Related links
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While not fond of related links, there’s no doubt they do increase my traffic. The last two days, my traffic has slumped (right now my hits are down by 50%, even allowing for fluctuations). Using IE – a browser on which I have no “presence” by which I mean no cookies or history, I only use it for checking stuff like this, it doesn’t associate me with my blog, as Firefox does, so I can see what a visitor would see – I checked a couple of posts – no related links at all.
Back to Firefox, my normal browser, and in Extras, I re-enabled related links (they were still shown as enabled, i.e., unchecked), but I hit the Update Extras button anyway.
Back to IE, refresh the post – and there are the related links. Question is, why did they disappear in the first place? And is it something I need to keep an eye on?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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In the last 90 minutes or so, since the above post, my stats have improved considerably – up by 80% on the figure at that time.
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OK, this really is a pain in the butt – the related links have vanished again, and nothing I can do will bring them back. Just reported it to WP. There’s a forum post about misbehaving stats here
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/are-stats-updating-normally-today?replies=121I wonder if there’s a connection?
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Staff said in the past that they won’t always appear. No idea what governs when they do and when they don’t.
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Sometimes there just isn’t any related content to show on a given post. That being said, related posts shouldn’t appear and disappear on the same post when refreshing the page and/or using a different browser. I am not clear if that is what you are saying is happening or not. Also related posts and stats are not related (no pun intended) other than, as you said, participating in related posts can cause bring more visitors to your blog. Are you saying that the related posts section is appearing and disappearing on a given post? If so, can you please provide the link to the post so we can take a look. Thanks.
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Hi Barry,
“Are you saying that the related posts section is appearing and disappearing on a given post?”
Yes – I was mostly checking randomly, but here’s a few of the links
http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/my-home-town/
http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/dla-copd-disability-mecfs-questions/
http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/the-ideal-length-of-a-blog-post/This post
contains a link for a commercially-available product which should surely generate related links, and has before – right now though (09.56)it isn’t showing any at all. Nor are any of the above posts, and several other that I’ve looked at.
“That being said, related posts shouldn’t appear and disappear on the same post when refreshing the page and/or using a different browser. I am not clear if that is what you are saying is happening or not.”
Indeed, that’s exactly what I’m saying (I use IE to check stuff like this, as it’s not normally used for anything else – the effect is the same as getting someone else to check for me; Firefox would “recognise” me and not show me the related posts). And yesterday evening,shortly after my last post here, they were showing again on a random check with IE, and around that time my stats picked up dramatically, ending the day at 152 hits, having been pretty static most of the day. Go figure.
My hits do vary throughout the day, like anyone else’s but when they’re stuck on 25 hits, 2 or 3 referrers and nothing from search engines, for half the day, then it’s so far outside the norm that something is clearly out of whack.
I accept that the content of some posts may not generate related hits, though given the eclecticism of the web it would be a rare post indeed that was unique, and had no matches. raincoaster says, as you can see, that staff say it’s normal for related links to come and go, yet you say it’s not. I’m intrigued.
Apologies for the delay in replying – I’m disabled, and not generally up to much in the evening.
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“My hits do vary throughout the day…” third para from end.
Doh! I meant stats, not hits…
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I’ve been keeping an eye on this post all day, as it’s another with no related links recently
http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/browser-update/For the first half of the day there were no links, even when refreshed. Then suddenly, there were, and they’ve been there ever since.
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