Is the traffic really improving?

1. 58

   sid_candidposted 13 years ago

   Yesterday my traffic had improved and had reached the level where it used to be prior the Google update. But today gain it is down by about 30%. Has the traffic improved for you? Hope this drop is just a one day thing and things start to improve from here for hubpages.

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   1. 65

      theherbivorehippiposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't really seen a drastic difference from any of this.  My earnings were down for about three days but jumped right back up.  I will say that my traffic for this main profile tends to be a pinch slower than usual but my other profiles have both seen slight increases.  Kind of strange but I'm not complaining.  Of course, the other profiles could be seeing an increase due to the season changing and their topics......

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   2. 92

      Susana Sposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic is still down by the same amount it was last week - around 2 - 2.5K per day, which works out at about a 40% loss overall. A large portion of the traffic loss is on product hubs that used to rely on google.com traffic (which has pretty much evaporated) so my amazon earnings this month are abismal.
      
      I think the more traffic a hubber gets, the more pronounced the difference is. ie: if a hub used to get 10 - 15 hits per day and now gets 6 - 10, it's doesn't look like a huge difference even though it is a 30 - 40 % loss....but when you get into hundreds and thousands of hits per day the loss can be seen far more starkly.

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      1. 0

         ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I'm glad that you sense my pain then
         
         27000 to 17000 on a weekday, basically.
         
         20000-24000 down to 15000 on a weekend.
         
         

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         1. 92

            Susana Sposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Oh yes, I do feel your pain And the pain of every other hubber who has suffered.
            
            Anyway it's been positive in that it was a big kick up the arse for me

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2. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 13 years ago

   Same here, but those 1-cent clicks just aren’t making it…

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   1. 79

      Sunnyglitterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      LOL I'm with you on that.  My traffic is improving, but I'm getting a lot of .01 clicks.  Some of my clicks used to pay $1 or $2, so this is terrible for me.  I made a whopping .31 today.

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3. 75

   Penteposted 13 years ago

   My traffic is improving, but earnings are dropping

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   1. 89

      mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes ditto your experience. For a few days my traffic dropped by about 15-20%, but my earnings actually went up by about a third! For the last four days however the opposite is the case, my earnings are down to pennies, but my traffic is creeping back towards where it was before. Crazy all in all, no logic to it!!

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4. 82

   IzzyMposted 13 years ago

   I don't think there is much correlation between traffic percentage changing and earnings. When Big Panda kicked in I lost 31% of traffic, but a massive 60% of earnings.
   
   I've since read about websites who lost traffic complaining of the exact same drop in earnings, and much the same or perhaps a bit greater drop in traffic.
   
   So if the two don't relate that much, percentage wise, then when traffic improves it does not follow that earnings will improve to the same extent (or even at all), and vice-versa.

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   1. 61

      kephriraposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Could the larger drop in earnings be because the google traffic is more valuable than traffic you are getting from other sources?

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      1. 82

         IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         One of the 'pros' on this site, I think it was sunforged but I could be wrong, pointed out that Google.com traffic are (is) more likely to click ads (and obviously buy products through Amazon) than the others.
         I get a fair amount of traffic now from the other Googles and am even pleased to see Bing starting to send traffic, but I'm still missing the Google.com traffic.

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5. 70

   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   My traffic has been on the rise for the last few days and my earnings are also increasing as well. So, I'm happy so far. I had experienced a severe down turn, but it was only for about 5 or 6 days, if that.

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   1. 44

      iQwestposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic continues to be very up and down.  One day, a group of Hubs will see a nice increase in Google traffic.  The next day, the traffic is gone.  Then, randomly, it comes back.
      
      I have one Hub producing 75% of the G. searches right now.  If that page get's knocked, then I'm down to very little G. searches.
      
      Bing and Yahoo traffic have increased for me, but I've only been on HubPages for a little over 2 months and it definitely takes them much longer to pickup each Hub.  I do submit every Hub to Bing and Yahoo.
      
      Product Hubs are definitely not producing like they were.  In large part, from what I can tell, because the traffic has disappeared to many of these Hubs.

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      1. 82

         IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Have you read the new HP announcement in the official forums at the top? Just thinking, seeing you do product hubs...

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         1. 44

            iQwestposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, IzzyM!
            
            Some us will have some editing to do, me included.  Unfortunately, some of the product Hubs that I've written and that of other's I've read, it would be impossible to offer anyone a decent selection of products to choose from by abiding by the new guidelines you've referenced in terms of the product / content ratio being implemented by HubPages.
            
            For example, I've done some cheap jewelry / stuffed animal type product Hubs.  It would be impossible to show a G. searcher who lands on your Hub a decent amount of product by conforming to the new ratio being subscribed by HubPages.  I do understand what they're working to achieve, but it cuts both ways.  One G. searcher may look at your page as being too spammy while another G. searcher could be equally frustrated landing on a product site that has endless content with little product to choose from.
            
            With that said ...
            
            I definitely don't have any animosity towards the new rules.  If the powers at be feel these changes will improve the site.  Perfect!  As a community we should all be in favor of working together to make HubPages a better place for everyone despite the initial headaches it may cause some of us.

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6. 86

   Len Cannonposted 13 years ago

   You know, stuff that could just as easily be found by going to Amazon or another store dropped but everything else has recovered for the most part.
   
   For example, I wrote quite a few Hubs about Halloween costumes for kids.  Yeah, I tried to include information about the outfits and how to make them look nice with accessories and this and that, but basically there wasn't anything there that Amazon or PartyCity or whatever didn't have.  They went from a couple hundred google hits a day to ... something in the single digits.
   
   I probably deserved that.
   
   The stuff I did a lot of original research for and created helpful guides not a lot of other places have (my game console guides) have kept their google traffic. They're both Hubs looking to grab people when they're buying but one group was useful and one wasn't.
   
   This has taught me a lesson about work ethic. Or something.  Anyways, the work I took the most pride in has remained financially viable.

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7. 80

   Midnight Oilposted 13 years ago

   My last thirty days traffic profile looks like the map of the Andes mountain range !

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8. 65

   Mishaposted 13 years ago

   No, pretty much the same since mid February...

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9. 82

   IzzyMposted 13 years ago

   Absolutely agree. But, you know if we can find the extra words to put in those hubs with all those product links, we might be shwown a little extra Google love and that makes it worthwhile.
   Ps I also have a lot of hubs to edit!

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10. 60

    BobbiRantposted 13 years ago

    Actually my Google earnings have been making a steady climb, they have gone up since all this started.  I'm doing not so bad.

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11. 87

    rebekahELLEposted 13 years ago

    It does seem to be improving, and I am noticing specific search words are bringing targeted traffic. I had to look twice today when checking google adsense to make sure it said 'today'; I was very happy to see some nice clicks, finally.

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12. 84

    Edweirdoposted 13 years ago

    My traffic is still down by 30-35%, but my Adsense is down 80-90%
    
    I now see less than 50 cents per day from Adsense, and zilch from Amazon.
    
    Makes me feel like it's not even worth bothering with hubs anymore...

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    1. 89

       mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       It is very disheartening right now I have to say. I never made much more than payout level each month, but right now I doubt I will hit payout in March at all unless something changes. The last few days I couldn't even buy milk with what I have earned from Adsense Anyway, for now I intend to keep trying with Hubpages as I have not lost hope and do believe they will try to make things right because they simply cannot afford to have a mass exodus of writers for obvious reasons.

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    2. 65

       lakeerieartistsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       My traffic is up a bit, but what I find interesting is that my Amazon and Ebay are mostly unaffected while Adsense has dropped significantly.  Not sure what that means, and it is really too soon to get any real stats.

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13. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    Let's try not to lose hope. I think the HP team has done it's analysis and rolled out some standards to help.
    
    I'm furiously editing product hubs to bring them into compliance, and I know lots of others are as well. The duplicate content is being dealt with.
    
    And the length of hubs is increasing.
    
    While I won't be writing any new hubs until I see how all of these changes work. It's good to see a plan coming together, and that does bring me hope.

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    1. 0

       ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I'm sure that they know what they are doing
       
       I am very lucky, in that not too many of my hubs will need changing. Maybe two dozen, three dozen tops.

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    2. 65

       lakeerieartistsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I agree Nelle. I am confident that Hubpages staff is working furiously to improve this for all of us, and I for one, will do my part to bring my own hubs into compliance.  I plan to get them fixed within a week.
       
       I am actually quite pleased with Hubpages' response to this, and their willingness to discuss it with the Hubpages community. 

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14. 60

    lender3212000posted 13 years ago

    Started to notice a few of my hubs ranking better in Google today for the first time since the February update. The earnings have been a little slower to return but did pick up a little today.

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15. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    Yes Paula, they have a bird's eye view of millions of pages of content and I'm sure they can see patterns that the rest of us can't. (They might even have friends in high places that know stuff as well.)

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16. 0

    TopUniverseposted 13 years ago

    It looks no improvement so far and waiting for it will increase over time.

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    1. 67

       brandonhart100posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I've noticed a return of those little drop down menus...  This is a good sign.

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