Need Summary

1. 91

   Jean Bakulaposted 12 years ago

   All of my 82 hubs are marked with this. Do I have to write a summary for all of them? I never heard of this. Isn't the first sentence available, or a few more lines if you set it that way? If I have to do this, how long do I have? I had more views that ever today, now I am really bummed again.

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   1. 60

      Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's optional, but it might help gaining extra visibility with certain web services and search engines. Recommended in some cases, but not required.

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      1. 91

         Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Jason, I feel like I live on this forum lately. As I write my first paragraph, I think my first few sentences are somewhat of a summary of what is to come in the hub. If I were to write summaries, I would feel I was repeating myself. So it's not dire if I don't do it? Still undecided.

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      2. 81

         David 470posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for answering staff, I was afraid this was bad...I have 180 hubs!

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   2. 90

      Urbane Chaosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There's a lot of discussion on this here already - it's amazing how quickly people notice new things!  
      
      I always recommend writing your own summary.  Apparently, the automatic summaries have been removed, which is a good thing.  A short summary of your article not only improves SEO, but it also helps readers figure out what they're looking at..
      
      Usually, I start with a one or two sentence description of my article.  Once I have that, then I go through and insert keywords where I can.  By the time I'm done, it's usually only three or four sentences.  The important thing, for SEO, is to have your keywords as far to the left of the paragraph as you can (towards the start of the sentence).  It's not hard to do, but when you're playing catch up then it does get time consuming.
      
      I love this new feature.. It pointed out a few of mine that didn't have summaries already - and they all towards the low performance end of things.

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      1. 81

         David 470posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         But how does HubPages know the difference between a summary and a paragraph that just has an intro sentence?

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         1. 91

            Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            David,
            You took the words out of my mouth. I've tried SEO and changed all my titles, and my viewership went down. Plus your first title never changes on Google anyway, you will have one hub with 2 titles for a few weeks. HS writing tells you your first paragraph is what summerizes your piece. Why do it twice? I think it's more BS. Keyword stuffing gets you in trouble, and it's hard to get your words to flow. I'm still not sure. It's always something on here, I think they are sinking and don't know what to do.

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            1. 60

               Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, keyword stuffing will get you into trouble. We have never advocated it, and think it's a bad practice.
               
               Writing summaries is an optional step that, if you do it right (write something genuine and useful, not keyword-stuffed)), might help.

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         2. 90

            Urbane Chaosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            As far as hubpages, if you enter a summary in the "summary" box, then HP knows that the page has a summary on it.
            
            With writing, I don't like to create an introductory sentence or paragraph - rather, I try to draw my readers in with a "hook".  Usually, a hook doesn't consist of a lot of keywords and other SEO aspects.  With a separate summary, it's easy to add those SEP elements that need to be there.

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         3. 95

            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Unless I completely misunderstand, the summary being referred to is that short blurb that appears on a search engine result.
            
            There is a button near the "tag" button when editing to lets you provide that summary.

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            1. 60

               Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, that's right. Sometimes search engines use it, sometimes they don't. Google does sometimes (other times they pull in text relevant to the searcher's query in the main body of the Hub).
               
               If done right, it can't hurt and might help. But I would argue it's not an immediate priority that you must do all at once, either.

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               1. 91

                  Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  OK, I still have to think about it more, but appreciate the help and discussion. Actually, a paper begins with an introduction, has a body, and the summary is at the end. Why don't we break every grammer rule there is on this "writer's site." But is it going to become a necessity in a week or something?

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                  1. 60

                     Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     This is a bit different - more of a summary that accompanies the Hub/article/paper than an excerpt taken directly from it.

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                  2. 90

                     Urbane Chaosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I've found that it helps, but in the end, it's always personal preference.  As I've said before, do whatever works for you.  I spent a few months trying different things out and finally found a strategy that works with my articles, but no two articles are the same.  Your writing is excellent, and I've always enjoyed reading it. 
                     
                     Also, a traditional essay follows the format that you mentioned, but an alternate way to write is by using the inverted pyramid.  Actually, USA Today almost exclusively uses this approach.  There are as many writing styles as there are people, and as a writers site I think HP does a good job of accepting all styles.
                     
                     However, I also agree with you - unfortunately, there is a lot of "junk" out there, and many times in order to get noticed by the Google monster we've had to format things differently than we would for print media.  I think this is slowly starting to change though.  At least I hope so anyway.. I'd rather avoid all of the SEO junk and focus on simply writing more.

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                     1. 91

                        Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        OK, well I'll think about it. It's true writing online is a whole different thing than writing for a magazine or a report. Jason, thanks for your patience, I didn't mean to sound so cranky. I felt overwhelmed at the thought I might have to change all the hubs really fast. And Urbane Chaos, thanks for your input as well. It's been a few hours, and I'm thinking it may bring more attention to certain hubs, now that I've recovered from the fact it's not a necessity for all of them. .

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         4. 74

            Eaglekiwiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Its not Hubpages so much, its the search engines and the whole point of writing for income and profile is to be noticed.
            
            Um  click edit on your hub ,then look across to your right and you will see some options (under the capsules area,I think)
            Anyway...look for the word summary ,click ,and write one or two eye popping sentences to grab your reader.
            
            Something that will inform and entice the reader to want to click further to 'your hub'
            
            Good luck!

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            1. 90

               Urbane Chaosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               This is exactly it, "Its not Hubpages so much, its the search engines and the whole point of writing for income and profile is to be noticed."
               
               In a perfect world, what we write would be easily found by those who are interested.  Everyone would work together, and there would be no "Flipping", "Spinning", or any of the other things people do to earn a quick buck..
               
               For the most part, the authors on HP are good people and good writers.  I wish there was a better way, but unfortunately, online, there just isn't.

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   3. 85

      Jlbowdenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Jean:
      
          I just noticed this today on my hubs as well. What the A symbol after your hub means, is that the summary can be added optionally. By adding the summary, it increases the chances of other readers doing searches etc...,of finding your articles. And in addition can increase the traffic to those articles, such as traffic from google and bing. Also as some of the other hubbers on this forum already mentioned-in two or three sentences it gives an overall review of what your article is about. Again this is only optional and does not have to be included.
      
      Jl

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      1. 91

         Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the support Jl. I decided to add a summary to a few of the lower scoring hubs, and see how that goes, or what it does. I still don't understand, where does this summary show up after we wrtie it? On Google?

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         1. 90

            Urbane Chaosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It shows up right after the link to your hub on Google, and other search engines.  In addition, I believe that this also shows up when people share your link on Facebook and other pages.  At least, it's always worked for me like that.

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            1. 91

               Jean Bakulaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               OK thanks. I was under the impression that it would appear near the hub last night when I wrote a few. Then today, I worried that maybe the summary should have directly told people something like, "Read the whole review/hub/article on Hubpages.com under  my name. HP has made me sleep deprived. It's like a love/hate relationship now. Maybe I'll write a hub about that!

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