Keywords Are A Waste Of Time

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   canadawest99posted 13 years ago

   Not to offend anyone, but seriously, does anyone really think they can backlink enough to get and keep an article where you want.  Google's algo is evaluating the quality of those links all the time, devaluing them often sometimes.  At one time g**gle loved social bookmarks, now not as much.   At the same time, blackhatters have tools that can build massive links in a few minutes which can knock you out easily.  Even though HP has a high PR, the inner pages where your post ends up don't so you aren't carrying much from the HP brand other than overall site traffic and maybe quick indexing. 
   
   Last week I spotted 3 keywords that I could possibly rank for and by the time I got my articles written and uploaded and backlinked, some other people with crap one page websites took the spot and had several hundred backlinks up.   So now, I give up on trying to rank anything.  Instead, I write content and social bookmark it religiously for organic traffic, not backlinks, and use my twitter and facebook accounts to complement.     I'm not playing the backlink whack-a-mole game anymore.
   
   Ask yourself seriously, are you really going to spend your life building backlinks trying to stay one step ahead of google and the blackhat crowd.  Are you going to dance to g**gle tune every few weeks or build your own network.  I choose the latter and g**gle can take a flying leap.

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      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You used the title "Keywords are a waste of time". I'm pretty sure it should have been "Backlinks are a waste of time."
      
      I think it's important to understand what keywords are, but just like everything else, they can change as different topics trend - you need to use your own brain when it comes to choosing what to write about, using keywords as a guide only.
      
      Even if you don't keyword research an article, knowing how keywords work and what type of things people type into Google will increase your chances of ranking.

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         Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         
         
         I wuz a gunna say me sumpin', but it dun got said.

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            WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            

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      IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm finding those crappy sites with poor English and little info coming up on position 1 of the lesser search engines now too, not just Google. Something needs to change.

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         andromidaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         yes, you are right. I have posted one such link in Google plus.I hope they soon take action.

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            IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You reported it how? Google Plus is just a social network, I hope you never gave them a live link, because that will be a really nice backlink to them.

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               andromidaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I've shared that link in my Google Plus account.But one interesting thing is that that page has been removed from the Google's first page within 6 hours of my posting.

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                  WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  That's just like sharing it on Facebook... that's not how you report it.

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                     andromidaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Only a few weeks back, a adsense publisher got back his account because his complain was noticed by Matt Cutts.

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                        WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Yes and people win the lottery too. But you and I probably aren't going to be winning the lottery anytime soon.

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                  IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Now that is worth noting! Thanks for sharing!

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      Randy Godwinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Perhaps the fact you've been here 3 years, have over 900 hubs, and haven't managed to get 100,000 views yet, may be a clue as to why you aren't ranking well on HP.  Just sayin'!
      
                                     

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         canadawest99posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Well about 800 of those hubs were written in the last 18 months.  And back then keywords and backlinks didn't matter.  I had good traffic and earnings just writing about everyday consumer products and was approaching $300 a month and nicely rising. 
         
         Then panda hit and I moved to writing keywords and backlinking.  I backlinked like there was no tomorrow and had probably 30 or so articles ranking, then panda ver. 2 hit and sent all those keywords to the 3rd and 4th pages and never let them come back no matter what I did.  Google aborted my efforts, it wasn't for my lack of trying.

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            IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I haven't read any of your hubs (sorry but I've just changed my internet provider and this one is slow), but to have less than 100,000 views with that many hubs, even if written in the last 18 months, suggests to me that your account may be sandboxed.
            
            Just take a deep breath, carry on as you are doing, and it will be lifted in good time. Probably by July.
            
            Then you should reap the rewards, assuming you are a good writer (can't comment because I haven't read them)!

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               canadawest99posted 13 years agoin reply to this

               2 years ago, the 400 word article was all the rage so a lot of my early efforts are like that.    lately, I have been focusing on fewer but longer articles, around 1000 words to see if that has any impact.
               
               I've been tempted to move over to writing on my own blogger blog but not sure thats going to make much difference.

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                  IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Blogger blogs seem to work better when you focus on a topic.
                  
                  I have about 50 blogs, but only about 2 of them do well, and not even that well. I think one of them is #2 in Google for an unsearched for term.
                  
                  Still gets me some traffic, I suppose.
                  
                  The beauty of Hubpages is that you write about anything, and have them all under the one domain, or subdomain as it is now, and each hub still has a chance to rank.
                  
                  Mine ranked really well for a few months, until Panda. Even then, I wasn't the worst hit. The lower you are the less you have to fall, but I was still earning more than most people could dream of.
                  
                  Then subdomains came in, and I soared.
                  
                  My traffic took off big time, my earnings too, but it was short-lived.
                  
                  On August 10th last year, Google took its love away from my account. I have 500 totally worthless hubs now.
                  
                  I'm getting used to it. If traffic comes back, no-one will be more shocked then me, but it has left a bitter taste in my mouth.
                  
                  I have sites too, and a couple of them are doing well, but none of yet reached the heights my hubs hit.
                  
                  If I had to start again, I'd still start on Hubpages, because the learning experience here is second to none.
                  
                  Not only that, unsandboxed accounts can do well, with the proper use of keywords and SEO, as I have learned as I start again.

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            Randy Godwinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to disparage your writing ability, just that I hit 100,000 views with much less than 100 hubs long ago. Like you, Google slapped the heck out of me, otherwise I would have surpassed the 1,000,000 mark already.
            
            I checked out one of your latest hubs and it seems okay to me. 
            
                                                   

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               Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Randy, my shit is ...STRANGE here lately.  You saw the page about stratocater guitars/players - that page is doing GREAT.
               
               ...but I wrote one just as good or better about Les Paul guitars/players...and it's not got one single damned search engine hit yet...using the exact same page format, backlinks, and whatever else that I do.
               
               It doesn't make any sense to me!!!!  No, I don't keyword research at all, but how the hell could two subjects so obviously similar get such different results?  Surely the Strat is every bit as popular as the Les Paul, and surely they are comparable in terms of competition on the web too!
               
               I don't get it!!!!
               
               Besides that, I've also done some other pretty good hubs lately (in my opinion....) that haven't received nary a lick of search engine traffic...other recent hubs - EXPLODING with search engine traffic.
               
               Things are strange...I used to get much more consistent results across the board with everything I'd publish here.

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                  Randy Godwinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Yep, nothing makes any sense here lately.  I've been trying to run down all of the stolen articles from my account today.  Barely made a dent and got weary of the whole thing.  I've lost at least 70% of my traffic since Aug.  Earnings too, for that matter.  Poof, gone with the wind! 
                  
                  
                                               

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            WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            "Back then, keywords and backlinks didn't matter".
            
            Uh, yes they did. Keywords are any word people type into Google to find your articles. It's not that they didn't matter, it just meant that you were good at choosing the right ones without research, or got lucky. And thanks to HP's internal backlinking structure, you didn't have to worry about backlinks.
            
            

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         Anna Marie Bowmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I have got to agree with you, here!!!  I have under 100 hubs right now, and I am not a stellar earner by any means, but my views are still nearing 800,000!  So, there has to be some quality issue here.  I write content rich hubs, and while I haven't checked out this person's hubs, there has to be some issue there.

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   andromidaposted 13 years ago

   Google algorithm is not functioning at all for some specific keywords.It is mainly because they are trying all the way to save their search engine-no matter what they do with their search algorithm, the blackhats easily figured it out.

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   Dame Scribeposted 13 years ago

   Are you paying attention to where your traffic is coming 'from'? then ask yourself, what, where, when, how, why and because your analytics should also give some good information over all. It may be wrong audience with your Les Paul hub. Just some thoughts

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