Hubpro Making Changes that Reduce My Traffic

1. 82

   Pop Culture Worldposted 8 years ago

   I don't know who is editing the hubs for HubPro, but I am getting extremely upset about it. I had an already successful hub edited, and the editor took out all of my links to corresponding hubs in the body of the hub.
   
   One of the techniques I learned on HubPages to increase traffic is to write articles that compliment each other. This is one of the reasons I get traffic on my other hubs -- because I link them together. This editor and these changes are actively reducing my traffic.
   
   So now, with HubPro, I have to constantly worry that my hubs are going to be changed and my traffic will be reduced as a result.
   
   I want my corresponding hub links left alone. If it isn't broke, it shouldn't be fixed.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You are free to revert the changes, whether it's HubPro Premium (the program you can opt out of) or HubPro Basic (the program you can't opt out of). I've only had hubs edited with HubPro Basic, but each time they've emailed me a document with the editor's additions and deletions highlighted, and that way you can easily see what edits you may need to revert.

      replyreport
      1. 82

         Pop Culture Worldposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you!

         replyreport
   2. 92

      Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      All three commenters, Calculus, Glenn and DrMark, have some good tips.
      
      I would follow Glenn's advice on putting the links at the bottom of the hub under the title Reference - and put the links in a 'link capsule'.  That is what the link cap is for. If you put the links in the body it looks spammy and is annoying to the reader.

      replyreport
      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Phyllis, that's what I was trying to point out. One of the things HubPro focuses on is reducing anything that comes across as spammy. Thanks for clarifying that.

         replyreport
2. 96

   Glenn Stokposted 8 years ago

   You have to ask yourself if those links add value for the reader. You also have to think about reader friendliness. If your main concern is trying to get readers to look at more of your hubs before they even finished reading, then you are not writing for the reader.
   
   Continuous links throughout the body of the text, as you said you are doing, become annoying - and most readers will ignore them anyway because they want to read what you have to say (you would think).
   
   On the other hand if readers click one of the links and leave your hub prematurely, this reduces it's ranking because they didn't stay to finish reading. In the long run, Google will send less people to your hub. You're saying that you get good traffic. But you probably would do even better if you weren't making people leave.
   
   These are most likely some of the reasons why the HubPro editor eliminated the body-text links.
   
   A better way to do it, if you want to make reference to other hubs, and if it truly adds value, then place those links at the bottom of your article under the heading "References". This makes the hub reader friendly and still provides access to other resources that you referenced.

   replyreport
   1. 82

      Pop Culture Worldposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I'm writing for the reader, which is why there is traffic on these hubs in the first place. I don't have annoying, continuous links willy-nilly either.

      replyreport
      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I'm just trying to help. You asked a question and you complained about HubPro. I answered you and explained why they do what they do.
         
         If you don't like their changes you can revert back to your version. We all know you are getting good traffic because HubPro only works with top performing hubs. The point is that you may get even more traffic by making it more reader friendly.  That's what the HubPro editor was doing for you.

         replyreport
3. 96

   DrMark1961posted 8 years ago

   Glenn Stok said "On the other hand if readers click one of the links and leave your hub prematurely, this reduces it's ranking because they didn't stay to finish reading. In the long run, Google will send less people to your hub. You're saying that you get good traffic. But you probably would do even better if you weren't making people leave." but this is untrue. As long as you add HTML so that the link opens up in another tab, the reader stays on your page as long as they are reading the second page. Google does not say "Oh my, the reader was only on that page for 30 seconds", they say "The reader was on that page for 3 minutes". It does not mean you get less people to your hub.
   I think calculus-geometry gave you very good advice. The first 5 hubs I had edited by HubPro came out very well and the traffic is still good. The latest hub was edited by a different person and she made changes like a MFP image that had writing across the dogs face. (No one is going to want to pin an image like that.) If the changes made to your hub were not good for traffic, change them back the way they were before.

   replyreport
   1. 96

      Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Yes this is true Dr Mark, assuming one sets the option so that HP makes the link open in another tab or window. But that doesn't solve the problem with reader friendliness. It's still annoying to many readers if they constantly see links as they are trying to read.

      replyreport
4. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   Making the hub more readers friendly is the goal, but whether or not it succeeded is an empirical question not a matter of faith.  As for putting al the links at the end, that is the opposite of what the hub style guide recommends.  If the link is helpful it should be linked from the relevant part of the text.

   replyreport