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My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

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Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#161

Post by djitz »

ryan29 wrote: post #153
manfredo wrote: post #24

This is one of several posts I've seen on HN lately following a similar trend: sudden and unexpected drops in search engine traffic. On the one hand it must be jarring to suddenly have a drop in traffic. But is it necessarily indicative of a bad administration of a search engine? Popularity of sites shift. People's tastes change. Even without an algorithm change we would not expect search traffic to remain constant.…

I'm not really sure what to think of that site. I think it's above average for an affiliate marketing site, but I also wonder how reliable the recommendations are if they're derived from automated analysis of other systems like reviews, pricing, etc. when we know those are garbage systems that are constantly gamed. Even filtered, it's still garbage in garbage out, right? I think that (affiliate based monetization) is…

Wouldn’t this mean it’s a good market to be in right now?

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#162

Post by KMag »

grecy wrote: post #54
jjcon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. I’m in a similar position except I know my password. Google decided for whatever reason that my location was too different and now requires that I verify via a phone number I no longer have. I have access to the recovery email and even get ‘su…

Yikes. I've logged into my gmail account from 55 different countries, and I've never had a problem. Some of those countries must have set some flags - Nigeria, Sudan, Mali, Rep. Congo, Bolivia, El Salvador. Maybe I'm on thin ice..

Did you clear cookies before signing in from the other country? As I remember, Google made me re-authenticate via text the last time I cleared cookies, despite connecting from the same IP address as my last login.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#163

Post by viraptor »

hertzrat wrote: post #159
ryan29 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very likely the case. Check the IP on a site that does IP reputation scoring [1]. They probably don't have a database of "bad" addresses for IPv6, so it squeaks by for now. I'm sure that'll change in the future though. My current IP shows "0 - low risk" with that tool. Grabbing a random PIA IP shows "93% - Abusive IP" with a warning about being a high risk proxy connection. The random VPN IP is also on SPAM b…

Disreputable and reputable services alike change ip all the time. The only people who don’t are home users and I suspect VPN users. I don’t fully understand how this is supposed to help you decide if something is safe

> Disreputable and reputable services alike change ip all the time.

If you're running a serious mail service your IPs don't change that much. Not only will you have a pool of IP addresses just for that reason, you'll also likely need a few unused ones for when one of your users tanks your reputation and you have to roll them.

Nobody taking real money for email will use a randomly assigned IP as source. (unless it's randomly selected and then tested for reputation before use) Mailgun and other services even allow you to book a dedicated IP just for your outgoing emails.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#164

Post by love_anddd »

weisbaum wrote: post #141

Taking a look at your site, it seems quite clear where all your traffic went. You have a pretty great backlink profile compared to other affiliate sites ive seen but the content is incredibly thin. Based on this, me or anyone else who visits the site just sees an advertising site. There are no personal experiences with the products, the products are not related and the UX does not make the user want to continue explo…

Exactly my thoughts looking at the site. It screams affiliate link farm where the only purpose is just to make money from product affiliate links.

While this isn't necessarily bad to make money, it definitely doesn't do anything for a visitor.

After reading the blog post, I was expecting something like consumer reports or some intricate posts, but it's obviously little tid bits of information that looks like it was posted by some virtual assistant he was paying $2 per post or something.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#165

Post by tunesmith »

weisbaum wrote: post #141

Taking a look at your site, it seems quite clear where all your traffic went. You have a pretty great backlink profile compared to other affiliate sites ive seen but the content is incredibly thin. Based on this, me or anyone else who visits the site just sees an advertising site. There are no personal experiences with the products, the products are not related and the UX does not make the user want to continue explo…

I agree - I hadn't heard of the site, but after reading the OP's blog post I was excited to check it out. However, after finding a bunch of categories I was interested in and opening them in a series of tabs, I started to review them and was disappointed. It just felt like a long list of products, and I felt like it was putting more work on my shoulders, not less.

The site needs more focus. Make some actual recommendations and tell us why we should trust them. I think wirecutter has a good formula for this. I've bought several products after reading wirecutter articles.

I don't know if this has anything to do with google's algorithm, but it did actually feel to me that the site was coming close to the line between "here is some helpful information for you" versus "here are a lot of extra links that will help me get a little bit more revenue".

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#166

Post by harryh »

superkuh wrote: post #23
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #8

I’ve had similar experiences with other google products: My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. We had a live session via thunderbird but there were no channels of support. Luckily we were able to register her old mobile number to achieve a password reset, thanks to a helpful phone p…

Wow. I'm you in both respects. I just had the same problem with my dad and even though he can send and receive email from his gmail account they still won't tell him the password. All he has is the fragile oauth token on mail.app on his apple smart phone that can only connect via wifi due to the loss of the old phone number. Additionally, my mail from my independent mailserver just started being marked as spam by goo…

Having access to a logged in account is definitely not sufficient evidence for a support team (at Google or anywhere else) to allow for a password reset on that account.

If it was, then someone forgetting to log out on a machine they didn't own could be a much more serious problem than it is. Rather than just temporary access to the account that the true owner has the ability to revoke, it could result in a completely stolen account.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#167

Post by jgurewitz »

This is brutal. No easy answers here. The affiliate economy is rife with spam and will continue to deteriorate. My recommendation to content creators is to become explicitly ad supported, i.e find real companies to sponsor your site, not plug in a network, or to find a paid membership. Both are harder, but both are more sustainable.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#168

Post by viraptor »

yokem55 wrote: post #150
ryan29 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very likely the case. Check the IP on a site that does IP reputation scoring [1]. They probably don't have a database of "bad" addresses for IPv6, so it squeaks by for now. I'm sure that'll change in the future though. My current IP shows "0 - low risk" with that tool. Grabbing a random PIA IP shows "93% - Abusive IP" with a warning about being a high risk proxy connection. The random VPN IP is also on SPAM b…

FWIW - I suspect the "IP reputation" site you referenced is utter bullshit when it comes to its "Proxy Detection". Looking at my own residential public address it calls it a 'low risk proxy' when I can assure that it most definitely is not. It doesn't help that their explanation for how they attempt to detect this is a pile of marketing word salad. I don't expect them to be completely transparent to their methodology…

It doesn't have to be bullshit. You have a sample size of 1 and realistically we can't expect 100% accuracy. We also don't know how often your IP is changing - maybe it was a proxy endpoint recently?

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#169

Post by handedness »

jjcon wrote: post #30
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #8

I’ve had similar experiences with other google products: My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. We had a live session via thunderbird but there were no channels of support. Luckily we were able to register her old mobile number to achieve a password reset, thanks to a helpful phone p…

> My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. I’m in a similar position except I know my password. Google decided for whatever reason that my location was too different and now requires that I verify via a phone number I no longer have. I have access to the recovery email and even get ‘su…

To add my voice to the ever-growing chorus: I'm in a similar situation, except in this case despite my still having session cookies stored on several devices, all of which were logged-out simultaneously, it's requiring a new phone number. When I eventually gave one grudgingly (one used on most of the other accounts listed along side this account in Google's account switcher), it still tells me I'm locked out and to "try again later".

It's been about a month.

I have a very short list of companies, the collapse of which I'd celebrate with a party, and Google is vying very successfully for that top spot against some pretty reprehensible competitors.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#170

Post by handedness »

_jal wrote: post #80
jjcon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My mom forgot her gmail password and no longer had the same mobile number for a reset, the secondary reset option was set to my email but would not send a reset despite this. I’m in a similar position except I know my password. Google decided for whatever reason that my location was too different and now requires that I verify via a phone number I no longer have. I have access to the recovery email and even get ‘su…

This is one reason I will not give out a phone number for the vast majority of services. If that means I can't use something, so be it. Building proprietary, impossible-to-understand Rube Goldberg mechanisms based on associations between accidental aspects of my life (location:phone number pairs, for instance) is not a security system, it is a design for randomly fucking me over. If your system is designed to fuck me…

I'm locked out of a Google account I configured without a phone number. It won't let me reset to email, and when I provide a new number it does no good.

The capriciousness that one often finds on a company like Google that means whatever they allow now isn't necessarily going to be honored in six months.

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