lower today;once again, all blue arrows.

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   Pcunixposted 12 years ago

   I tried reading my hubs out loud, but my wife got annoyed so now I have to whisper them and it's not quite the same..
   
   But no, I've not seen any traffic drop.  On the other hand, I never had any great traffic gain here to drop from.
   
   In other news, Google income has suddenly picked up at my main site, which I have been allowing to languish because CPM was better here.  The CPM still is better, but the dollars are creeping back up, so now I'm totally confused as to where to concentrate my efforts.
   
   Aaarghh..   Double aaargh.  The path was clear and now it is all murky again!

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   crazyhorsesghostposted 12 years ago

   I see these threads and wonder what people are doing to themselves.My traffic has been climbing almost every day and I have saw no huge drops in traffic.
   
   So I have some questions for you. 
   
   Are you building back links to your Hub Pages.
   
   Are you using the social networking sites to get traffic.
   
   Are you paying careful attention to your titles.
   
   Are you using the right keywords to insure traffic.
   
   Those are some things I see a lot of people over looking. Evergreen content is also a important thing.

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's not what we're doing at all. It's Google.  Just back from another ban.  That's 3 in roughly 3 weeks, perhaps a new record here on HP.  I've yet to be told which forum post any of the bans were caused by, even though I've emailed and asked on several occasions.  I suppose the mods don't feel they have to tell those banned what the cause was anymore.  But apparently the elite are immune to being banned no matter what insult they toss out.  I told you guys it would come to this! 
      
      
                                        ooooxxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Will someone please take a look at this thread and the two posts the mods chose for my ban.  I can't figure out which 2 posts contained the bannable offenses.  Of course, AEvans used my name to call me neurotic, devious, and worrisome in the Elite thread I started and I reported her for it.  Apparently the elite can call ordinary members names and get by with it.  Duh! 
         
         - http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/92842#post1981018
            - http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/92848#post1981491
         
         
                    ooooxxxx0000OOOO(:c-<

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            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Apparently post #1981491 is no longer there, so it must have been that one.
            
            This is crazy!

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               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               The post is still there, Izzy!  You must click on the link where the post comes up and says it's no longer there.  I wish others would take a look and tell me who I personally attacked in the post.  This is what the anonymous moderator said I was banned for.  A personal attack on what person? 
               
               Nope, it's merely a vendetta such as I went through on the Helium site.  Helium never recovered from the scandal as anyone can see if they look at the site before the scandal occurred.  But there are always those who believe they can get away with it, and some do.  But not for long! 
               
               
                                          ooooxxxxx0000OOOOO(:c-<

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   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   So you got banned for saying "Life is like a box of chocolate gods.  Nuts, fruit, peanut butter covered noses, and plenty of fudge!"?
   
   or maybe it was for saying "Consider it done, GG!"
   
   I think it was mentioning the word 'gods', but I might be wrong. You forgot to capitalize it?

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      LOL!  Any excuse is apparently used for the pretense of banning me.  Funny, I would have thought they'd simply have said "Since we, by some unknown miraculous means, mistakenly banned you for absolutely no reason at all and you served several days of the falsely accused ban without any explanation  or restitution whatsoever on our part, consider yourself previously banned and we are even".
      
      Not really though, the mods would have to accept blame for something almost impossible to do mistakenly.  No one is fooled in the least, of course! 
      
      
                                 ooooxxxxx0000OOOOO(:c-<

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      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Actually, gods should not be capitalized. In my opinion, neither should the singular.

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         Druid Dudeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Depends on if you are being disrespectful of others beliefs, I'd say. Actually, if you are talking about the big one, its best to capitalize, when discussing you or I, a small g suffices.

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Which one is the big one?  I thought they all were the same size! 
            
            
                                          ooooxxxxx0000OOOOO(:c-<

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               Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               THE big one???
               
               Such presumption.. and prejudice.   
               
               If HubPages has an official religion, I'm outahere. 
               
               But surely that can't be it or many of us would have been banned before now.  Somebody misinterpreted.  Has to be - I hosey.

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                  Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  "Somebody Misinterpreted".  That sounds very professional, Tony!  I believe you've had a bit of experience in the business world yourself! 
                  
                  
                  
                                               ccccooooxxxxx0000OOOOO(:c-<

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            Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I refuse to capitalize something that doesn't exist

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Well, if he was banned for this, then we should all stand behind him!
         
         I agree, I wouldn't capitalize gods either. I probably wouldn't capitalize God either, but that's just me...

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Can anyone see who it was I personally attacked? 
            "Hi Randy,
            
            This ban was for a personal attack and is unrelated to any previous bans."
            
            
            No one ever identifies themselves in the emails, for some reason. 
            
            
                                     ccccooooxxxxx0000OOOOO(:c-<

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   Druid Dudeposted 12 years ago

   When you put them all together they make one big one. Kinda like sandwiches.

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      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Ahh.
      
      Do they fight when together?  That would be, umm, awesome!

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Sounds delicious!  "Yes waiter, I'd like your house specialty.  That's right, I'll have the God Sandwich with a side of deviled eggs and angel food cake for my dessert.  And could you request the band to perform The Devil Went Down To Georgia"? 
      
      
                                       ccccooooxxxxx0000OOOOO(:c-<

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