Does The Classic Hub Hopper Devalue our Hubs?

1. 94

   Marketing Meritposted 11 years ago

   Posting a response to another thread, this thought came to mind....
   
   I wonder if the Hub Hopper is potentially devaluing our hubs.
   
   If someone is not interested in your particular topic, then they will skip it in a split second.
   
   This reduces the amount of time spent on your page and also leads to an increased bounce rate as they hop on to the next hub and not another page on your site (subdomain).
   
   Only recently installed Google Analytics for my hubs but I am horrified by the bounce rate that I am achieving. This is sending a signal to Google that my hubs are sub standard and not worthy of ranking!
   
   Perhaps the way to reduce this is to allow Hubbers to pick the topics they want to hop?
   
   Any thoughts on this from those more SEO minded than myself?

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   1. 95

      Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not really SEO minded, but it sounds like common sense. Anyone using the hub hopper is considered a visitor by google, and I know I'm guilty of simply pressing the hop button if I'm not interested in the hub. That has to increase the bounce rate! If Google is devaluing my hubs because of the hub hopper, that's really not fair is it?

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      1. 94

         Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         My sentiments exactly Daughter of Maat!
         
         I have over 30 websites of my own and don't achieve a bounce rate of anywhere near that of HubPages.
         
         Something's just not right but I can't quite put my finger on it!

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2. 78

   Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

   Google doesn't care about Hubpages' hub hopper. It's only on Hubpages, nowhere else on the web, so it would be a useless metric for comparing webpages on hubpages to the rest of the web.
   
   Google ONLY cares whether people are finding what they're searching for via GOOGLE.
   
   If someone's hopping in a hurry with the hubtool, so what? Those are people playing a game, not looking for a particular search query. Someone might hop away from a boring article on how to replace tha ballast on a fluorescent light immediately, because it's not a fun read, but that would tell Google nothing about whether it's a relevent and useful page for people trying to change the ballast on fluorescent lights.
   
   This is what most experts forget to tell you about bounce rates.
   
   GA wouldn't record someone hopping hubs as a "bounce" anyway, since they are not bouncing back to Google, but continuing to navigate the same site. In Google's eyes, that's the opposite of a bounce -- it's someone remaining on a website.
   
   Finally, to explain recent traffic drops, we have to examine recently implemented policies, algorithm changes or new traffic factors, not ones that have been around for years.

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   1. 94

      Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your detailed feedback Greekgeek. It is very informative!
      
      Just one other thing I'd like to ask and that is regarding the change over in the profile page. Several people have commented that this has adversely affected their traffic but I'm unclear as to why.
      
      Would you happen to know?

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3. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   IMHO there is nothing wrong with having a high bounce rate.  Bounce is not objectively bad.

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   1. 94

      Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I always thought a high bounce rate was bad to be honest Psycheskinner although someone else also said, on another thread, that the time spent on the page was a more important metric.
      
      I'm just wondering how Google view it.
      
      I have over 30 websites of my own and have never experienced a bounce rate of over 80%, which is what I am recording with HP.
      
      Instinct tells me to just wait and let the dust settle for a while.

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4. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   My hubpages goal is to have many perfect visitors who comes to one of my hubs and leave by clicking an ad.  That is: I actually *want* them to bounce.
   
   My other websites want them to stay and read everything I have to say--which is different.

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5. 74

   Anti-Valentineposted 11 years ago

   I know I may get flak for this, but I have had thoughts on this hub hopper feature too. How does it differ from a traffic exchange program? And doesn't Google not like traffic exchange programs?

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