Below 1% CTR for first time

From 20 to 0

[walrus]

Is anyone else seeing flatline earnings. I have never in 6 years seen 0% CTR . I am now seeing this on 2 directories. Is there is no way to contact them anymore except the forums ?

[incrediBILL]

What would you contact them for?

Your CTR isn't a problem for AdSense unless you can find a problem with AdSense on your sites.

Is your traffic still holding up?

What keywords are driving your traffic? Not all keywords results in ad clicks.

Are your ads still targeted?

Did your site get hacked and AdSense PUBID get replaced?

Lot's of things to look at.

[walrus]

What would you contact them for?

To check the account in ways that i can't because i have looked at everything else and it seems like they just are'nt being recorded.


<Your CTR isn't a problem for AdSense unless you can find a problem with AdSense on your sites. > Agreed, but i havn't been able to diagnose a reason for this after so long of extremely steady performance.

<Is your traffic still holding up?> Thats part of whats strange, still have lots of good rankings but less visitors. Thing is, its like 30% less traffic, 60% down in earnings.

<What keywords are driving your traffic? Not all keywords results in ad clicks. > On this particualr part its local, 5 years of excellent CTR performance with little wavering.

<Are your ads still targeted?> Hard to say. Last time I saw the top ad was okay with a totally irrelevant second and third position.

<Did your site get hacked and AdSense PUBID get replaced?> I've been checking all the code but will do that again.
Thanks

[incrediBILL]

Thats part of whats strange, still have lots of good rankings but less visitors. Thing is, its like 30% less traffic, 60% down in earnings.

There's a clue.

Where did those 30% come from before, where did they go? what keywords?

I think you're looking in the right direction, keep digging and you'll figure it out.

[IanCP]

"I am now seeing this on 2 directories"

Sticking my neck out once again and I suspect Bill will not agree:

"What munificent contribution to the universe are you making Walrus with directories?" Sad, here on WebmasterWorld we can't give examples to "out" these folks.

From "HE" who routinely gets reports via Google of MFA scrapers [solely my opinion] putting "my content" into their pseudo directories.

Even worse, enter some search terms, and No. 1 takes you to a "pseudo directory" which say's they have "no information!"

Is Google oblivious to this?

When searching nowadays, I all too regularly run into these valueless sites [other topics]. "Drivers" are a real super bonanza!

Never, ever, one scintilla of original content, just bludging upon the intellectual property of others.

And as an original "intellectual property copyright holder" I'm well entitled to complain out aloud.

Sorry for the tirade and if I've unfairly maligned you Walrus, I apologise but I have no time for "pseudo directories".

They rip off genuine content holders.

[incrediBILL]

I suspect Bill will not agree

You suspect correctly because I run a 12 year old directory myself (PR6) that ranks like crazy and it's not an MFA, I don't scrape, nor do the directory operators I personally know, so lumping all directories and the OP's plight under "it's an MFA directory" is kind of rude really.

Not that MFAs and directories are mutually exclusive, but MFAs take other forms as well and many directories are submission only, not scraped.

Plus he said it's LOCAL and 5 years old.

What's obvious to me, running a similar LOCAL directory is the latest Google Caffeine update hammered long tails which tend to be the main driving force of a LOCAL directory.

They rip off genuine content holders.

They also provide links and drive traffic.

FWIW, the SEs rip off genuine content holders much worse, including full content on cache pages, so a directory is far friendlier whether it scrapes or not.

[walrus]

Where did those 30% come from before, where did they go? what keywords?

I noticed in another thread this morning you mentioned IE visitors down below 60% and that may be partial cause of lower CTR. Guess I have to find more time to spend in analytics.

What munificent contribution to the universe are you making Walrus with directories?

Wellllll........one is just kind of typical local businesses, yeah, lightweight, cheap, but whitehat and original articles.
The other fills a still untapped area of search markets (can not reaveal what that is)and is a database of business listings thats edited one by one selectively.

And as an original "intellectual property copyright holder" I'm well entitled to complain out aloud.

LOL, want to compare stolen content ? Yes, it sucks, but i'm not the one stealing it, I have articles all over the net, not just copied but others claiming them as there own articles.

Sorry for the tirade and if I've unfairly maligned you Walrus, I apologise but I have no time for "pseudo directories".

Thats, okay, specualation is rampant in forums.

They also provide links and drive traffic.

Thanks IncrediBill, hate to admit one of them was whipped together but still way better than the vast sea of autogenerated MFA's.
The other , even some of you real WEBMASTERS would think was pretty clever.

[coachm]

I run some "directories" where we handpick high quality articles on a quite limited scale on very specialized topics as a service to our visitors. We also have original content to go with the directories. I don't believe we are seeing any changes recently. We work hard to keep links current, and weed out stuff that's no longer there, and it's clear that we provide a valuable service.

Now, auto generated "directories" are a different thing, and there's no value added, which to my mind is the issue. We write summaries by hand, and don't accept submissions. We find the best stuff.

[walrus]

No doubt there are good directories like there are bad directories and bad websites. Among the MFA's ther is also, not bad, kinda useless, good try, mediocre, downright cruddy etc etc.

After considering Incredibills comments I went back to check code and found that regardless of what G' doing lately, i have basically shot myself in the foot. Hopefully its the last time i learn that lesson about haste makes waste, sometimes several thousand dollars of waste.
Reminds me of finish painting and drywall. Just when you think you've done a good job you have to look again, all it takes is a bit more light and you can see all the imperfections.

Another that comes to mind is throwing spagetti to see if it sticks.
Sure, some of it sticks, but eventually you're gonna have to clean the wall.
....off to clean up a mess :)

[incrediBILL]

After considering Incredibills comments I went back to check code and found that regardless of what G' doing lately, i have basically shot myself in the foot.

Glad I could help steer you in the right direction and hope that "foot" heals real soon. ;)

With the exception of smart pricing, AdSense itself doesn't normally go haywire all by itself for no reason, it's usually something about the site or it's traffic source that changes.

[walrus]

Thanks again, I tend to under estimate how those little changes on site can actually be big changes in the serps. Especially if you say,....upload the wrong index into a subfolder.