My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero • Hacker News Board

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#191

Post by judge2020 » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:31 AM UTC

creato wrote: post #118

dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #98

I'm really torn over the author's website. On one hand, the design is much less ad-ridden and well-written than other SEO/affiliate link-driven websites.. but I don't see much value from it. * the reviews for products are too short and vague * until you actually read the top part and realize it was written by a human being, it looks exactly the same as all the other affiliate websites that get deranked (probably the…

What is the real honest use case for affiliate links? It basically seems like a way for Amazon and other affiliate program operators to deniably outsource black hat SEO. Not that this particular site is using black hat SEO (as far as I can tell), but many affiliate link farms are. This particular site seems like it is less offensive, but still something that would be annoying to get in search results.

There is a good carve-out where affiliate links are good. Actual review sites (eg. cnet and techradar, for all they're worth) and YouTube-based reviewers can do very well for determining what products are actually relevant, and can ultimately drive the customer to purchasing a product. Without such assurance from these people/publications, there's a chance Amazon loses out on the sale (either from choosing not to impulse purchase or using another competitor) so paying these reviewers out gives them incentive and drives purchases.

Although, from a anti-consumerism/anti-waste standpoint, encouraging impulse purchases at all is probably a net negative.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#192

Post by robryan » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:33 AM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #151

depressedpanda wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a search engine at all, the site just happens to have a search box. It looks more like a (manually?) curated list of products that fulfill the criteria of "good, fast & cheap", within various categories.

It looks like a clean search engine when you first land on it. https://i.imgur.com/mtqISep.png Scroll a bit down and you see what looks like a footer giving testimonials. The links to curated categories are off the screen on desktop. No idea what mobile looks like. Next to the search box, it states that this is by a data scientist. If that is in any way relevant other than in the sense "this is by a smart person", wh…

In effect probably nearly all their traffic goes to landing pages targeting certain terms. Then primarily either bounces or exits immediately via an affiliate link. So it probably doesn’t matter much how the front page is presented as it is low traffic.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#193

Post by creato » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:39 AM UTC

s17n wrote: post #188

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 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…

Do you really think this is vetted? There's no way this guy has actually tested all of these things. He's just reading Amazon reviews instead of you.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#194

Post by jeffbee » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:49 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #109

jeffbee wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's competing with a huge army of auto-generated spam sites that are in the same business. Best LED strip lights? Good luck getting on the front page of that one. The results are dominated by sites using superficially respectable, popular domains to push the same affiliate spam.

So because he generates functionally-equivalent output, but in a way that passes some vague moral purity test he's the good guy underdog then?

That's not what I'm saying at all. I couldn't care less whether he's the winning spammer or not.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#195

Post by hcurtiss » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:53 AM UTC

creato wrote: post #193

s17n wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you really think this is vetted? There's no way this guy has actually tested all of these things. He's just reading Amazon reviews instead of you.

And then actively qualifying any recommendation by adding “cheap.”

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#196

Post by santoshalper » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:55 AM UTC

tunesmith wrote: post #165

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 recommend…

I love and use wirecutter a lot, but I really enjoyed this site. He does not try to go the route of having an expert personally review every category (which is a great, high credibility approach). Instead he seems to just do the math finding the best rated items/average price. I find this more useful than another inferior wirecutter clone because it adds a data point.

It's definitely something I'll keep in my toolbox.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#197

Post by santoshalper » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:57 AM UTC

creato wrote: post #193

s17n wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you really think this is vetted? There's no way this guy has actually tested all of these things. He's just reading Amazon reviews instead of you.

No, specifically I think he does not do any manual vetting or reviewing. I think he essentially gets a ton of products in a given category, then takes the average review and price and runs some kind of formula to find a value sweet spot. I've done this same thing dozens of times myself in excel and it's kind of cool to see someone do it systemically.

Combine this with something like wirecutter that does vetted reviews (but probably looks at fewer products as a result) and it seems like a good complement.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#198

Post by ryan29 » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:59 AM UTC

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 think this is right. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the site felt a bit "meh" to me even though I like the concept. I like the simple design, but if there were ever a case to be made for a floating header that functions like a menu bar, those categories is it, right?

I skimmed a couple product categories that I've looked at recently, mainly gaming keyboards. The information felt a bit mediocre, but I also thought it did a pretty good job of picking out decent value products. I can see the value in it as a short list of products to look into, but there's not enough info for me to make a choice without leaving the site.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#199

Post by grahamburger » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:04 AM UTC

yokem55 wrote: post #178

viraptor wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's a static address that hasn't changed for 3+ years. The only thing I can think of the makes it proxy-ish, is that I have a 6 person household here. Edit- The IP my employer uses as its outbound nat IP that we vpn from while WFH (so it actually is a proxy) gets a clean bill of health while our corporate email server (not a proxy at all) is tagged as one.

It's not just IPs that have reputation scores but IP ranges and AS entities. Residential IP ranges are often dinged by default because of the risk of infected home PCs sending spam.

Re: My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero

#200

Post by mrslave » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:08 AM UTC

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…

I'll echo the sentiments in this thread except for the swear words at Google. Losing access to a Gmail for similar reasons has been a net positive, though at the time it was mildly frustrating. I haven't gotten sucked into their aggressive cross-selling of all their products, and the consequences of always being logged in. Occasionally I can't view or comment on something. You can bookmark 5 YouTube channels without Subscribing, and some Twitter feeds without Following. The oligopolies of 2020 have made the internet a much more boring place than 10+ years ago. YouTube resembles cable television more and more every day. Rather than get mad and watch poor content, I now have more time to read and think.