google sandbox and what did you do?

1. 64

   avan989posted 12 years ago

   I think I have just been sandbox by google. I read that it affect a lot of people who are new, is that true or is it because you have done something wrong. Have you ever been sandbox and what did you do?

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2. 61

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   The drop may just be temporary. Don't think the worst unless it lasts longer than a week.

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3. 83

   CMHypnoposted 12 years ago

   I've invested in a good quality deck chair and a bucket and spade

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   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   You've only been here three months. How do you know you're sandboxed?
   
   When you write a new hub it generally gets a surge of traffic from other hubbers before slowly building up traffic from Google. If you write in saturated (popular) topics you can take quite awhile to build up a good amount of daily search engine traffic. Not to mention we're approaching the US summer which is generally a low traffic period for everyone.

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      avan989posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I was getting about 100-200 views from google and then it just drop to zero in one day. I barely get views from other hubbers. A big drop from organic traffic is kind of a flag that something is wrong. I don't know 100 percent what the problem is, but from searching online, it seem being sandbox match my problem.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Three months is a bit late for the sandbox, I think. It's more likely to be Panda.
         
         The sandbox hits new sites, so if you're going to be sandboxed it will probably happen within the first month or two.
         
         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyIi77ZIGrA
         
         The Panda algorithm is run every now and then. If you get a low Panda score for your sub-domain, it will affect ALL your Hubs.  As Jase says, you have a lot of quality problems with your Hubs and you're writing on overly-satured topics, so I suspect your Panda score would be low.
         
         What you need to do is improve your Hubs substantially, so that next time Panda runs, you get a better score.

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5. 74

   Kangaroo_Jaseposted 12 years ago

   Hi avan989,
   
   I have taken the liberty of looking at your bio, your picture and hubs and find the following that may assist you to get better results for your hubs,.
   
   1. English is not your first language and that is apparent in your hubs.
   2. Your biography says very little about who you are, what you do and why you write on HubPages.
   3. I don't understand why you have chosen the photo you have. Photos can express your internet 'presence' and people get to know you, your work and your reputation through a photo being a part of that.
   4. Your hubs are short.
   5. Almost each niche you have written about has been thoroughly covered already, you offer nothing new and to me, I feel I am reading a hub I have already seen elsewhere a dozen times. Especially this hub, 'Ways To Make Money Online: A Guide To Passive and NonPassive Income'.
   6. You have a couple of Hubs about writing on HubPages successfully, but your OP is suggesting that you don't write successfully on here.
   7. May I suggest you brush up on keyword research, also look into spending time on improving the quality and length of your hubs.
   8. Add pictures that are Royalty and copyright free (Creative commons). www.pixabay.com is one site that has these types of pictures.
   9. Find out what you have skills, expertise and love talking about, and write about these subjects. Its much better writing about what you know, rather than writing what you think people will read.
   
   Its a long tough road, but with these suggestions, it will put you on a good path to better, more trafficked hubs,
   
   Very best of luck to you.

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   classicalgeekposted 12 years ago

   I thought I was out of the sandbox, but it turned out to be only temporary, alas. For a few days, I had 50+ results from Google; now it's back to 0. Perhaps with the next update . . . .

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You can't be in the sandbox twice.  It must be Panda.

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7. 60

   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   Several of us, including Izzy an CM have tried everything suggested by staff with no pleasing results whatsoever.  There's nothing you can do but accept the unfair treatment.  I cannot give you any encouraging words whatsoever. Sorry1=(
   
   
                                            

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      habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Randy, would it help if you started a new subdomain?

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         WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Izzy did that I believe. Doesn't help their main account though, does it.

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      2. 60

         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know.  I believe I've wasted enough time here already.  I'm not sure what the average time one may spend on a content site before diminishing returns are achieved, but I assume I've reached this point.  When one loses respect for those running the site it's usually time to move on.  You've been there before, I suspect.  I'm glad I told you about HP as you seem to do well here.  But you've known me a long time and know what I can put up with, as well as, what I abhor.  No surprise, right? 
         
                                                    

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            Barbara Kayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I just had this happen with one of my websites that is over 10 years old and has around 100 pages of content. It is discouraging to say the least. Just a month ago it had almost every page show up on the first page of Google for my keywords.
            
            At least my Hubpage account is still doing well. I hope a month from now I don't have to say otherwise.

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               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I hope so too, Barbara.  With the latest contest fix here I have no faith in HP anymore.  If I can't trust folks in a simple contest, I certainly have no faith where money matters are concerned.  It wasn't clever in the least.
               
               
                                                        

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            2. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Once again, that's not sandbox, because that only affects new sites or sites that have been dormant for a while.  So it must be Panda. 
               
               There are some people who say you can never recover from a Panda hit but I don't see why it should be so - if you can correct the things you were Panda'd for, then surely the next Panda run will improve your score? 
               
               My HP account and one of my blogs were both hit, I think, and have both recovered (at least so far!)
               
               For my Hubs, I think the problem was the "freshness" update that ran in late November.  I hadn't written any new Hubs for several months because I was working on my websites.  I had a handful of Hubs which I'd unpublished months ago, intending to move them to a blog (and never did).  Finally in February, I decided to publish them again. In March, my traffic came back.  So I'm guessing (and that's all you can do) that new material lifted the Panda penalty.
               
               For my blog, the problem was "low quality" content.  I had several posts which were just a video with a few lines of commentary.  I amalgamated them into fewer, longer posts.  Next update, the traffic came back.

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                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Hey WTG on the traffic return! I am so pleased to hear it - it gives the rest of us us hope!
                  
                  I'm not sure I entirely agree with your views on the sandbox all the same. We have hubbers plunging and soaring still, and I think its some kind of weird sandbox effect rather than Panda.
                  
                  I think the whole site will be the same for about 12 months (we can see the success stories have similar stats) then it should settle down.
                  
                  I hope that is what is happening anyway, will know soon enough.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Everything I've read says that the Sandbox applies to new sites only.  If a sub-domain can get past the first couple of months, it's escaped the sandbox - so it must be something else. 
                     
                     You and Randy fit the sandbox theory because it hit you so soon after the sub-domains were created. I wasn't hit till early December - too late to be sandbox, as far as my researches indicate.
                     
                     Panda is run periodically, and every time it's run, sub-domains may be affected.  It gets tweaked too, so a site that got penalized on one Panda run may get a bounce back on the next one, or vice versa.  So I think that's enough explanation for the surges and drops.

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         2. 90

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Hey Randy, your problem isn't with Hubpages and you know it. It's Google, same as with me.
            A little compassion from HP staff would have been nice, but we both knew that wasn't going to happen.
            Some people lost an awful lot more that us in Panda, including HP themselves.
            There is nothing else for it but to ignore your main account, hoping one day the traffic will come back.
            As you know, I spent months building up this account (after Panda) hoping that would do it, but it was a total waste of time and effort.
            I then spent some time destroying it, by getting rid of hubs that might have been pulling my site down, to no avail.
            I should have left well alone!
            Starting again with new subdomains works. I hate having to start again, but of course, I didn't actually have to, I could have left like a lot of others. So could you for that matter!
            The nice thing now is that if traffic ever returns to my main account (which I am still hopeful it will one day) then I will have a lot of income streams here on HP as well as all those sites I started building after Panda.
            The point is really that applying those SEO skills you have learnt here to a brand new account makes for a really enjoyable experience when you see almost instant Google traffic, something I struggled to get as a newbie without SEO skills.
            That kinda puts the fun back in this writing lark

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            1. 83

               CMHypnoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Glad that you are enjoying your new subdomains Izzy and that they are doing well   I only have one other, with one hub, so plenty room for expansion there!
               
               But if there is a gift in every situation, mine is that I have concentrated more on writing fiction in the last months.  I have put some short stories on HP, which I'm planning to collate into an ebook, and by tonight or tomorrow I will have finsihed the first draft of my first book.  The bulk of the second is already written, so digital publishing is my next big adventure.
               
               It will be really sad if Randy leaves - will miss the hissing in the box and I think he should follow your suggestion Izzy and fling up a few more subdomains, keep quiet about them, and see how they do.

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                  CASE1WORKERposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  CMHypno- make sure you let us now when your books are pubished- there is a lot of support on HP and I for one love your stories

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                     CMHypnoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks case1worker for your support - when one door closes another one opens (hopefully!)

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         3. 84

            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I hate to say it, but I think you're right, Randy.  People like Izzy, Wry and myself stay on HubPages because we love it, even though we know we should be working on our own sites!  If you've lost that enjoyment, why stay?
            
            I think you're now so disillusioned with rev-sharing sites that I can't see you feeling truly at home at any of the others, either.  I've told you before, you shouldn't just abandon your RV Hubs - they would make a great website, because they're concentrated on one topic and you write so well on it.  I know you'll lose your comments but right now, no one is seeing them - so what will you lose?  Copy the comments and use them as the basis for a Q&A section on the new site.

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               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Actually they are still getting visitors from those needing help with RV problems,and as always, I get plenty of thanks for the information they provide, Marisa.  It's really a shame to remove established hubs which obviously render aid to those who need and appreciate info I've painstaking gathered by doing the actual repair jobs and furnishing photos showing the step-by-step procedures.
               
               So I will leave them here for now as I can always write more if I decide to continue this sort of writing on another venue.  I'm truly burnt out trying to deal with content sites as those who operate them never seem to be able to deal honestly with the writers who earn them their income.  No big surprise, of course, as we are nothing if not expendable to such businesses.
               
               Perhaps writing is truly not my forte, as I only wished to see if I could do it with some degree of success.  I've always done well on whatever site I participated, so I suppose I've already proven one doesn't need a journalistic background to compete in the field.  I have given up trying to find an honest writing site.  For a while I thought HP might be the place.  The recent fiasco concerning the contest and AP program has reaffirmed my doubts about those who control things here.  I do care for some of the people here very much.  This is why I dislike seeing them treated badly by TPTB on HP.
               
               No big deal, as dishonesty is eventually caught up with and reputations are stuck with it, no matter how hard they try to regain trust.  Personally, I don't believe honesty is considered worth much here anymore.  Loyalty has been extinct here for quite a while, so there's that too!  Thus the recent spate of favoritism towards newbies. 
               
               They don't know enough about the past here to realize what's going on.  Have you noticed many of the "Hub of the Day" choices are very new members?  They don't even go through the motions to try and hide their agenda anymore.  The latest contest is indicative of the in-your-face manipulation this site has finally resorted to.
               
               I will do my best to warn folks what to expect here though.  I may lose the battle, but I always leave some very unsightly scars to remind folks they will never get fully away with treating good folks unfairly.  But you already know this about me. 
               
               There's no doubt that if a site will rig a simple contest to achieve the desired outcome, that even more nefarious dealings will eventually occur.  Who wants to be involved with such people when there's money to be divided using their stats.  This is why  I prefer using Adsense and Amazon instead of relying on HPs stats as to what THEY say I earned on their own program.
               
               I'm weary of trying to deal with those who have no respect for their writers at all.  The feeling is now mutual!  
               
                                                        

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