What Happens Now if You Change a Hub's Topic?

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   EricDockettposted 8 years ago

   Now that subdomains have been trashed the Hub url is dependent on the the topic the Hub is filed under. For some subjects there are several different topics that may be appropriate. In some cases, sub-topics are duplicated under two or more top-level topics.
   
   In the past, if you decided you'd rather your Hub appear under a different topic, it was very easy to change. Sometimes a simple change of topic could mean a positive boost in traffic. Now, it appears this needs to be done with great caution.
   
   As I understand it:
   
   - Changing a Hub's sub-topic WILL NOT change the url as long as the top-level topic remains the same. However, it WILL change the way the url appears in the SERPs.
   
   - Changing a top-level topic WILL result in a new url. So, what happens then? Is there another re-direct, or does the Hub start over with a new url?
   
   Am I understanding this correctly?

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      From what I understand, once the URL is set, it cannot be changed, regardless of how you change the hub or list it.  This is why it is best to keep what you write within the bounds of the URL, which can sometimes be difficult to do.

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         calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         No, the url will change if you change the top-level category.  see my reply.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Amazing!  I always read that once you write a hub, you are stuck with its URL!  This is an important piece of information.  Thanks.

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               calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               The part of the url they call the "slug" doesn't change.  In my example the slug is Math-Dice-Games and that part cannot be altered by me.

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            2. 97

               EricDockettposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               That was true back when we had our subdomains. We still can't go back and change the url info we input when we create the Hub. The only thing that now changes is the category, as shown in calculus-geometry's experiment.

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      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      This is a great question so I tried it with one of my hubs that doesn't get much traffic. My hub was originally categorized under education and its url before I changed to top-level category was
      
      http://hubpages.com/education/Math-Dice-Games
      
      And just a while ago I changed the category to Games Toys and Hobbies and its url is now
      
      http://hubpages.com/games-hobbies/Math-Dice-Games
      
      So it looks like the url does indeed change and the old url redirects to the new one.

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         EricDockettposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for checking that. I can see that the old url indeed redirects to the new.

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   calculus-geometryposted 8 years ago

   okay guys, here's where it gets crazy.  I can get the url to redirect to its current category-specific url no matter what I put in the middle of the url.  All of these redirect to my article's current location in Games and Hobbies
   
   http://hubpages.com/art/Math-Dice-Games
   http://hubpages.com/style/Math-Dice-Games
   http://hubpages.com/travel/Math-Dice-Games
   http://hubpages.com/health/Math-Dice-Games
   
   It looks like the redirects are already in place for every possible recategorization.

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      EricDockettposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I tried with my own Hubs and I see what you mean. Trying to wrap my brain around why that would be necessary, but I think this is one of those times I just have to assume HP knows what they are doing.

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