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My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

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Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#181
post #30

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…

For this reason and spam calls, I have a free Google Voice number that I use for all services. I never give my cell #...

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#182
post #59
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So assuming the company is splits into Google and AdWords, would Google be forced to work with AdWords or are they allowed to use different providers? Are they allowed to create their own competitor to AdWords? Which problem is this solving?

Yes, they'd be allowed to use other ad providers, and hopefully it would be illegal to penalize them for constantly running some multi-armed-bandit trials across multiple ad providers.

Then AdWords would draw the short end of the stick because their product would become commoditized. Google would still hold the same market power as before. Ad quality might go down because there are multiple providers. Overall I don't see the upside.

Maybe something that would make more sense is if Google was split into two or more search engines, each of them would get a copy of the current source code and data.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#183

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…

I would recommend ensuring the phone is backed up, that’ll reduce failure to deauthentication (as opposed to deauthentication and lost access to the phone)

Edit: also consider setting up a mail forwarder to another address you own if you can from the app UI, I would do this on a test account first in case it forces you to reauthenticate, as it can be a suspicious action.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#184

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…

Get your own domain for ~$13 a year and then forward your email to Gmail or another online provider you like. If Google kills your account you can forward it elsewhere. I recently started using the startup https://hanami.run to forward my mail. It's a brand new startup that I read about here on HN and the creator is super helpful. Edit: I realize that parents Mom and my Mom are not going to do this, but us Hacker New…

Looks like the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy links from the front page 404

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#185

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…

Get your own domain for ~$13 a year and then forward your email to Gmail or another online provider you like. If Google kills your account you can forward it elsewhere. I recently started using the startup https://hanami.run to forward my mail. It's a brand new startup that I read about here on HN and the creator is super helpful. Edit: I realize that parents Mom and my Mom are not going to do this, but us Hacker New…

My mailserver can’t point to gmail unless I get gmail premium I chose instead to run my own mailserver (it’s a pain, but it’s very scaleable and I use a catch all often). Gmail have created an anticompetative situation where I can chose to pay them money, or have problems communicating with their customers.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#186

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…

> I have no idea why ipv6 would indicate that I’m not a spammer It's likely not about ipv6, but instead it's about your ipv4 having bad reputation in the past. Basically you changed your source address to a cleaner one.

Interesting perspective. My primary mailserver is AWS lightsail, my test mailserver is DigitalOcean. Both have a process to request a ‘good’ IP address. The latter works with ipv6, despite being (in my opinion) a lower credibility service.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#187

Once again HN gets baited into sending massive traffic into an affiliate link farm! Adding this particular tactic into my repertoire of headlines

How do you k ow this is an affiliate link farm? What do you mean once again? I read WAY too much HN, and this is the first time I’ve read about this issue with someone whose site focuses on affiliate marketing. Are posts like this common if you read “new” HN articles?

> How do you k ow this is an affiliate link farm?

This site's 'reviews' are based on existing product reviews and the descriptions of the products. A real review site will purchase the product to review it then post one or two short paragraphs on their experience using it.

And it's definitely affiliate links since all Amazon links have ?tag=gcaftext-20, which seems to be their affiliate tag.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#188

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 actually really like the concept, as I understand it - a vetted shortlist of products worth buying in each category, with customer reviews distilled down to a brief summary (instead of a game-able star rating). Unfortunately I can definitely see how Google wouldn't be able to distinguish this from low quality affiliate spam. Also, I agree with "the UX does not make the user want to continue exploring the page they landed on" - if I were you I'd invest in improving the design.

As for "dramatically increase the word count, add more photos, add overviews of each product instead of just a single line or two pulled from reviews"... don't do this! If I wanted all that junk I'd just read the Amazon page. I agree that there is probably room to add a bit more information about the products without ruining what makes your site cool but don't abandon your vision.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#189
I have had somewhat similar experience (as have many others).

My suspicion would be that the site is explicitly, manually banned by some person at Google.

There is nothing to do about it except maybe start over with a new domain name, new server, preferably not under your own name (what name the domain name is registered under).

Short of that: Maybe implement Google Amp, Analytics etc ... but probably too late for that.

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