I Can't Believe This! What Happened!

1. 66

   GAbaptistposted 12 years ago

   I have been diligently working on hubs for the past year and had managed to get a few on page 1 of the SERPS, was getting great traffic, finally making monthly payout levels with hpads and was making some good Amazon sales. Last night my traffic dropped to almost nothing and I can't find my pages in the search engines. Why would I get sandboxed!!!!!!!! I have worked hard to do everything the right way and know that I have not done anything that should be penalized by google! I just don't get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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2. 84

   CMHypnoposted 12 years ago

   Your traffic only dropped a few hours ago, so I really wouldn't panic about it just yet, as it may well recover or even improve within a few days.
   
   There are lots of threads about loss of traffic, Panda and sandbox effect so it might be worth you reading through a few of them

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3. 94

   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   CMHypno's right.  Give your hubs a week or so to recover by themselves.  HubPages wrote a help page for a sudden loss of traffic, which I think is good general advice.  But I wouldn't do anything too drastic straightaway.

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4. 84

   Marcy Goodfleischposted 12 years ago

   I'm wondering if something odd is happening with traffic, too. What do you all think the new site design will do to hub traffic, since visitors now have to click under "explore" in order to find the basic Hub button? Or maybe I should log out and see what a visitor would see coming in brand new. Dunno.
   
   I appreciate the wise words of those of you who've been here a while; I've only been on the site for eight weeks & I'm still learning.

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   1. 86

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Search engine visitors do not see such things.
      
      Hubbers do, and that is another matter altogether.

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   2. 92

      UnnamedHaraldposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      To get to the basic HubPages, you can also just click on the HubPages link to the far left.

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   3. 61

      NatalieSackposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      @Marcy Goodfleisch:  I believe all users can click on the HubPages logo at the top left of the screen to access Hubs, in addition to the "Explore" option.

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5. 66

   GAbaptistposted 12 years ago

   Thanks Paul and CMHypno, I have been here long enough to know that there are definitely ebbs and flows in traffic, and I have read the majority of the threads that discuss the drastic falls in traffic. Honestly, I thought in my mind there had to be a rational explanation for the reason certain Hubber's views were crashing because my traffic was steadily rising and everything just seemed to be coming together nicely. Now I know that is not necessarily the case.
   
   I am not looking to do anything drastic just yet, but it makes me apprehensive about investing more time in producing more hubs right now. It just takes all the wind out of the sails (sales!)   I do appreciate the encouragement and optimism from you guys!
   
   Marcy, I don't think the changes in site design really affect traffic because we shoot more for search engine traffic as opposed to internal hub traffic. When a visitor comes from a search engine they should land on the intended article page without having to do any site navigation.

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   1. 86

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Welcome to the new reality
      
      Sometimes traffic crashes, or Google withdraws their traffic, and you may never know why.
      Maybe now you know how it feels to lose traffic, and have people suggest it is because of something you have done, or written.

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   2. 80

      Les Trois Chenesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

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6. 94

   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   Izzy's right about the unpredictability.  Unfortunately writing on HubPages is never an exact science, as the Google algorithim is complicated and ever changing and nobody knows exactly what it's doing at any one time.  Nobody can give perfect solutions, but some people's advice is better than others and I would certainly start with the HP guides.
   
   I have acted on advice and tips from HP and other hubbers and my traffic has recovered in the past.  It might have recovered anyway and the advice might've been irrelevant.  I will probably never know.
   
   But don't panic yet.  Many, if not most, seem to recover within a week or so without doing a great deal.
   
   My own traffic is pretty shoddy at the moment, anyway, although it's not completely crashed - so I am certainly not an expert at this game.

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7. 81

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

   This is why it is a thing of beauty to know of OTHER websites where you can write, and link back to your hubs on.

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8. 86

   andyozposted 12 years ago

   The exact same thing has happened to me twice now, once just before Christmas and then again about two weeks ago.  Both times I lost 80% of my traffic overnight.  It hit me hard but I found that five days later on both occasions, my traffic came right back.  No idea why it happens, but is a bit of a shock when you see all your google positions vanish overnight.

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   1. 66

      GAbaptistposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I hope that happens for me Andy! As of right now my traffic is just a trickle, but we'll wait it out.

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9. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   I am reasonably certain that I hit a new traffic low for the year today, but it has already turned around.

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   1. 94

      PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Mine hit a low too.  Lowest since Christmas Day.  Which is pretty bad when you think about it.

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10. 90

    rmcrayneposted 12 years ago

    Same here. When you take out these crazy "fake views".

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    1. 87

       WannaB Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       What are "fake" views?

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       1. 81

          Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Well for one - hubpages counts the author looking at his own hubs in the view stats.

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       2. 86

          IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          There's been 'bot' visits apparently from Facebook on some of our hubs over the past few days. I myself got 3000 of them over a 6 hour period.
          
          They register in hubstats, but not in Adsense, Analytics or Hubads.
          
          HP staff have confirmed they all originate from a single IP address.

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11. 62

    beagrsvposted 12 years ago

    I'm wondering if the last months algorithim change refering to ad placement above the fold could have anything to do with it? Any sudden drop in SERP traffic is a concern. I am gald to have fellow hubbers with experience at the ready to answer our questions!

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12. 88

    Stacie Lposted 12 years ago

    Looks like I'm in good company--the new low views company!
    What on earth is going on,indeed!

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13. 59

    paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

    My new-week upswing happened a lot sooner than usual this weekend! My pulse rate has quickened.

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14. 81

    Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

    May I offer some suggestions here:
    
    Join Info Barrel
    
    Join Xobba Tribune
    
    Join Blogger
    
    Best Reviewer.
    
    All of those sites offer you various advantages, and with all of them you can create DOFOLLOW links back to hubpages whilst at the same time creating original and related articles on revenue sharing sites.
    
    Don't worry - be proactive.

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    1. 59

       paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       A worthy post!

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15. 84

    Pamela Kinnaird Wposted 12 years ago

    Yesterday and today my traffic went way down, too. I don't really try to understand it anymore. I just go with the flow.  The reading material is still available -- good hubs to read day after day.

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16. 90

    Patty Inglish, MSposted 12 years ago

    In Analytics, it looks that by midnight, my Sunday views will be equal to last Sunday's. My traffic dropped a few percent with the new Hub design, but with the contest and using rss feeds to promote those hubs, traffic came back up yesterday.

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    1. 59

       paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I have not seen you in awhile.

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    2. 54

       janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       There is definitely a downturn - probably based on the Panda refresh (made sure thast everyone targeted was hit properly)
       => Hubpages on Quantcast  down
       => Many hubbers report trend is down
       => The Earning Stars traffic is down
       => Traffic on my other sites is down
       => My Subdomain traffic is down
       
       for me the shift to higher paying CPC seems to be working as CPM is up despite lower traffic. [record high]
       
       On and on and on
       Keep on dancin' baby
       Till the night is gone

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    3. 94

       PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Up to 1725 hubs now - that's quite some feat!  :-)

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       1. 90

          rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Just keeping up with broken links would be a feat.  Any other modifications, well the thought makes me tired.

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          1. 94

             PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Yes, I personally have struggled to make it to 200 hubs, because I've ended up deleting or moving so many.   Respect to Patty though!  :-)

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17. 84

    Marcy Goodfleischposted 12 years ago

    My views have dropped, too - I realize I'm new here, but the drop is inexplicable and very noticeable. 
    
    Does anyone else wonder whether the design change could have affected things through the absence of the Hubs button on the main menu, across the top?   "Explore" may not mean much to visitors, and people in general don't like for extra clicks to be added to a site.

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    1. 86

       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Sorry to hear your views have dropped, but this will have absolutely nothing to do with your drop in views.
       It's Google shoogling things around again, and it will settle down.

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       1. 94

          PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I agree, the HP site appearance being changed at the same time that Google were introducing their changes and views began falling was almost certainly pure coincidence.  (I wish that was the culprit, as I'm sure that HP could quickly and easily rectify it )

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    2. 90

       rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I agree with Izzy and Paul, traffic drop is unrelated to the new format.
       
       Visitors are searching in Google, Bing, etc, clicking on a link, and going directly to the page.  If searchers view more than one page, they are most likely clicking on 'related hubs' selected automatically by HP based on tags, on the right side bar, or clicking on links we've included in our pages.

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18. 95

    incomeguruposted 12 years ago

    Many of us have deleted some low performing hubs, with a view that traffic will bounce back. Surprisingly, it was fake traffic from facebook that some of us here have been experiencing.

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19. 77

    jenniferrpoveyposted 12 years ago

    I think I got some of that fake traffic, too...ah well.

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