What Is The Best Way to Optimize Hub Summaries?

1. 61

   Lisa HWposted 14 years ago

   Does anyone have solid tips on the best way to optimize the summaries?  Mine have all been automatically created (only because I didn't know there was the option to create one), and they look like they're essentially the first paragraph of the Hub.
   
   Is it better to have, say, a one-line summary that tells searchers what the Hub offers, or am I better off leaving what's there?
   
   Also, does anyone have any other general guidelines?

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2. 73

   relacheposted 14 years ago

   You are NOT better off leaving what's there, as it's just a random grab, as you've noticed.  I mean, do you think those auto descriptions are the best descriptions of what your Hubs are about?

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3. 61

   Lisa HWposted 14 years ago

   relache, thanks.  Somehow, I guess, I thought the system may "know what it's doing" more than I do. 
   
   So, as an example, I have what I think of as a "strange, little, Hub" on quick tricks for finding percentages without a calculator.  It does really well compared to a whole lot of my other Hubs.  Until now it had the "automatic thing" of the first paragraph (or whatever).  I'd be better off putting something like "quick tricks for finding percentages without a calculator"?  Or, should my own summaries be longer than that?

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4. 70

   brad4lposted 14 years ago

   I think it is better to write your own summary for a number of reasons, including that you are creating more unique content, rather than using the content that is already on your hub.
   
   
   
   I think in this example, you would want to get a little bit more detailed about what is in the hub.
   
   There is no rule, but providing a few sentences with key words would probably be better. Just remember that the summary needs to be readable for a human and should make them interested in the hub. In terms of google traffic, I don't think it really matters all that much, but if and when the hub goes hot or when people are looking at your hubs, you want the summary to reach out to them a little bit...

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5. 75

   charlemontposted 14 years ago

   I noticed that a hub summary is what's displayed near the title of my hub in Google. So I tick off "auto" and try to write something that would catch attention of Google surfers.

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6. 69

   bigmikehposted 14 years ago

   The summary written for a hub becomes the description tag for the web page. This appears as the short paragraph below the page title in the search engines and is vitally important as it is what encourages the surfer to click or not. You could have a brilliant hub but nobody will click on it in the search results if the description (summary) is poor.
   
   It's generaly agreed it should be around 150 characters long and contain your keyword but, according to the Google Webmaster Central Blog it has no effect on the ranking in the search engine.
   
   Get it wrong and nobody will click on your hub!

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      brad4lposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Eh, that was true like five years ago, but most search engines ignore it now. Usually the search engine will pull the most "relevant" piece of the article and display that in the search results.

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      1. 47

         johnr54posted 14 years agoin reply to this

         That's not quite true.  While it can vary some, generally if the keyword(s) being searched are in the description field then that's what Google will pull and display. 
         
         You can read more about this topic here
         
         http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot. … ption.html

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7. 57

   Dame Scribeposted 14 years ago

   The auto summary thingy usually starts with the beginning of your Hub. I start mine with a *idea* and question of what's to come lol ...not that they are that interesting. Intro's are supposed to *tease* the reader into investigating your Hub more. hope that helps.

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8. 57

   lindagoffiganposted 14 years ago

   I am satisfied with the summary because the introduction should contain at least 200 words and include the topic with relevant keywords.  Your introductory paragraph should be strongest and lure readers to want to read the rest of the article.  Persuasive writings usually have the summary statement at the end of the introductory paragraph but very few of my hubpage articles are persuasive.
   
   Also if you are optimizing a lot of hubpages then it is to your advantage to use the help that the Hubpage staffers give you and use the automatic summary.  There is no need to write another summary for social networks such as Digg because you would have used the SEO keywords from Google Adwords, Google Keyword Search or another site that offers Google keywords in your summary paragraph.

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   1. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      This is a good point.  I usually let the summary create automatically, then go and read it. If it doesn't sound punchy enough, then I know my introductory paragraph isn't good enough either!
      
      I've noticed that if I change my introduction, the summary doesn't update - so it's important to revise it if you revise the Hub.

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