Redirect 301 and hub layout change status update

So far so good, on both accounts!

My main page stays at the upper boundary of its range for the main keywords, and even shortly went to position #3 today for one of them. Funny, it was listed with the old address at that time :) I figured where extra traffic is coming from - I got a rise on Yahoo for a secondary keyword, and now hold position #3 for it. Good result! Main keywords came back to the listing, but slightly lower - at #89. No changes on Live/MSN.

Now, another test I started a couple of weeks ago with the hub layout brought spectacular results, too! Remember, for the first half of February CTR was in the area of 3.5%, and it pretty much was in line with historical average. Now, since I made the change, average CTR for the period shoot up to 7.5%! More than twice, with corresponding change in eCPM. I like it too :)

I like it!

I don't know what will be down the road, but I like how I feel today! I am already having the second most profitable day of all time, and it seriously threatens the previous record, that was set almost a year ago. Right now it is showing $170.63 for the day, with the record being $185.35, and it still has more than 4 hours to go!

So yesterday night YieldBuild finally picked up the right configuration, and now I am enjoying the ride in the full force - CTR about 50% and eCPM approaching $30. Traffic seems to pick up, too - hence the spectacular results. Not sure exactly where extra traffic is coming from - SERPs for the main keywords are still inside their recent range, albeit at the upper boundary. Probably some secondary keywords got a boost from changing url - will try to check with GA tomorrow.

Well, overall I am really satisfied so far. It did not take long, just five days, and there were no drop in traffic at all. And if you are not using ad optimizer you will not feel the transition at all!

This all refers to google. No changes on Live yet, and I got dropped from Yahoo :D

Redirect 301 - completed

Well, it took BigG about five days to do the job. Right now page address is updated for every keyword I bothered to check. No changes in ranking in BigG, no significant changes on Y and Live either. Wonder if it was the good idea to implement at all. Yet on other pages I saw a definite improvement. Either improvement did not come yet and will come a bit later, or this change was not enough to alter the current status quo for this particular page...

Money wise I am still in dire straights - Yieldbuild still did not pickup the right configuration, and my eCPM still stays a half of what it could have been, earnings follow of course. Need to have more patience on this, I know it takes a while. :)

Trying to push YieldBuild to optimize faster

The whole day was agonizing over relatively low eCPM. Not really really low, it was around $10, which is not that bad at all - yet I got used to twice as much lately. I know what ad tabs configuration Yieldbuild should arrive at to get this eCPM, so watching it wondering around without any purpose finally became unbearable.

So I went in and edited out two ad tabs, so only one is left and what that thingie should do is just to figure out the right type of the ad and its format. Yet so far it did not pick it up, despite of my best effort :(

The total for today is around $65, and it unlikely to get much higher than $70 for the whole day...

No changes on search engines side. Still the same positions, and more or less the same traffic, that slightly grows, probably due to the seasonal tendencies...

Redirect 301 - current status

Search engines wise - nothing to report home so far. New page got indexed in Google and Yahoo, Live lags as usual. However, there are no changes in search results just yet. They still show the old address, and position remains the same - hovering about 20 on MSN, 80 on Yahoo, and the bottom half of the first page on Google.

Yet there is one thing I did not think about that hit me in the back - my ad optimizing service. It rightly decided that this is a fresh new page, and started all optimization from scratch. It will take anywhere from several days to several weeks to arrive at the optimal placement that worked that well for me at the old address!

Meanwhile I got a serious reduction in eCPM and of course earnings! Yesterday I made just around $65, and if not for ads re-optimizing it would have been in the area of $110...