Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I would like to get feedback from webmasters who experienced huge drop in traffic because of these (caffeine) changes. We lost almost 40.000 daily visitors.
Site is well established and quite old with lot of natutural backlinks, online since 2004.
What do you think ? Are these changes temporary or permanent ?
Now that I go back and look at Profiles of those who are being vocal, most of you are heavy into the AdSense forum. That typically is a signal that there are other challenges at hand.
If this doesn't apply to you, then don't opine on my comments. If it does, then be thankful you've earned what you have from Google AdSense.
How much of your page is AdSense and how much is original content? Those that I've seen take major hits in this area are 100% MFAs. I mean in your face MFAs. If you didn't know how to use your back button, you'd be tricked into clicking a Google Ad. If you fit that bill, then c'ya!
This topic should probably go into the AdSense Forum. :)
If you feel that I'm wrong, please do put your site up for feedback in the Review My Site forum (Subscription Required). We'll see.
Review My Site
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For some reason, I'm experiencing déjà vu. Don't these topics usually come up around Christmas time each year? And then in January we'll have the AdSense Account Terminated topics? That is the usual progression. I know you don't want to hear that but, that's just the way it has been. :(
Not every Adsense publisher is MFAs...
Not every AdSense publisher is MFAs.
Understood. But, when these topics arise at WebmasterWorld, I'm almost certain that the larger percentage participating are MFAs. Many don't want to admit it and most won't put their sites up for review to get feedback from others or expose their AdSense strategies.
Google ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads.
That is the absolute funniest guideline from Google. :) And, it allows them to call the shots however they wish. :(
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My theory, as mentioned before, is that Caffeine is awarding new pages for specific keywords. Or that, indeed, they are displacing sites for competitives searches just to mix it up.
be thankful you've earned what you have from Google AdSense
What in the earthly living fridays was that supposed to mean?
BTW, I noticed on my analytics page, on several sites, a drop of 8 to 20% visitors in this month. Kinda weird. Will it rise again? Or put us out of business. GG Google, you always cheer up my holydays.
What in the earthly living fridays was that supposed to mean?
Exactly what it says on the tin, that's what it means.
I've seen some of the sites of those participating in this topic. I can understand Google's reasoning for nuking them slowly. It will come in phases. First the drop in traffic, then comes the slow death. If your livelihood depends on Google, which it does for many in this topic, you're on borrowed time. We're all on borrowed time.
Have all of you been keeping up with every single change that has occurred over the past 90 days? Google have made some drastic changes that affect all of us. There isn't much one can do either other than whine about it or, do something about it. I'll take the latter. How about you?
First the drop in traffic, then comes the slow death
There isn't much one can do either other than whine about it or, do something about it. I'll take the latter. How about you?
Like you I prefer the latter.
You have given me some food for thought and I had no idea this topic comes up around Christmas. A quick check over at the Adsense forum yeah people are posting up similar issues on loss of traffic and impressions.
If it is Adsense related then excellent, I'll not think twice on removing every single piece of adsense code on my site if its going to fix the problem. I am very near on making this drastic change because I am running out of ideas.
Have all of you been keeping up with every single change that has occurred over the past 90 days?
I am trying my best to catch up with everything that is going on and see some drastic changes have been made. It just makes it more difficult to pinpoint what the issue is for me.
Ah well its a challenge if anything.
Don't rely on Google, they can crash your business within seconds.
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I can understand Google's reasoning for nuking them slowly.
If they comply with google, no need to nuke. If they don't, then they should be nuked instantly. "Nuke them slowly" sounds improbable to me. Google isn't there to punish anyone, they want good results NOW and if your site is ruining things they'll nuke you now, not torture you to a slow death.
It will come in phases. First the drop in traffic, then comes the slow death.
You need to go outside.
Ditto for pulling down some if not all of my adsense blocks, the income is far from decent anyway.
Same here. Until google recovers from these terrible times, no adsense in there... hope more webmasters follow suit.
Edit: Quote didn't appear. Fixed.
Yes, you should definitely go outside LooL
Equally as pertinent during the Florida & Big Daddy Updates.
Google isn't there to punish anyone, they want good results NOW
Since Dec 10 I see a huge drop in traffic too:
Dec 10: -35%
Dec 11: -40%
Dec 12: -50%
Dec xx: -50%
The number of indexed pages is stable (actually it's increasing since I opended a news section), I have no alerts nor errors in GWT, the number of backlinks is stable... everything seems ok except for traffic.
Almost all my traffic is long tail, so it's very difficult to diagnose where I'm losing visitors.
Any thoughts?
PS: my first message :)
I have seen the same decline in traffic since approx Dec 10 - for BOTH google and Bing
My rankings are nearly unchanged.
Is the christmas shopping season.
I have seen the same decline in traffic since approx Dec 10 - for BOTH google and BingMy rankings are nearly unchanged.
Is the christmas shopping season.
But if you're right I would be more than happy ;)
Awstats shows I got 20.000 visitors last Sunday, Analytics show 14.000.
And as mentioned by others, yes, we know that shopping spree time = less visitors. But half visits? No, never. I've checked stats over 5 years.
This is surely a mess. Last year I was damaged by Adsense low profitabilty (change in pay per click), and now I've beeing damaged by Google traffic. GG.
I went along and "duplicated" my content, according to Matt Cutt's assurance that duplicate content on the same site wouldn't be punished. Was that a lie? Or collateral damage from GCaffeine.
Other strange thing. I have 2 Analytic accounts. The one that uses the same code for my main site, all the sites, even with different themes, targets, nature; they all present loss in traffic.
The second account, has increased traffic. All the sites. Coincidence?
My niche has nothing to do with holidays: no eCommerce websites, no Christmas offers....
Last year I didn't see any traffic drop and stats are kinda working.
In those days few things happened:
- google introducing page load speed in GWT (and my site is VERY slow)
- personalized search
- maybe caffeine going live sometimes
