Unfeatured Hub

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   mary615posted 9 years ago

   I have a Hub written on 8/12.  I decided to add another capsule of text because I read something I thought would add to the info I had provided in the article.   This Hub has a score of 93 and has had good traffic since I wrote it.
   
   Now I am being notified by the circle, the Hub is no longer featured.  The message says to add fresh text, etc.etc.  It was doing just fine until I edited it to do just that!  I don't understand.
   
   I guess "if it anint  broke, don't fix it".  I should have left it alone!
   
   I just don't get it!!  Any thoughts??

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      t aaron brownposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I was once told for another editor I write for, to not go back and update the article.  Rather, write a new one and state either in the title (Update) or refer to your old work in the opening paragraph. Sure, the reader may surf and find your old one and think it's outdated material, but they need to observed the date stamp and it should be expected to have some outdated info.

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2. 92

   Jodahposted 9 years ago

   Weird says this forum thread is inactive, no one has posted here for over two months??
   Mary each time you edit a hub it is reviewed anew. HP have tightened ther requirements recently so maybe this hub no longer passes the requirements but that doesn't make sense on a hub with a 93 score and as you just added a text capsule. Some strange stuff happening here recently. Try adding another photo or something.

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      mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I thought we were supposed to "refresh" our Hubs from time to time.  I will leave mine alone from now on!   Thanks.

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         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I refreshed one yesterday and I received a warning that it had unrelated links or ads Message said it would remain featured but I may like to revise it so it stays featured in future. It does make you think twice before changing them.

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            mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I think I will go in and remove the additional info I had written to see if it will revert back to featured.  Also, I included a link to the website I had found that info on.  That made two outside sources.  Maybe that is the problem.  We'll see.

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               Faith Reaperposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Dear Mary, I tried to comment here yesterday, but it said the forum is no longer active.  Anyway, at times one truly does not know what is best ... as I, too, am hesitant to "update" a hub for fear of that very thing happening, which makes no sense at all, if we are trying to do as they wish to make it "evergreen"  ... I believe I have all of mine as evergreen as they will be, but every now and then I will notice a typo and I am sure to correct that immediately! 
               
               I feel your frustration. 
               
               I hope your high-scoring hub remains featured ... I surely do not understand that rationale.
               
               Hugs

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                  mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I think I have learned a lesson from this.  The Hub is under review right now, so we shall see what happens next.  It was such a surprise to have an old Hub with a high score that has received good traffic to suddenly becoming unfeatured just cause I updated it!

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                     Faith Reaperposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, Mary, that would be not only a surprised but most likely a big shock for it to be unfeatured!

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   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   This thread has given me pause. I ceased all updating awhile ago with the intention of restarting again in January. Now I'm wondering what I'll be in for when I do.

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   naturegirl7sposted 9 years ago

   Because of the recent Google Panda updates HP rules have changed. All links, including Amazon, must be strictly related to the subject of the hub. Also, the 50 words per Amazon link rule is no longer valid. HP seems to want only 4-5 comercial links per hub. The older hubs seem to be safe until you edit them. (Though many unedited squidoo transfers were unfeatured unexpectedly.) When you edit, you have to abide by the new limits. As mary615 says, it may be best to hold off on edits until the dust settles, especially if your hub is receiving good traffic.

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      Faith Reaperposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi naturegirl, great points to ponder here you have pointed out!  Yes, maybe wait until after the New Year and see then.  I will not mess with any hubs that have a good score and are doing well then!

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      mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      From now on, I will my high scoring Hubs alone!

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         mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I meant to say:  I will leave my high scoring Hubs alone!

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      t aaron brownposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      @naturegirl - "4-5 commercial links per hub..." that is a good thing to know.  What about two links to my own sites?  Do they count in the 4-5 total?

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Sometimes when you edit, they just go back to their featured status.  Other times, it goes back to waiting for QAP which can take 24 hours or more, especially on week-ends.

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   Kathy Stutzmanposted 9 years ago

   Thank you for this post, I too am new and had exactly the same thing happen to my second highest viewed hub, it is one of the few that gets views every day even though it is unfeatured and it had a high score prior to me changing the title. That is when I made my mistake. Once I changed the title it was unfeatured for quality, I changed the title back and it remained unfeatured. I have edited and modified and edited almost on a daily basis - although being unfeatured has not impacted the traffic (although I still don't have a huge amount of traffic yet). I have removed ads (which were really relevant and helpful to someone reading the article) I have cleaned up language, but without changing the entire article - I can't figure out what to do and if it is even worth it - I think I am still getting impression credits??? This is all new to me and I have just been going with the flow playing a crazy guessing game, but I am wondering what the downside of being unfeatured is if I still get traffic and even if it is worth continuing to modify and change if I continue to get traffic - experienced hubbers??? If you are going to look at the hub, I published it on 8/23 and right now the title is about increasing productivity in meetings. Would love advice or guidance.

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      naturegirl7sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      About the only other thing I can think of is that you may have the same key word too many times. Count to see how many times you use the word "productivity", for example. Substitute synonyms if it appears in double digits.
      
      On one of my informational hubs that was zapped by the recent filter, in a last ditch effort, after trying everything I could think of, I removed every link including products link. It was then featured.
      
      As to the pros and cons of being featured. My understanding is that when a hub is unfeatured, it is invisible to the Google search engines.

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         Kathy Stutzmanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks naturegirl7s I will look at the key word count - that might be the problem. I have eliminated all of the links so there are none, but I will run some synonyms through and see if that helps. Thank you very much for your feedback and advice

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            naturegirl7sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I'm glad I could help. Also, it usually takes at least 24 hours for a moderator to approve your hub... hoping the circle will disappear for good.

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   JenwithMistyposted 9 years ago

   I've been having a horrible time with this unfeaturing stuff too.  The hubs that got unfeatured were the ones with the most traffic and the highest hub scores.  I had one that I just couldn't get featured again, it had almost 1400 words, a poll, videos, real pics, and only 4 products.  I found one with a similar topic that only had one paragraph and 11 products but it was still featured.  I was really upset about it but I think I finally got mine featured again by removing another one of the products. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

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8. 84

   mary615posted 9 years ago

   After deleting my added text, and making the Hub as it was BEFORE I tried to edit and update, it is still unfeatured.  Figure that one out!
   I'll try a couple of other "band-aids" before I give up, though.

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      Kathy Stutzmanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I have re-edited my piece 3 times today, found two typos, changed some of the keywords that may have been over used, deleted all links, re-wrote a few sentences, gotten good comments about it and will try one more time - I am getting traffic on it and so I don't know exactly what else to do either. I would love a follow-up if you do get it ever featured again.

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         mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         My Hub is still unfeatured!  I might as well just rewrite the entire Hub, I guess!  I sure wish I had not added anything to the Hub that had a high score and good traffic! 
         I have learned a good lesson from all this.  My advice:  DO NOT edit a Hub if it is doing well.  Leave it alone.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Mary, why not post your unFeatured Hub in the Improving Your Hub section so others can offer specific advice on it?   That's what it's for.  Or tell us the name of it here so we can go and find it.
            
            You've been given some correct advice and some incorrect advice. 
            
            There was almost certainly nothing wrong with your external links - external links are GOOD, so long as they are to reputable websites.  It shows you've done your research and Google likes that.   You can have as many links as you like, so long as you don't have more than two to the same website. 
            
            There may have been nothing wrong with the extra information you added - unless it was a long quote from another site, in which case it may have been seen as duplicate.   Perhaps there was something else in the Hub that the Quality moderators didn't like, which wasn't noticed originally.
            
            The 50 words per Amazon capsule still applies - that rule has not changed.  HubPages advises that you should think carefully before adding Amazon capsules, because if the product isn't directly related to your text, it could trigger a Google penalty.  So in practice, you're likely to end up with fewer Amazon capsules because you'll run out of absolutely relevant products.

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               naturegirl7sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Marisa, It's good to hear that the word:Amazon ratio for related products is still 50:1 and that you may have as many links as you want if there are no more than 2 to the same site. I just celebrated the 4 year anniversary of my original naturegirl7 HP account. I thought I was familiar with all of the policies until my squid account was transferred over. I read all of the directives, but this information did not line up with what I was experiencing.
               
               In one case, I had to strip everything but the story and pictures out of an informational hub before it was featured again. The 4 amazons and 4 other links were relevant and only 2 were to the same site. In other unfeatured hubs, I had to add text and remove relevant Amazon products until there was a ratio of 100:1 or 200:1 even though the word count was over 1500. You can see why I assumed that the ratio and some of the other directives have changed.
               
               I believe also that even if a link is text only and is not active, it will be counted as a link. Is that correct?

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  No, a text-only link is not counted as a link.
                  
                  I have some Hubs with ten outgoing links in them, no problem. 
                  
                  The problem is that when a Hub fails QAP, you don't get any feedback on what was wrong with the Hub.   So you keep on changing things until it gets approved - but it's quite likely the only problem was just one link or just one product that you removed in the last revision, and you could've put all the rest back in!
                  
                  It's true that HubPages has a "thing" about Amazon products.    One thing that isn't allowed - though there is no rule to say so! - is having several Amazon ads grouped together.  You can get away with multiple Amazon ads provided they are separated by at least one other capsule.

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                     naturegirl7sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Recently, I read a new directive about why hubs are unfeatured and it said that even too many (more than 2) url's in text format could cause a hub to be unfeatured just like key word stuffing.

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                        Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Hmmm, interesting.  They need to update their rules then!

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                           naturegirl7sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           It's in section 20 - Spammy Hubs at the very end in Text. Here's the link: http://hubpages.com/faq/#Spammy-Elements
                           Apparently the definition of business is broad in this faq sheet.

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                           rebekahELLEposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           I think this happened within the past month or so.  I remember Christy or one of the team made mention of spammy content and what it includes.  I have no idea where it was mentioned, but I remember reading about text URL's and the more thorough definition of spam.
                           I found it.  It was in a newsletter.  But there has been mention of it also in the forums since that time.

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               mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Marisa.  I just put a link to my Hub asking for help in the Improving Your Hub.    I removed the second link to an outside source which was relevant to the Hub, I removed one Amazon capsule, leaving only one.  I even removed the text I had added to update the article.  My Hub's  title:   Edible Food Containers, etc.   It is still unfeatured!

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   gottaloveit2posted 9 years ago

   I wouldn't despair too much - my unfeatured hubs are still getting sales. I'd leave it alone until, like someone said, the dust settles. I certainly would not rewrite the thing.

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      mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That's good to know, gottaloveit2.  I didn't think Google would find an unfeatured Hub.

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    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    Unfeatured hubs are not seen by Google.  In order to get traffic for unfeatured hubs, people need the link which they will get when they go to Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.

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       mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for that reminder, Linda.  If the Hub does not become featured again, I will give it some exposer  on social sites.

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    Nancy Hardinposted 9 years ago

    I had some unfeatured that had only one url in text format. Evidently, it is not cool to put a link to your own work. I just removed the hubs and put them on my blogs, saves a lot of problems.

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    gottaloveit2posted 9 years ago

    I link to my own stuff, Nancy Hardin. I just make sure to only link to the same site (my own website) 2 times or less.

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    The Examiner-1posted 9 years ago

    Why is it unfeatured? There are two circles (two reasons) why a Hub can be unfeatured. Find out which reason and you will be closer to the answer.

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       naturegirl7sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I think that most here are speaking of the open circle signifying unfeatured for quality. There are many reasons for this. You can ask for a moderator's review, but the feedback I received from it was nothing more than "it looks too promotional". He didn't give me a clue as to what items needed attention, so I started using synonyms for key words, adding words, deleting all links, even the inactive ones, deleting products, adding a quiz and stripping it down to just text. Then it was finally featured after 3 times with the open circle. I guess each moderator is different. All this was on an informational hub which is now scoring in the mid 90's.
       The half circle for engagement used to be easy to fix, but now it often puts you into the unfeatured for quality if you don't do a thorough job of it.

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    Kathy Stutzmanposted 9 years ago

    After no less than 20 re-edits, I took the one link out that went to my website and my highest viewed hub now with no links and no ads and no Amazon - just straight informational hub about how to increase productivity in meetings is finally featured again - all after changing the title of my best performing featured hub that subsequently became unfeatured for quality several weeks ago. I know that there are many lessons here and stripping any link to my work or any ads has been a negative consequence of changing the title - but I am going to hold tight for the moment since it is my most viewed hub.
    
    In the future, I will just write a new article with the new title. I am bummed that I can not include even one link to my website and thought that that was okay in hubpages, especially if it was relevant and furthered the reader's information, but apparently it is not, or at least it is not okay for me to do so. I did continue to get views during its unfeatured state and I continue to get comments on it - it is just a little disturbing that one link would eliminate me from having a hub featured.
    
    So for those of you who had high functioning hubs that were featured and they become unfeatured for quality - perhaps you will also need to eliminate all of your links if you had any, that is how I got my featured again. I know it was this because I went through a trial and error of eliminating or changing one thing at a time in a very systematic method. Eliminating any link to my work is a small price to pay as a professional writer who cannot have hubs unfeatured for "quality".

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       mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I am happy this Hub is again featured!!  I removed two links to the same company, and a link to a photo of the company!  I changed the title also.  I have certainly learned from this experience.  Thanks to all who joined in this discussion.  I think we have all learned a lot!

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          rebekahELLEposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          NIce to hear that it's again featured!  It's great when we can help out the community with these threads.  Thanks for letting us know, Mary.

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