Is There Some Kind of Filter On Squidoo Lenses That Came Over?

1. 73

   endamclarnonposted 9 years ago

   I don't like to complain because I am busy. However I just need to know if Hubpages have applied a filter of some kind to Squidoo lenses that transferred over? On Squidoo I had one lens that was getting around 500 views a day...and it was making me around $200 a month.
   That came over to Hubpages about 8-10 weeks ago, did fairly well in the first month, and now it is getting about 6 visits a day. It is extremely high quality with 100% unique content. It is hard to find any sensible explanation for this other than that old Squidoo lenses have been quarantined or something like that.
   Some of my other lenses, but not all of them, did well with visits and sales and they are now close to being dead. A couple have started to go unfeatured and it looks like others will.
   
   Christmas was always a great month for me but not this year it would seem. Something is clearly wrong when an article getting thousands of views a month drops off the face of the earth. It is the same content, the same information and has over 2,500 words, pictures and videos.
   
   Totally frustrated and disgusted. There are now many articles over the web stating that Hubpages have placed a filter on Squidoo lenses because they are under pressure from Google to improve their content. It is difficult for me to believe anything else sadly.

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It just goes to show how facts get distorted.
      
      What happened was that, by incredible bad luck, Panda 4.1 was launched days after the Squidoo lenses were transferred.
      
      This has been the worst Panda for HubPages since the first one in 2011.  In that Panda, traffic dropped by 75%.  In this Panda, it dropped by half.   You can see it if you look at HubPages' traffic graph in Quantcast:  there's a doubling in traffic with the addition of the Squidoo lenses, then an abrupt drop back when Panda hits. 
      
      Paul Edmonson has said that ALL sub-domains, both ex-Squids and existing Hubbers, were hit by this Panda to some extent.  That's unlike previous Pandas, which treated sub-domains individually (so some improved and some tanked).
      
      This is obviously dreadful news for HubPages and all of its members.   Recovering from Panda is not easy and usually requries drastic action.   In the last day or so is that HubPages has run a new filter, designed to catch and unFeatured (i.e. hide from Google) any  Hubs which Google might not like.   That filter was run over ALL Hubs, not just ex-lenses.   
      
      It does seem to have affected Squids more than Hubbers, and from what I can see, it's because the filter penalises Amazon and eBay capsules bunched together - something Hubbers rarely do, but you see often in ex-lenses.

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2. 60

   shellys-spaceposted 9 years ago

   endamclarnon:
   
   Sorry to hear that your traffic is tanking. I believe it is happening to everyone, not just to "us"  former Squidoo members.
   
   Not being a former "hubber" I can not give you the answer to your question about a filter. But, I am assuming there is something not right if your Christmas-related page is not doing well since it moved over from Squidoo.
   
   I am "guessing" there is so much Christmas content on HP now that it is killing off your traffic. Did you check to see if your page is in a relevant  category or could be moved?

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3. 72

   Barbara Kayposted 9 years ago

   After paying money for the Squidoo lenses, I don't think Hubpages would be foolish enough to filter them out. I had a small account at Squidoo and they remain featured. The traffic problem is possibly a result of losing all of the links that pointed to your page. Why it is unfeatured, I don't know. I'd have to see it.

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4. 73

   endamclarnonposted 9 years ago

   Thanks for all the helpful and kind comments. I probably didn't explain myself properly so apologies to all. None of my Hubs have become "unfeatured." It is just that the traffic has dropped off like a stone. On Squidoo the lenses I had were attracting a few thousand visitors every week and now if I am lucky it is maybe 20-30 a day.
   
   I know that some Squidoo lenses had a lot of Amazon modules and I never liked that. At the most I have maybe 2 and in some cases 3 Amazon modules but no more than that. In the eight hand corner I have made sure that I have ticked all of the boxes and every piece of content I wrote myself.
   
   I just do not understand how a lens that was getting a few hundred visitors a day and has now become a Hub and gets only 4-5 a day can happen? Hence my total frustration.
   
   Barbara, I never had any links pointing at Squidoo so I don't think it is a link problem.
   
   I also had Hubs on an old account for the last 3 years and they have not changed at all, same traffic and same stats generally speaking.
   
   Again thanks for the helpful comments and I guess all we can do is try.

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