Regarding Summaries: Is it ok?

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   subdomainposted 12 years ago

   .. to put in summaries that have no connection with the topic of one's hubs, but is more searched for and of more lucrative keywords?
   
   Is it ok? I couldn't find anything related to using deceptive summaries.
   
   See this http://hubpages.com/search/include:hubs+top+10

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      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Anyone doing that could really screw over the rest of us.

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Am I missing something? Why would you want to write a Hub where the keywords would only appear in a summary? This is mind-boggling to me. It defeats the purpose of writing a Hub.

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      Maddie Ruudposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Bad idea.  You'd definitely be penalized by Google.  Keyword stuffing has always been looked down upon, but the big G has been cracking down even further in recent updates.

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         Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know that I'd call this keyword stuffing, just deceptive (as the OP alluded to). Like, in a summary, "10 ways to whighten your teeth at home," and the Hub is about using Clorox on your bathtub. I don't get the thinking here, at all.

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         paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Click on the OP's provided link. HP needs to start kicking butt and taking names.

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            Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Actually, if that's a real HP return on a search for "top 10", then HP needs to take a look at what it's returning in its search results.

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               paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               HP's searcher works just fine! It has just shown us a whole bunch of fraudulent summaries that need to be dealt with.

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                  Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Exactly my point.

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                     paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I'd rather the time be spent on cleaning up the corruption than reprogramming the searcher to ignore the corruption.

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                        Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        They are part and parcel of the same thing. HP has work to do.

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      theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      One of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Why would you do this? So you can piss readers off? All they're going to do is bounce right back off your page when they realize the content is not what they're looking for. This gives Hubpages a bad name and us along with it.

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   Lady_Eposted 12 years ago

   It could be flagged by people...

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      Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Lady E,
      
      Just curious....how would one flag a summary, when they(hubbers) don't see them?
      
      Summaries are for search engines to read and display on search engine results.

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   I was just getting ready to start a new thread when I saw this one.
   
   Summaries:
   
   For those folks who haven't already noticed. Google is taking us at our word and using the summaries as the description. Formerly google was randomly picking something out of the page text, sometimes it was even the text of a comment and nothing from the article itself.
   
   I guess what I'm trying to say is, “Don't phone it in when you write your summary.”

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   Moon Daisyposted 12 years ago

   I'm guessing you're thinking that more searched-for keywords would lead to more page views, and so higher earnings from the Ad Program (and possibly from Adsense too, if people click on the ads anyway - despite not meaning to be there in the first place).
   
   I'm not sure if there's anything to stop someone from doing this, although if there isn't then perhaps there should be.  It seems completely dishonest and would be misleading and annoying for the searcher.  And as paradigmsearch says, it wouldn't be good for this site.
   
   Maybe you're asking this because you've seen other people doing this and wondering if it's allowed, rather that thinking of doing it yourself?

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You bring up a really good point. In the past, a summary would be auto-derived from the first hundred or so characters in a Hub. Now that a summary has to be created by the author, the opportunity for abuse is rife.

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5. 80

   Moon Daisyposted 12 years ago

   Paradigmsearch, is that why we're being reminded to write summaries for all our hubs?  I wondered about that.  Knowing what you've told us, I will take care to write them for the rest of my hubs.  Thanks.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   Surely if the searcher searches for holidays and sees a title that is about fractions they aren't going to be interested?  And vice versa.
   
   Therefore - I can't really see the benefit to the author.
   
   My theory is that they know absolutely no English at all, and their master told them to add this summary to everything.
   
   I can't see how it works on any level.
   
   edit:  hmmmm. Strange hubtivity too.

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      Moon Daisyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You're right that there would be a discrepancy between the title and the summary in Google, and that should give people a clue that there's something dodgy going on.  Maybe if someone wants to scam people in this way they would also use a misleading title.  (Although sometimes when I'm using Google I'm a little blind to the titles, as long as my search words are contained in the summary - maybe other people are too).
      
      Either way, the aim is to get people to view their page and earn them more money.  I guess that's the benefit to the author.  (Obviously no benefit to the reader though.   )

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7. 80

   Moon Daisyposted 12 years ago

   Just wanted to pick up on what you said, (I know it's going off the main subject, sorry about that!). But I just tested a few of my hubs in Google, and it still seems to be using wording from my hubs as the Google summary, rather than the summary that I've put together in HP.  For one example that I tried, it took the wording from one of the links at the bottom of the page.
   
   So maybe this change hasn't come in yet. Or maybe it's just me, lol. (??)

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      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Subdomain specific maybe? If so, then google really is at least partially (if not more) classifying us by subdomains. In other words, hub A affects the ranking of hub B in that same subdomain. Me thinks I'm going to go do some more clean-up work.

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         Moon Daisyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Hmm, interesting..
         
         I did a few more, and for some it uses my summary and for others it doesn't.  Weird.  And interesting.

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            paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            If you could ascertain if there are any other causative factors in addition to what Sally said, it could be very interesting indeed! Age of hub for example, number of comments, and who knows what else. 

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               Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               There are so many factors, and I'm learning from everyone's thoughts, experiences, and opinions.
               
               One thing I'm sure of, this is not a day-to-day game. There is no instant gratification. If you want to write here and see consistent financial rewards, then be here for a year or two or more and set your sights on the long-term, not on the short.

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            gracenotesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Moon Daisy,
            
            In the past, long before the emphasis on writing our own custom summaries, I noticed that what the searcher saw under the title of your hub was dependent on the search terms they typed.
            
            It seemed that the long tail searches simply found snippets of text that had the long-tail phrases, and the searches that used your main keywords displayed the summary created by HubPages when you published your hub.
            
            I don't know how it works now.  In the last few weeks, I've just started to write my own summaries, so I know that Google hasn't caught up with my changes yet.
            
            By the way, I'm finding a good custom summary is very beneficial for my traffic.

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               Moon Daisyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Gracenotes, I have also noticed my traffic going up very recently, and was wondering if writing my own summaries is making a difference. 

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It takes time for G to pick up new summaries. And more time for them to be populated in such places as Facebook.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   Er.. to be more charitable.
   
   The guys got 500 hubs, a lot of which are about travel.  He gets the call from HP that everything must have a summary.  He cuts and pastes... 500 times.  I wouldn't be able to read my own stuff after the first 100.

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   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   I just know if I was searching for something and the blurb had nothing to do with the topic I would be very angry.

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Amen.

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    Moon Daisyposted 12 years ago

    Ah thanks Sally's Trove, that makes sense.  It's probably just the case then that it's using my summaries that I wrote a while ago, and still picking out bits from my hub, for the summaries that I didn't do very long ago (as G hasn't picked them up yet).

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    Moon Daisyposted 12 years ago

    I think what Sally said could well explain it, but will have another look tomorrow. Off to bed now.

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    SunSevenposted 12 years ago

    I wonder why those hubs are not moderated as these could hurt the neighboring subdomains? Just my doubt.

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       SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Bump

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    Lisa HWposted 12 years ago

    The fact that the OP used the phrase, "deceptive summaries", kind of made me wonder; because I'm not sure most people who engage in that kind of thing would describe it in their thread the way it has been described here.  (Most of who engage in deceptive behavior, and don't talk about it, don't use words like "deceptive" to describe it.  Anyway, I fell for the bait and clicked on the profile.  This person claims to be experimenting (and probably is).
    
    Either way, it's a good example of how use of words/phrasing/grammar (etc.) that don't match the behavior/persona of the person writing can make a reader "wonder" (and sometimes make a Hubber go looking for what might be "flaggable").  But that's a subject for another thread...

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    Moon Daisyposted 12 years ago

    Paradigmsearch, I was going to say that whether or not Google uses my summary or snippets from my hub, in some cases, seems to depend on the words on which I search.  Then I noticed that gracenotes has explained this a lot better in her post above mine.   Thanks gracenotes, what you've written is really interesting.
    
    As I am gradually changing my summaries to all be my own, it's really difficult to tell which ones Google has picked up and which ones it hasn't.  It might be better for me to experiment further with this in a few weeks time, (or however long it usually takes for G to catch up with these things).

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    SunSevenposted 12 years ago

    Oh! Its still there!
    
    http://hubpages.com/search/top+10

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