Slow recovery? Traffic gradually improving...

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   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   After all the experimentation by HubPages in recent times with a new page layout, playing around with the dates etc., it looks like my traffic has gradually begun to improve in the past few days.  The build up is slow, however, and heaven knows whether I will get back up to where I was in April, never mind the start of the year.
   
   But at least there are some signs for optimism and I haven't been able to feel or say that for some time.
   
   There are some other hubbers experiencing a gradual recovery like me, I gather from the forums.  In my case, the increases are uneven at present, with a minority of hubs experiencing relatively large traffic growth, while most still languish.  I'm hoping that all my hubs will improve eventually though, as Google crawls them.  Fingers crossed.

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   My traffic was fine until 3 days ago and is now sinking rapidly.  So a solution for some people my be a problem for others.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I hope they can find a "one-size-fits-all" solution.

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         psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Or possibly a tad more flexibility.  For example, an easy way to add dates for people who write a lot of fresh content--but not making it a compulsory field.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I think it's the topic area that might be the relevant thing regarding dates and freshness.  A hub on the history of Roman architecture doesn't need to be fresh, but one on the best smartphone apps does.  That might be why hubbers are affected differently by changes (because they write about different things)?  If that is the case, then you might be right with your implication that no one-size-fits-all solution might exist.  Each hub would have to be treated differently according to its subject matter (assessed by topic and keywords?).  This would ideally be done by HP, surely, but failing that, maybe you are right that hubbers themselves might be given the option?

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      wordscribe43posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's funny you say that because I've noticed this as well.  It's like we're changing places in the peaks and valleys.  Whoever was peaking, plummets... and those that were plummeting start spiking.  Funny stuff this world wide web.
      
      I absolutely do not attribute the ups and downs to seasonal fluctuations.  They are just WAY too abrupt and intense.  It's not like traffic is just a bit down when in a valley.  It's an abrupt jump off a cliff!  Then, BAM... it comes back, or most of it comes back just as quickly as it disappeared. 
      
      These are wild fluctuations... way too dramatic for the summer lulls.  I've not experienced this before.

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      kelleywardposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic on one hub dropped in 3 days. I found out it was copied. Reported to the site and Google and Google got rid of the copied pages. You might want to check for plagiarism if you experienced a quick drop in traffic on certain hubs.

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      1. 93

         Judi Beeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Good advice- in fact, my "best" hub was copied and I got the copy removed.  However, generally the decline in traffic has been across the board and happened suddenly (7/8th June I think) as though someone slammed a door in my subdomain's face!

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3. 66

   relacheposted 12 years ago

   Looking back over my stats for the last (almost) six years, all I can say is that summer has a lot of peaks and valleys the smaller a time segment you examine.  I don't look at it in terms of days or even weeks, but how each month performs compared to the same month each year. 
   
   So far, the ups and downs have shifted earlier or later by a week or two here or there but I'm pretty much seeing the regular annual pattern.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The graph on the HP "Success Stories" page would seem to suggest that you are at the bottom of a deep trough that is unprecedented?

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         DigbyAdamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It's hard to tell how often those success story graphs are updated. I'm not sure if they reflect the current months or not. But I agree, most of them look quite alarming.

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            Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It may be that the graphs are upside down.

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               Judi Beeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               

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4. 79

   Cathleena Beamsposted 12 years ago

   I like the look of the new formatting better.  I have slowed down some here recently due to having so much going on right now, but still noticing that something is being earned every day even when I haven't been actively working for it.

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5. 38

   charliegrumplesposted 12 years ago

   after a freak day where my visits went back to where they are I'm back to about a third of my views and that seems pretty consistent .. Think I;m going back to the adsense only option as the paltry sum I'm making simply is barely worth it .. probably more chance of a few extra hits maybe ... shame as I enjoyed writing here but that is very definitely on hold until there's an upturn .. it simply isn't worth the time involved.

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      grand old ladyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Since I'm new to hub pages, it helps a lot to read this thread, so that I will know what to expect, and not to be surprised or feel bad if things like this happen. Personally, I write for self fulfillment on Hub but money is always welcome to help my fulfillment:) Otherwise, as a previous non hubber I mainly used hub pages for research and looked up hubs that were helpful in the topics I was researching on. Also, maybe there are fluctuations because there are other sites too similar to Hub Pages and other sources for research purposes.
      
      Still, I plan to stick with hub pages through the ups and downs because I like writing about my passions:)

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   Keith Engelposted 12 years ago

   Well this past week saw my best day yet were suddenly I had over 400 views in one day spread out among all of my hubs. It was nice to see red arrows all over my stats page. The only problem is I haven't had another day like that since then. Average views per day since then has been only at 50 or so, hopefully the peak and valley matter is one that is correct.

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7. 93

   Judi Beeposted 12 years ago

   Very slight upturn although traffic is still way down on where it was at beginning of the month.  Fingers crossed though

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8. 76

   thoughtholeposted 12 years ago

   Consistantly I have had a very slight increase. Strangely on the 21st I had a 1 day rush on traffic across the board and then it went back down, strangest thing about that rush was that the traffic sources were not visible, I have no idea where any of that came from.

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      grand old ladyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It would be very helpful if some software could help hubbers determine the sources of their traffic.

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         Judi Beeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Go to "My Account" then "Hubs" and choose "Traffic Sources".  Or, for a particular hub, click on the Hub, then "stats" and you can find daily, weekly etc sources of traffic.  Hope that helps.

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            grand old ladyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, it does help:)

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   montecristoposted 12 years ago

   Writing in the community pages, especially in Craigslist will help your traffic, but be careful, if its too spammy, you may be deleted. Hope this helps!

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      Cathleena Beamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I had never considered writing on Craigslist before.  Checking into that now to see how it's done.  Thank you for sharing your experience.

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    montecristoposted 12 years ago

    Redgage, has also, helped my traffic. Check them out. It's free!

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       grand old ladyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you, montecristo. I will definitely look up both sites:)

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11. 53

    janderson99posted 12 years ago

    Quantcast data probably reflects the impact of the site changes.
    Downward trend is disturbing, but the last data point may signify a hopeful sign as it breaks the trend(a buy signal). Here's Hoping!!!!
    
    

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       janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       this is disturbing  http://pauledmondson.hubpages.com/hub/W … -Providers

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       1. 59

          Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Until HP puts some limit on the cr*p being published here everyday we have no chance of rising in Google's estimation.  It's a no-brainer for goodness sakes!!  No use putting it off any longer.  Geeze! 
          
          Edited to add:  Everyone needs to read the link Janderson provided and check out the responses sent to Paul E by Google telling him what the problems with traffic are.  I mean Duh!  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the lack of quality content on HP, as well as, the copied, redundant, and lack of properly researched articles, is the cause of us being penalized by Google.
          
          If we had a new member "Hopping" type section where the newbies couldn't be published until vetted by experienced members it would be more efficient than trying to find them on the old "Hub Hopper" after they've already been allowed to be put live on the site.
          
          We've heard the same old stale excuses of "we want HP to have an open platform" and all of that nonsense, but sorry, this just ain't gettin' it! 
          
          

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             Marcy Goodfleischposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             That's a great idea, Randy - hope it gets considered.

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12. 38

    charliegrumplesposted 12 years ago

    That works to a point Randy but if you look at it as a business model from HP point, then maybe not. Let's say that 50% of the content was scrapped for being poor quality, that would significantly affect the number of pages indexed and even though some of these probably only got a few views (and some would probably do ok even if crap) then any benefit of a boost for the remaining ones may not be offset by the loss of the crap ones .. net result .. a drop in income for HP

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    1. 59

       Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       So which is preferable, a temporary drop in views because the junk is removed, or a permanent drop in views because Google doesn't like the cr*p being published here on a daily basis?  I'd think establishing a credible site for sources of information would be better for the long term than making a few dollars off of anything and everything for the moment.  At least Google seems to think so at his time.
       
       

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    grand old ladyposted 12 years ago

    Personally, for a long time as a writer researcher, there were numerous instances when I was given specific topics and the topics on Google were not specific enough. I tried a lot of sites similar to Hub pages, but the best was always Hub Pages. I could get two to three useful articles for what I needed to do for my client. Up to the point I became a hubber, I was already automatically looking at Hub articles when Google didn't have the stuff I needed.

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