Can Someone Please Explain….
We’ve been having trouble with this website, so much so that we’ve discussed calling it a day. It started with difficulty in linking with certain other bloggers’ sites (hello Sarah!), for instance difficulty in leaving comments or even giving a like. Or making us sign in with password to sites to which we already subscribe, every time we commented. But then on this last trip it all went to another level….
First, contents of the entire site effectively vanished. The menu at the top disappeared and every link to every article we’d ever published was dead. None of the help teams could tell us why or how it had happened, and they couldn’t restore it. They did, however, tell us how we could slowly rebuild.
And so Michaela spent several hours methodically and painstakingly rebuilding the site. It worked, but the result was…
Our visit numbers have fallen off a cliff. All year we’ve been averaging around 350-400 hits per day, peaking at 22,000 in the month of September. Suddenly, since that rebuild, we’ve dropped to around 100 per day, even lower on some days. It’s as if a connection has been lost somewhere in the sphere of Google searches.
Anyone else had a similar experience? Anyone know if there’s a way we can restore whatever connection has been lost?
49 Comments
Suzanne@PictureRetirement
I can’t provide answers, but I certainly would not stay with a blog host who can’t fix your issues. My blog is with WordPress, and they constantly ‘improve’ their service, wreaking havoc for weeks. The latest was a glitch with Grammarly. Before that, it was the comment box, and making ‘followers’ sign in. It’s frustrating, but eventually, they resolve things, and all is well—until the next time. I stay with them for lack of a better solution. If you find one, please pass it on.
This is the dreaded time of year when so many bloggers fade away and I’d hate to see you go. Your content is always inspiring.
Phil & Michaela
Well we’re with WordPress too. I just don’t understand how visitors can just vanish overnight in such numbers
Suzanne@PictureRetirement
Oops, missed the WP at the bottom. The theme doesn’t look familiar. Not to be insulting, just reaching for possibilities, but, could it have been Bots inflating your numbers? Do you feel comfortable that they were real? Just a thought.
Phil & Michaela
I have no idea! All I can say is that numbers have been running at that higher level for quite some time
Helen Devries
No, I have no idea, but WordPress has become a real pain in the proverbial. A fellow blogger has had a lot of problems with their Jetstats, showing low take up when in fact the take up was much higher – how he found out I do not know. They have removed sites I follow without notification, made it difficult for people to comment…..and in the case of your blog, refused to allow me to comment from time to time. I stick with it from inertia and the wish not to lose contact with those kind enough to comment on a regular basis.
Phil & Michaela
Hmmm…maybe the numbers haven’t dropped as dramatically as we thought then. Although I will never know that, as I don’t see there’d be a way of finding out. Unless I suppose it suddenly reverts to normal.
Monkey's Tale
I had problems for awhile having to sign in, but I changed my default to Chrome instead of Google (I think). I also had problems with losing things, but I was told it was because my Theme was no longer supported so I had to change Themes. Hope you don’t leave 😊 Maggie
Phil & Michaela
I really can’t understand how visitors can drop so suddenly in such numbers…unless some sort of Google connection has been cut.
Monkey's Tale
I have no idea, who knows what Google’s algorithm does. I find some of my most popular posts are seasonal. Such as hikes in Rockies don’t get many views in the winter. Everest views go up during climbing season etc.
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
I haven’t experienced any of the issues you describe. Are you using the app? App use gives access to blogs via electronic shortcuts, so that could be why you’re constantly being asked for passwords. I use the app a lot on my phone, but check- in regularly on the site.
I know that viewer drops have been occurring on WP – I’ve typically experienced them around December when people are too busy to visit.
I would be sorry to see you go, so I hope your issues are resolved in a timely manner.
Phil & Michaela
It’s just such a huge drop…there must be a problem somewhere.
Heyjude
I have no idea why your content should suddenly disappear, that’s really odd. I hadn’t noticed any issues but then maybe Michaela has fixed them all. As for the comments and having to log in (when already logged in) that’s common on a lot of blogs recently — mine included apparently. I have found that copying the comment first, then refreshing the page and then pasting the comment often works. I have had no issues in linking or liking, but yours and Sarah’s and a few other blogs I follow show up differently on the Reader – I see a paragraph followed by
Visit The Hungry Travellers for more (with a link)
Maybe something to do with the theme you use?
Toonsarah
That isn’t related to the theme as far as I know Jude, it’s an option you can select in your ‘reading’ settings. If you opt to show only an excerpt it encourages people to visit your site where images display properly, and they might even hang around to see more posts! It was a recommendation of Hugh’s a while back which I adopted. But if they did the same it should mean that Phil and Michaela’s visitor numbers are higher, not lower!
Phil & Michaela
Yes we did that by design some time ago, for those same reasons. I can’t see how 400 odd can become less than 100 overnight…it must be something to do with the rebuilt articles not being as visible on Google searches as the originals were
Heyjude
Thanks for the explanation Sarah. TBH I find it a bit annoying.
Toonsarah
I’m sorry if that’s the case Jude. I can see why it might be (although I almost never use Reader to read posts, only sometimes to find them). But on balance it seemed the better option for me. I spend quite a bit of time arranging my images etc. and I’m happiest if people see them as I’d planned 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Thanks Jude…for visitor numbers to drop so sharply something must have gone wrong. It’s as if Google searches don’t find us any more.
Heyjude
Are visitor numbers so important? It’s not as though you monetize your blog. In which case that would be annoying. More important (to me anyway) are the comments from people who visit your blog regularly and have a conversation with you. Have you noticed any difference in those?
Phil & Michaela
Well I suppose you’re right Jude, but I suppose there’s something rather edifying about receiving lots of visitors across a whole host of historic posts, and losing a bit of edification is ….well…unedifying. But yes there’s no money involved just a bit of personal satisfaction. Thankfully we haven’t noticed a drop in likes and comments from regulars, which is good. Frustrating nonetheless that we seem to have lost ground on Google searches. Ah well.
Jenny Woolf
I had difficulty posting a couple of comments recently – but I have been receiving notifications of your posts and able to read them all and haven’t noticed anything amiss. ( I’ve actually had more problems signing into Blogger, but only from my phone). I suspect blog software is pretty out of date these days. I hope Michaela’s hard work has paid off and things will improve for you.
Phil & Michaela
Very odd though that visitor numbers should drop so suddenly and b6 so much
Rochelle | Adventuresfromelle
This is so painful! It’s literally my worst nightmare sigh. I’m so sorry this is happening to you. I don’t have any answers but I hope everything can be restored very quickly. Keep sharing with us, even if it’s on another platform eventually. I do enjoy your content ❤️
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Elle…we’ll persevere for now but it’s worrying that visitor numbers have plummeted.
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
Funnily enough, I just checked my spam folder and found a number of comments from regular visitors (in some cases, people who have been coming by for years), so that’s definitely an issue I’ve just discovered. I also see that my comment from earlier today isn’t here. I’m beginning to see what you have been dealing with.
Phil & Michaela
Well for some reason, every comment you ever make comes through as “pending” and I have to approve it. This seems to mean that your comment then never appears on the page. We have this issue with just two followers – you and Maggie and Monkey’s Tale. I don’t know how to cure it.
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
That’s so annoying!
Phil & Michaela
Tell me about it!
WanderingCanadians
Well that’s annoying. Reminds me that I really should be backing up my posts. I have no solutions but I’ll say this, I hope that you’ll continue to blog as I really enjoy following along on your adventures. You’ve visited places of the world we may never get to someday and it’s been a lot of fun to live vicariously through you guys.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you for those nice comments. It’s just soul destroying to build up to lots of visitors and then see 75% of them vanish overnight!
Jyothi
I have been getting notifications, and I didn’t have any problem reading them all. Hope all is well on your side and that everything will be resolved soon.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you!
MrsWayfarer
I hope it gets fixed soon!
Phil & Michaela
We do too!
Lookoom
I haven’t had any problems accessing your site, but it’s true that WP changes are always a pain to get through. I hope you’ll be able to continue posting regularly, it’s always a pleasure to read you.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you – it’s just so frustrating to see visitor numbers fall off a cliff
Steven and Annie Berger
Annie and I have had no problems reading and commenting. We really enjoy your posts and certainly hope you’ll continue. Since we’re not food people and we don’t drink that much, it’s especially great to see what we missed when you post about places that we also have visited. We’re usually in bed by 8:00 so night time photos are few and far between (Imagine smiley face!!).
One night years ago Annie yelled out to me that all her posts were gone. Like both of you we were frantic. Fortunately I was quickly able to get everything working but it made me question about backing up her blog. I decided it was worth the extra time to copy every post into a word document. I’m still not caught up (she has well over 1000 posts) and I doubt the copies will ever be used but it goes very quickly and gives both of us a little extra piece of mind.
One final thought: maybe you haven’t lost all those visits, etc. but the numbers that are being transmitted to you about the visits is faulty. Gotta love technology.
Steve
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Steven. It’s as if we’ve lost a connection through Google searches rather than a problem with existing followers
Toonsarah
I have no idea why your menu etc disappeared like that and I can’t help on the visit numbers either, although like Annie I wonder if it’s the recording of the stats that’s at fault rather than an actual loss of visits? Are you getting a similar number of comments as in the past or has that dropped off too?
As to the ‘submitting comment’ hanging issue, I’ve exchanged so many emails with the Jetpack happiness engineers that I’ve lost count! At least they acknowledge there’s a problem and are trying to sort it, but so far without success. They told me at one point that it would be fixed with the next Jetpack update but that was installed last Tuesday and the issue persists. The latest I have from them is as follows:
“I’d like to share an update regarding your issue. Unfortunately, the changes implemented in Jetpack 14.1 have not resolved the problem as we had hoped. Our developers are actively working on a fix, which we aim to include in the next release of Jetpack. Please note that this update won’t be available until January, unless you opt to install the beta version of the plugin. We’ll keep you informed, should you consider this option.”
I’ve not looked into the beta version option as yet. I should add that as well as on my own site I get that issue here and on a handful of other blogs but not the majority. There must be something you, I and those others use, which my remaining blogging friends do not.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Sarah..comments have stayed at pretty much the same level, but then I don’t think the visitor number issue is down to a problem with those already following, it’s more as if we’ve lost something on Google searches since we had to do the rebuild. I don’t really understand it well enough but it’s as if some Google connection was lost when we re-posted the “lost” articles.
leightontravels
Sorry to hear about these woes Phil. I’m curious are you on a free standard plan? Business plan? Other plan? I also get quite frustrated with WordPress and its many bugs, but overall I feel I have gotten off lightly when I read about other bloggers’ woes on the platform. If my menu disappeared overnight I’d probably just go to bed for several days, what a nightmare. The ‘pending’ issue you mentioned in the comment thread happens to me to just one of my readers. Annoying, but I know to look out for it.
Gilda Baxter
Very sorry to hear about all these technical problems. I have heard that a lot of people lost traffic because of new Google algorithms. I haven’t done any blogging for over two years and still get quite a lot of traffic on my old posts. I hope you get everything sorted soon.
Phil & Michaela
That’s interesting, Gilda. We do seem to have suddenly plummeted down the “ladder” on Google searches.
Phil & Michaela
Hi Leighton. Here’s Michaela’s response…
Not a free plan, we pay for wordpress.org through Bluehost. They couldn’t advise why the menus disappeared. Just said would have to rebuild ourselves or pay a designer. Certainly not throwing more money at it. I guess that some hits may have dropped as the link to the original pages saved in peoples browsers showed as “page not found’ or something and didn’t pick up the newly installed pages. This happened to us so had to clear out things. Unknown people wouldn’t know to do this so would drift away.
….I would add to her response as follows. Something has definitely “disconnected” on Google searches. Our post on Kampot has always been very popular, and was always on Page 1 when you Googled simply the word “Kampot”. Do that search now and we appear way down on Page 9. Something in the rebuild seems to have made us less visible.
leightontravels
Ah, I don’t really know anything about wordpress.org, I have a business plan through WordPress.com I cannot compute how that could have happened to your menu but regularly hear stories about sudden drop offs in stats (that come with an array of theories as to why). I haven’t checked up on my 1st page Google articles in a while, your story has certainly made me pencil in some exploring next week to see how things are getting on. My search engine stats have been steadily rising throughout 2024 but I’m taking nothing for granted.
Phil & Michaela
Cheers bud
Alison
What a nightmare. I’ve not had issues with content disappearing but definitely have trouble submitting replies. I have the same hanging issue and I’m never sure if the comment has gone through. When I press like it takes me back to a precious site, so I give up. I don’t check my stats so who knows. I can’t imagine rebuilding, that would be awful.
However don’t give in, it would be a great loss to miss your excellent posts and fabulous photos
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Ali, that’s a nice message to read…❤️
grandmisadventures
I can offer nothing but sympathy here I’m afraid. The glitches and technical issues make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Here’s hoping they can get it all figured out
Phil & Michaela
I don’t know what else to say now. Just very frustrating.