Writing hub summaries

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  1. janshares profile image93
    jansharesposted 11 years ago

    Should hub summaries be exclusive from intros (first paragraph) to your hub? I've noticed that some hubbers use their summary as the intro to their hub. It certainly saves time. I usually write a separate summary and expand on it for my intro or opening paragraphs. Does it matter?

  2. profile image0
    CJensenposted 11 years ago

    This is just my opinion, it's free, and worth just about every penny you'll pay for it.
    If I'm out browsing the Web, jumping through blogs and articles, it may be the summary that initially grabs my attention. When I see that, it's generally my expectation that the summary I've read is a small excerpt from the article that I'm about to read. Sometimes the summaries will contain explicit information that I'm looking for, and if it's not actually a part of the article I follow it to, I may well leave the article without giving it a full read.
    I would expect that the summary is a lead in to, and actually part of the article I'm about to read. Now, in practice, I tend to write something that describes the article, but is not necessarily included in the article. Basically, I don't do what I claim I expect others to do. I guess I need to work on that a bit.

    1. wilderness profile image93
      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I would disagree with you; a summary should be a very short (<160 characters) synopsis of the hub.  It should give a good indication of what the hub is about; what the reader can expect to learn from it.  It is also an opportunity to "hook" the reader into the hub as well as a chance to stick a keyword in. 

      And that opinion, just like yours, is worth exactly what you will pay for it.  Take your pick.

      1. janshares profile image93
        jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Thanks, wilderness. That's how I see it, too.

  3. profile image0
    CJensenposted 11 years ago

    That's a fair point.

    I know what I think I like to see, but I've got some experimenting to do with my own articles to see what actually works to get reader attention.

    1. janshares profile image93
      jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, CJensen. It makes sense to experiment depending on the topic and your target audience

  4. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  5. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  6. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  7. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  8. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  9. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  10. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

  11. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    How do you make a seperate intro from your actual article? When I publish mine you just see the beginning of the article I don't know how to make a seperate discription (new here)

    1. aa lite profile image85
      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      When you're in the webtool tool, writing your hub b4 you publish it, or if you are editting it, there is a place on the right of the content that allows you to put in the summary.  Basically you get 4 choices: reorder, settings, summary and group.

      The reason you haven't seen it because it is set to "reorder" where you can swap your modules around.  If you click on the "summary" "tab" you will be able to write the summary.

      There was a lengthy thread about summaries started by somebody who in my opinion didn't have a clue what they were talking about.  So I wouldn't recommend reading the whole thread, it gets rather nasty.  However the very last post is a very thorough explanation about summaries from somebody who knows what she is talking about.
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/106401

      Google says it does not use summaries for ranking.  However, they will display the first ~150 characters in the search page under your link, so a good summary will "hook"  searchers and get them to choose your page rather than competitors (so the theory goes). 

      Also if you know the main keyword your hub is targetting (the phrase you want to be found for) it is good to include it in the summary as long as it reads naturally, because it will be shown in bold in the search results page, reassuring your readers that they will find what they are looking for on your page.

      1. janshares profile image93
        jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Thank you very much, aa lite for your post.

      2. janshares profile image93
        jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

        Just wanted to thank you again, aa lite. I just read the link and it is extremely helpful. It more than answered the question of this forum.

        1. aa lite profile image85
          aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the thanks, but it is really Greekgeek who has the good and very thorough info.

          1. janshares profile image93
            jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, she's great.

    2. janshares profile image93
      jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's interesting Pinklady1350. Maybe that's what I've been seeing - - hubbers who are not writng summaries so the intro or first paragraph appear as the summary. When you're writing your hub you will see on the riht hand lower side of the page, some tabs. One of them says summary. Click on it to write a summary. I'm assuming that was your question.

  12. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    oops :-/

  13. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    oops :-/

  14. Will Apse profile image88
    Will Apseposted 11 years ago

    Worst case of hiccups I have seen in a while, lol.

    As to writing summaries, if your summary is not unique i.e. is duplicate content it has the potential to hurt your page as it appears in various places around the web. Short is certainly better.

    1. janshares profile image93
      jansharesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your help, Will.

  15. Pinklady1350 profile image61
    Pinklady1350posted 11 years ago

    oops lol..sorry about that! I tried to delete it but my computer sucks ha! Thanks for the info guys

 
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