Unpublishing vs. Deleting

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   agilitymachposted 11 years ago

   I have a quick question.  If I unpublish a hub, does Google "see" that it's still sitting in my account and thus punish me for it, or should I be totally deleting hubs that I decide are not garnering enough traffic?  Some of them I'd like to keep around until I get the time to print them out for my own files or transfer them back to my business website, but I'm wondering if keeping them in "unpublished" status does more harm than good.
   
   Also, I have a hub that won a Hubnugget award (the now rising star award).  It, however, gets zero traffic as it's basically a creative writing hub.  If I delete it, will I lose my Rising Star accolade?
   
   My Google traffic is up 200 percent since the new Panda, but I figure it can't hurt to delete a few hubs that aren't garnering any traffic.

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      calculus-geometryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Google can't see unplublished hubs in your account, so it makes no difference whether you unpublish or truly delete them.  Private account information like that is hidden from search engines and everyone else but you.

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   2. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Remember, it won't hurt either.
      
      Low-trafficked Hubs do not hurt your account.  Only low quality Hubs can do that.
      
      You may have got the idea that low traffic is bad because of the unFeaturing system.  That's a misconception.  HubPages unFeatures low-trafficked Hubs because it's the quickest way to hide low quality Hubs from Google - because a low quality Hub will generally have low traffic.   Unfortunately the system does also catch good quality Hubs on rarely-searched topics, but that's just a side effect of the system, not a desired effect.
      
      So if you have a low-trafficked Hub, then it may be worth deleting it to move it elsewhere, where it can't get unFeatured - that way you are more likely to get value from the article. But don't delete it because you think it's going to do you damage, because it won't.

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         agilitymachposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         But won't Google look unkindly on a page with low traffic, quality or no?  The few hubs I'm deleting are book review hubs or creative writing hubs that don't get traffic.  All were my first hubs created here, and they are all featured and of good quality, IMHO.

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            IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Google is a mess right now. I found a new site on page 1 where half the content is copied directly from wikipedia, and the other half is obviously either spun or translated.
            
            I found it because it is on a niche topic I write about. Nearly all of its pages are on page 1, yet is filled with exactly the type of stuff Google proclaims it hates.

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               agilitymachposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Interesting....

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         2. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            No, Google does NOT look unkindly at Hubs or posts with low traffic.   What matters is WHY a Hub has low traffic.  Is it because it has bad grammar?  It's too short?   It's full of irrelevant links?  It's generally cr@p?  Then Google will penalize it - but for those underlying reasons, NOT for the lack of traffic.
            
            It's very possible for a Hub to be good quality and yet have low traffic, simply because people aren't searching for that topic much.  Google knows that, and won't penalize a Hub in that situation.

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Marissa:  How long can a hub remain unpublished?

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Marissa:  If you unpublish, do those hubs remain indexed by Google and also do you lose your views if you decide to republish them?

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               Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               You can leave a Hub unpublished for as long as you like.  I unpublished several of mine several months ago and republished them elsewhere.  They're still sitting on my account with a note so I remember where they were republished!
               
               Unpublished Hubs are invisible to Google so they will get de-indexed.  If you publish them again, they will have to start right back at the beginning in Google's eyes.  However you don't lose your views.

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                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks Marisa.  The reason I am asking is that I've been toying with the idea of unpublishing all but my main niche of articles to see what will happen.  Not sure if I have the cajones to do that, though.  We'll see!

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                  1. 96

                     agilitymachposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     If you do, Time, let us know how your numbers did.  I, too, am sort of considering unpublishing everything but my niche stuff and my quite successful non-niche stuff.  I doubt I'll do it though.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Eek!   Personally I took the opposite tack - I took all my niche stuff and put it on a niche blog, and kept my HubPages account for my "anything and everything" articles.   
                     
                     I do get lower traffic on my blog but I earn far better income per reader, because I have more freedom to use affiliate advertising and to sell my own ebooks etc.

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                        younghopesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        Hi  Marisa, thanks for the above mentioned advices. I am just confused with one thing which i wish to know from you: What about 'unfeatured' hubs can they be seen by google and get traffic. What if i promote them on fb, twitter etc. Or should i work to make them featured again?

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                           Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           Unfeatured Hubs can't be seen by Google and get traffic.  You can either revise them to see if you can get them featured, or move them somewhere else.

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                              younghopesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                              thank you so much for the response

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                        TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        Marisa:  I just started a niche blog on Google Sites but will have no visible way of monetizing it since they are dropping AdSense.  What blog site do you use and do you have to pay to use it?

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                        1. 86

                           Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           I have blogs on paid hosting using Wordpress.org.  I seem to recall you weren't ready to spend money on your site so that's not an option for you. 
                           
                           Google Sites is designed for team collaboration and high street businesses who need a basic website.   I wouldn't recommend using it for a blog or website which you hope to monetize.    Blogger is better as you can use Adsense easily, though the navigation can be limiting.   
                           
                           Another option, which is fairly new, is to create your site at Wordpress.com and apply for their advertising program.   You will need to get a proper domain name for your site, which will cost you $18 (but I'd strongly recommend you do that anyway, whatever platform you use), then you can apply:
                           
                           http://wordads.co/
                           http://en.support.wordpress.com/using-w … a-website/
                           
                           That way you get all the power of the Wordpress platform, and automated advertising, without having to pay for hosting.  However you can't use any other advertising on the site so that is a major limitation.  On the plus side, once your site is doing well, you'd be able to transfer it to paid hosting and Wordpress.org very, very easily, because of the fact that you're using the same software. 
                           
                           The other nice thing about Wordpress.com is that your site is part of the Wordpress.com community and you can interact with other members, which is a nice way to get a bit of traffic to your site when you're just starting out.

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      galleryofgraceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      One thing to consider- if you delete hubs you also delete any views that have been counted in your total.
      I forgot about this when I deleted some hubs and lost over 10,000 views.

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      1. 96

         agilitymachposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         That's good to know!!  I didn't realize that.

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         toptendealsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Ouch thanks for the warning

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         writerjjposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         That's true...however, you have already earned the money from those hubs, so you really have lost nothing except something that looks good on your account.

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   Beth37posted 11 years ago

   I deleted two of my hubs and my hubber score plummeted faster than the titanic. The funny thing is, when I add too many hubs at one time, I get the same result.

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