Can you get traffic to your Hubs without promoting them?

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   NateB11posted 10 years ago

   I suppose with just a few keywords and a search friendly title. The image that pops in my head is of a store in an obscure spot that no one ever hears about. Word has to get out somehow. But can you do that without ever posting a link anywhere? Is it possible it can just get crawled and indexed, end up in SERPs and that's it? And, how does that work? Does Google just put it there based on relevant keywords?

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      jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The one thing we don't have control over NateB11 is the fickle needs of people. But we do have control over what they are searching for based on keyword tools, right? A saying just popped in my head: "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." I would add, "especially if he's not thirsty."

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         NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Well-put, Jan. I'm increasingly starting to see the importance of keywords; they have to find your work somehow and it has to be something they're searching for.

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      myeffortsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I have experienced that we do need to promote our writings to get traffic. Key words help to some extend. In addition to that, we have to make the world known what and where have we created something. This definitely improves traffic.

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2. 96

   EricDockettposted 10 years ago

   If you do exactly what you said--craft search-friendly titles and use keywords wisely--you can definitely get traffic without ever posting your own links anywhere.  In fact, if people like your Hubs they'll do the posting for you.  Social media is increasingly important but search is still the #1 way people find stuff on the web.  All you have to do then is write Hubs that give them what they want or need.  So that's three things: search-friendly titles, smart use of keywords, quality content that answers the search query.  No Twitting or Facebooking required. 

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      NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That is good to know and thanks for your insights. Funny thing is, I searched one of my recent hubs and it already climbed up on the SERPs. I can see how quickly good keywords get indexed and can get traffic. I've also recently had more people sharing my hubs, and I'm pretty sure some of my old hubs started getting significant traffic without promotion. Even though I was new when I wrote them, and so did little promotion, they did well. But I'm still feeling this thing out and was reaching out to see what others knew about it. You've laid it out very well: "Search-friendly titles, smart use of keywords, and quality content that answers the search query." Good things to remember.

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I do practically nothing with regards to marketing my work, and while I don't have the spectacular views some people get, I do OK.  At t his moment I have been here for 19 months and have 65,000 views on 126 hubs...many of which are fairly new.  I would rather write than market.

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            NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            That' s good to know. I'm with you on that; I'm much more into writing than marketing.

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   Greekgeekposted 10 years ago

   Keywords and a search-friendly title are definitely all you need, because you're publishing on a site (Hubpages) that Google crawls frequently. So it'll find your hubs as soon as they're featured, and your keywords and search-friendly title should help dumb ol' Googlebot understand what you're writing about and what searches to file it under.
   
   Here's the hard part. Google is trying (although not always succeeding) in pointing its users to pages that are likely to satisfy them when they look something up. So, while you've got your store on the map, you've still gotta stock it with good inventory.
   
   And there are likely other pages out there on similar topics, no matter how obscure you get, because the web is so large. So you just plonked down a clothing store in a block that has a lot of clothing stores.
   
   That means what's in your store has to be interesting, or helpful, or well-written, or entertaining, or all of the above. The better your content (whether it's got unique photos, useful information, or a well-chosen list of links to good resources), the more likely Google is to rank your page above others that it's filed under similar searches.
   
   
   FWIW, I do three things to help, and these are long-term strategies. You don't have to do 'em, but I find they work for me:
   -- Write in niches. You don't JUST have to write in niches, but it helps if you can build up some authority on a topic. On Hubpages, you can collect together all your hubs in one niche into a group -- I've got an "astronomy and space geekery" niche for example -- and then, at the bottom of the page, each hub in the group links to the next and previous hub in the group. Some human visitors will follow these links, and over time, Google may begin to recognize that you write good information in [niche] and rank you a little better for it.
   -- Set up Google authorship on sites where you publish. This means creating a Google profile, adding a link on your Google profile to your Hubpages profile page under "where I write" (or whatever the Google settings are calling "my stuff" this week), and then, on your hubpages profile settings, add a link to your Google+ profile page. This sticks an invisible tag on all your hubs saying "written by [yourname]," and then, hopefully, the more you write, the more Google will see that you've written good stuff before so that it gives a little extra credit to your new pages as "more content on X by this author who's written good content on X before."  Again, niches help, but even outside niches, you're establishing your reputation as a writer.
   -- I do use one single social media site where I'm intermittently active anyway as a member of that community. Mostly I'm sharing things that are interesting or useful that I've found online. Now and then I will share when I post a new article --on my blog, Hubpages, or other sites -- and because I've already built up a following of people who read my stuff, some of them may be genuinely interested and check out the new article.
   
   But that's primarily just sharing things I find fascinating (NOT my stuff), and, again, slowly building up online reputation as someone who tends to write on X and Y and Z. I don't dwell too much on that aspect. I'm just aware that every post, tweet, article, etc that is linked back to my identity can add to my "authorship rep" on Google and, perhaps, help.
   
   (I wonder if there's an "author rep" factor for "occasionally writes useful information, but totally incapable of brevity" )
   
   I believe that you can get by on content alone, without bothering to do any promotion, as long as there is at least one link from someplace Googlebot already crawls to lead it to the new page. Hubpages is already crawled, so you're set.

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      NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Good detail and sound reasoning, makes sense. And I like it. I'd prefer the task of getting traffic to be left to good content and some keywords, with some crawling, indexing and the people finding the content valuable.

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   Dale Hydeposted 10 years ago

   I have been here for right at a year and a half.  Right now I am down to approximately 90 hubs that are active.  My views have been 265,905 as of this post. 
   
   I have done very little promoting myself.  The majority of my views come from Google and other search engines, not promotions.  There a few exceptions such as one of my hubs spreading fast at one point on Pinterest.

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   1. 89

      NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Very good to know, and I thought that's how it might work. Seems a better route to allow the content and the search engine to take care of traffic.

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   WryLiltposted 10 years ago

   I am closing in on 3 million viewson this account, with very limited promotion. Most hubs I publish and then leave to sink or swim.

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      NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm liking this news and it seems to be the consensus.

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         Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I agree too. You need a decent title, use the keywords in the body of the article a few times, or in the Subtitles, but mainly try to find a niche that you actually like or care about, and your enthusiasm will come through. I never bothered to get a Facebook A/C, because if I want people in my life to know something about myself, I tell them. Plus I have others in the house who don't always log off the computer, so we keep getting snarled up on each other's pages. But it's not necessary. I do post my most recent or relevant articles on my Google 1 page now and then, and my blog is set up to tweet when I write a new piece. Most sites now are too slick to let anyone leave backlinks like in the old days, when you could write a piece and post it on as many sites as you wanted. I've been here 2 years and have rarely found a site that lets you link back. If you write on other sites, try hard to link what you write there to here, or all the places you write. I'm sure you can find a few pieces that have something in common. Even if you don't have a niche, you want to get your name recognized. We're all trying to adapt to the changes as they come.

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   HollieTposted 10 years ago

   When it comes to promoting my hubs or articles, most people on my FB page are writers themselves, and although we have that it common we may not necessarily share the same interests, so I don't bother. I do tweet sometimes using hashtags, and that brings a few new readers, the odd retweet or favourite- but that's it. Tbh, I think the only paying traffic is search engine traffic, so that's where I focus my energy.

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