What are your personal criteria for deleting your hubs?

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  1. NornsMercy profile image60
    NornsMercyposted 10 years ago

    Some people say you should never, ever delete a hub...only edit it and such. What makes you just completely trash your own hubs?

    1. Cardisa profile image88
      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I have deleted over 200 hubs since being on HP and these are the reasons.
      (1) There were personal hubs which served no real purpose here and were better suited for my blog. They would have bogged down my account if kept and would probably become unfeatured.
      (2) Hubs that did not have good keywords and were not search friendly had to go because they too would be unfeatured for lack of traffic. Those hubs could not be fixed because people were not searching for those topics.
      (3) I removed my novellas and poems to have them published

    2. gmwilliams profile image84
      gmwilliamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I WON'T delete my beautiful hubs but I am going to revamp and edit them.

    3. Marisa Wright profile image86
      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I will delete a Hub ONLY if it becomes unFeatured.

      Google sees your sub-domain as a standalone website.  Google hates puny websites - it likes size!  So even under-performing Hubs are good, because they add to the size of your sub-domain.

      An unFeatured Hub is invisible to Google so it's not helping in that regard - so in that case, I'll consider deleting, but only if I have another use for the article.

      1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
        TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

        How much "size" are you talking about?

        1. Marisa Wright profile image86
          Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Google doesn't say, but the bigger the better.  It's noticeable that Adsense is rejecting people with under 30 Hubs these days, so you could take that as an indicator of the minimum.  However that's not really the point.   Google wants "authority" and the amount of content is one of their indicators.  Silly, really, because it means someone could write 1,000 rubbish articles on a topic, and would then beat the expert who wrote 30 excellent ones - but that's the way it works.

          1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
            TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Are we talking the amount of hubs on one topic, or the amount of total hubs.  I write in about 8 niches right now, and all but one have fewer than 30 articles.  So is this hurting or helping me??

            1. Marisa Wright profile image86
              Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

              If we were talking about a blog, then everyone will tell you it needs to be in a single niche, and it needs to have a LOT of content.  However HubPages seems to be different.   I don't know why, but it may be the interlinking with other Hubs on the same topic.   But more is always better.

              1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
                TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                HP recently posted that their most successful writers have an average of 105 hubs online.  They did not say whether all of them were in a single niche, however.

                1. Jean Bakula profile image92
                  Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  HP doesn't like it if you add your own copyright. They add one that is so light you can barely see it, and I was asked to take off the copyrights I had on my hubs.

    4. profile image0
      Amit197508posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I sometimes delete my hubs due to low traffic!! I get bored and disappointed due to this.

    5. Deltachord profile image61
      Deltachordposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I try to improve the Hub instead of deleting.

    6. donotfear profile image84
      donotfearposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Don't Delete............



      Revise, edit, and re-publish!!!

  2. Mark Ewbie profile image81
    Mark Ewbieposted 10 years ago

    I 'trashed' 200 out of 300 a while back. Some of them I was quite fond of, others I hated.  All of them were useless in terms of generating traffic and in my opinion - I could not make them work.

    I could probably delete another fifty without hurting my income noticeably but I am trying to plug away at finding a very limited audience.

    There is only so much editing can achieve.

  3. DrMark1961 profile image96
    DrMark1961posted 10 years ago

    I deleted some hubs that were not in my niche, and found that my other hubs started performing better.
    Of course, they might have started performing better anyway, with "aging". There is no way to know.
    I also deleted a poor performing hub that had less than 200 page views in one year. Changing the title, adding more media, changing keywords--none of it helped.

    1. NornsMercy profile image60
      NornsMercyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's really cool your other hubs started performing better! I wonder why?

      1. Glenn Stok profile image96
        Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        I mentioned the reason yesterday in a prior post above. The reason why was stated by Google's Matt Cutts a few years ago when he was explaining how Google ranks pages based on the quality of other pages on the same site. Since we all have our own subdomain here on HubPages, it's as if each of us has our own site. The only exception is Editor's Choice hubs - which are grouped together under the home domain.

  4. Marie Flint profile image72
    Marie Flintposted 10 years ago

    When an informative hub is outdated and updating it would be exhausting, it is candidate for deletion by me.

    Also,  if the hub score is unsatisfactorily low (less than 70)  for three months with fewer than 100 page views, I remove it from publication. If no insight comes to me in a reasonable period of time (another three months) about revising it, it is also candidate for deletion.

    The last criterion for deleting a hub is purely emotional when one is in a bad mood, which I don't recommend, but it might give the writer a sense of justice!

    1. NornsMercy profile image60
      NornsMercyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Some of them do get exhausting to update, especially if you gave it 100% the first time around. hmm

      I've been in those "deleting" moods a lot recently. It's why I asked what other people do so I could get perspective and not go insane on the delete button. smile

  5. amiebutchko profile image71
    amiebutchkoposted 10 years ago

    My verdict is still out on this.  I have not been here long enough yet to have deleted a hub, but I have considered it before to see if it might raise my average.  I am interested to see the replies here as well.

    1. Marisa Wright profile image86
      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Repeat after me:  Hubber Score is irrelevant.  Hubber Score is irrelevant.  Hubber Score is irrelevant.

      Hubber Score is relevant ONLY if you're writing Hubs to promote another website or blog, because in that case, you need the links to that website/blog to be "do follow".   Apart from that, scores mean nothing, nada, zilch.  A good score does nothing to help you earn income.

      1. amiebutchko profile image71
        amiebutchkoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        I am learning this more and more Marisa!  smile

  6. FatFreddysCat profile image93
    FatFreddysCatposted 10 years ago

    I don't delete any of 'em. Even my least trafficked hubs still pickup a random page view every now and again.

  7. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

    When it looks like this...
    http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/early_warning2_f.jpg
    Got a couple candidates right now...

    1. NornsMercy profile image60
      NornsMercyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Haha...geez. I think I do, too.

    2. weddingwishes profile image85
      weddingwishesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Oh...my..

  8. Cre8tor profile image93
    Cre8torposted 10 years ago

    I agree with Paradigmsearch. Even then though, I've kept some because I still have interest, think it can be "saved" at a later date and it still picks up a view or 2 here and there. The Hubs I've deleted typically weren't performing well after a long period of time, had been edited in an attempt to salvage and I myself had lost interest. Even then I suppose they weren't hurting anything except that it depressed me to see my work doing so pathetically that I just wanted it out of my sight.

    1. NornsMercy profile image60
      NornsMercyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's how I feel about a couple of them. Kinda sucks to work for a few days on a hub (I'm a bit of a slow writer...) to have it viewed 30 times...ever.

  9. Jodah profile image92
    Jodahposted 10 years ago

    I have never deleted any of my hubs. they are like my children, even the early ones. I haven't had any become unfeatured yet, but if they were I would try to revamp them. If that didn't work I may decide to delete them but if so I would transfer them to a blog site.

  10. snakeslane profile image80
    snakeslaneposted 10 years ago

    I deleted a few non-performing Hubs awhile back after I saved them using Firefox (I think) but now I wish I had just left them unpublished because my computer crashed in the meantime and I lost everything. If nothing else it's a safe haven, a filing cabinet, even if the piece is sitting there unpublished.

  11. Anamika S profile image68
    Anamika Sposted 10 years ago

    I will delete any hub that is unfeatured because of Quality/traffic because I don't have the time or energy to waste on re-writing them.

  12. Glenn Stok profile image96
    Glenn Stokposted 10 years ago

    Back when Google's Matt Cutts mentioned that low quality pages can hurt the rest of a site, I deleted half of my hubs...Those that I considered low quality based on three things: Already aged but still no stars for view duration, low hub score, and low or no traffic in 30 days.  Some time after removing them, my remaining hubs got back to pre-Panda traffic.

  13. snakeslane profile image80
    snakeslaneposted 10 years ago

    Hey Glen, are you saying low quality 'unpublished' pages can hurt the site? (Given that low quality is subjective).

    1. Marisa Wright profile image86
      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      If a Hub is unpublished or unFeatured, then Google ignores it, so it can't possibly hurt your sub-domain. 

      If a Hub is "low quality" then yes, it will hurt your sub-domain - but low traffic does NOT necessarily mean low quality.  It may simply mean that very few people are searching for that topic.  You will not be penalised for lack of traffic.

      1. snakeslane profile image80
        snakeslaneposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Thanks for clarification on that Marisa.

    2. Glenn Stok profile image96
      Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      As Marisa Wright explained in her answer, if a hub is not yet published, no one sees it. Matt Cutts was referring to existing pages on the web (hubs in our case), that Google considers low quality.

      The method of determining quality is complex and Google does not give full details on the algorithm. But there are clues. For example, when I see a lot of traffic from Google on a new hub for a short period, and then it drops off, I assume Google was testing it and then reacted to something negative and stopped sending traffic to that hub.

      A high bounce rate or short visits are clues to a potential problem. Both of these can be seen in our Google Analytics report.

      Bounce rate is not so important (although many will argue) since people don't unusually check out other hubs from the same author after getting the info they were searching for.

      I pay close attention to the "length of visit" when I see traffic drop off. This shows that people are not reading it if they don't stay on the page long enough to actually be reading. This can happen for one of two reasons. (1) Poor selection of keywords that bring traffic that's not related. (2) Poor quality of the hub for any other number of reasons.

      In the first case, I rework the wording where some text may be matching to unrelated search quiries.

      In the second case, I try to improve the hub.

      I revisit poorly performing hubs after a while and repeat my analysis. If I don't get anywhere, I consider deleting those hubs.

      1. snakeslane profile image80
        snakeslaneposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Thanks Glenn, I remember those forum discussions, but sometimes it is information overload and my brain stops listening (and learning). Meanwhile sorry about misspelling your name earlier.

        1. Glenn Stok profile image96
          Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          No problem. There definitely is a lot to learn. And everyone here is always very helpful. I appreciate that you caught the spelling of my name.

      2. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
        TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Most of my bounce rates are quite high, but I still generally get good, not great, views for many of those articles.  I mostly ignore bounce rates, but perhaps I should rethink that?

        1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
          TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Also, I have never been able to define what "good" traffic is, in general.  Any thoughts on this from anybody?

          1. Glenn Stok profile image96
            Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            My definition of good traffic is from those who are searching for what you provide in your hub. Bad traffic, on the other hand, is a mismatch to the subject matter.

            Sometimes the wrong results come up in the SERPs due to incorrect keywords that just happen to match the query, but have nothing to do with the subject of the hub. These people will click away real quick and Google will interpret that as poor quality, even though the hub may be really high quality in it's niche.

            Based on that, when I see a short duration I examine it to determine if I have said something in the hub that is matching unrelated queries. Then I change it to avoid "bad" traffic.

            1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
              TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

              Glenn:  How do you go about doing that?

              1. Glenn Stok profile image96
                Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                I guess you are asking how I determine mismatched queries.

                I look at the queries people typed into Google to get to my hub. You can see this under the stat > search tab of each hub. You can also find this in your Google Analytics. If I see that Google is sending people to my hub for unrelated reasons, I now know why, and I look for were the word phrases of the query are used in my hub. I simply remove it or change the way I say whatever it is.

                By the way, I only do this if I see a short view duration. One or two stars is too short. Four or five stars means that people are actually sticking around long enough to most likely be reading. The view duration also indicates "still collecting data" sometimes. I ignore that because it might be a result of bounces.  The view duration can only be determined if viewers click to another page in the same domain. In other words, to another hub in our case. If there is not enough of those, then the view duration can't be calculated. Bounces, by themselves, simply mean the viewer left after visiting. It is no indication of how long they stayed.

                Did I answer your question?

                1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, thanks Glenn.  I never thought about doing that and always thought  that the still collecting data thing meant nobody was reading at all.  This is good to know.

        2. Writer Fox profile image31
          Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          'Bounce Rate' in Google Analytics means that people who visited your Hub did not go on to visit another page on HubPages.com.  It's not a bad thing for a Hub.  It means that your Hub probably answered the visitor's query and he had no reason to look at any other Hubs on the site.

          On your own websites, you do want visitors to go to other pages and spend time on your sites instead of leaving after reading one article.  On your own websites, you want to build an audience of repeat visitors.  On a Hub, you don't really have the same opportunity to solicit repeat visitors to your work.

          1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
            TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Writer Fox:  Thank you so much.  I always worried because my bounce rates were mostly in the high 70s and low 80s, ... who knew?

            1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
              TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

              Glenn:  What if it shows there are no search data but the still collecting data wordage is there?

              1. Glenn Stok profile image96
                Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                If you don't see any search data it means that non was available yet. It's getting harder and harder to collect search data, especially from Google. They started doing something new recently -- when a user is logged into their Google account, all their search queries are hidden from view of the sites they visit.  I know this because I have a service on my business site that shows me the search text that was used. Many times I get a message that says the visitor was logged into their Google account and Google encrypts the keywords used by that person.

                1. Jean Bakula profile image92
                  Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I hate deleting my hubs, I feel like I'm cutting off my arm when I do that. But lately I don't see many up arrows. I haven't been adding new content that much, but many of my hubs were still getting comments and visits until lately. I think maybe they are getting outdated? But there are a lot of new people here now. I may try an edit and update job on some of them.

  14. cheaptrick profile image75
    cheaptrickposted 10 years ago

    I write a hub,wait three days,and read it again...if it makes my eyes bleed...I delete it...

  15. weddingwishes profile image85
    weddingwishesposted 10 years ago

    I'll try to edit the hubs first before deleting.

  16. The Examiner-1 profile image61
    The Examiner-1posted 10 years ago

    Oops!

  17. Alphadogg16 profile image85
    Alphadogg16posted 10 years ago

    I don't have one as of yet, I have yet to delete a hub, I just update them. I'm sure there will come a point when nothing else can be done to it, so at that point I probably would.

  18. cygnetbrown profile image81
    cygnetbrownposted 10 years ago

    I have never deleted a hub. I would I guess I would delete a hub if it was based on a current event and it wasn't evergreen, but even then, I think I would just update it using the info as history rather than as a current event.

  19. William15 profile image86
    William15posted 10 years ago

    Like many here, I am often tempted to delete a hub because it is not performing well, but even poorly performing hubs can provide a handful of views. As long as you have enough quality material to keep your hubscore high, there's no real point in deleting a hub.

  20. amuno profile image89
    amunoposted 10 years ago

    I will delete a hub once it has outgrown its usefulness and is losing readers fast. If I wrote a hub about iPhone 3G a few years back, I expect readership to go down over time as new iPhones come into play. But again, many users in developing countries still use older iPhones and they would still want to read more about the same iPhone.

    When readership goes down even further, I will begin assuming that even guys in developing countries are ditching the iPhone 3G, reason enough to cut it loose.

    I will however continue to edit a hub that is evergreen, unless I feel it is really below standard.

  21. Carmelo Milian profile image59
    Carmelo Milianposted 10 years ago

    No longer relevant or product does not exist any longer.

  22. Jayne Lancer profile image91
    Jayne Lancerposted 10 years ago

    I recently combined two hubs, which meant deleting one of them. I also delete a hub where I feel the URL is unsuitable, but I rewrite and publish as a new hub. I'm doing a lot of rewriting after a long break from Hubpages. Some of my old hubs are so embarrassing.

  23. topclasscat profile image61
    topclasscatposted 10 years ago

    @Jayne_Lancer: i thought about removing hubs from hubpages and placing my articles on my own sites, but would they be indexed? What is the case with your re-published hubs? Are they indexed by google even the text is the same?

    1. Jayne Lancer profile image91
      Jayne Lancerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Use the deindexing tool before republishing on your own website. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals

  24. VictoriaSheffield profile image82
    VictoriaSheffieldposted 10 years ago

    I've deleted those that Hubpages just wont feature even after I have edited them.

  25. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

    HP is picking on one of my hubs as we speak... big_smile

    Hopefully, it is just a mistake. Worst case scenario: I'll delete it; put it on my main website; have it referral tracker feed my other hubs of similar ilk. Who knows? Maybe that would even be the better way to go.

  26. brakel2 profile image73
    brakel2posted 10 years ago

    I deleted about four hubs that were not getting much traffic. I am sorry that I took the action and wish I had changed the title and added more pictures or a video. They kept my scores low, but I know it doesn't matter. I sometimes wish I had a few 100 scores like I did in 2011, but that is useless thinking too. I only had one hub unfeatured, so I am happy about that.

  27. TA Williams profile image60
    TA Williamsposted 10 years ago

    Hmmm, I am new to HubPages but definitely understand that's a good question you have there. The first Hub I posted isn't the best, but I don't imagine deleting it or any in the future. I try to make the Hub to the best quality I can muster and subjects of serious interests.

  28. Marisa Wright profile image86
    Marisa Wrightposted 10 years ago

    Hubbers who delete Hubs for lack of traffic need to read the comments in this thread:

    http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/120497

    In a nutshell:

    If a Hub gets so little traffic that it's unFeatured, it's virtually invisible so if you can't fix it, you may as well delete it. 

    However if the Hub is still Featured, there is always a chance it'll get traffic in the future - some Hubs take two years before they take off.  So deleting it would be a shame.  Have patience!

    1. wilderness profile image95
      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Observation:

      A hub might languish for 2,4, or even 6 years.  A decade maybe.  Then, in today's world, someone stumbles across it, puts it on Facebook or Twitter and in a couple of weeks it goes "mini"-viral, with a few thousand views. 

      Whereupon Google takes notice and promotes it to page one, where it does well enough to remain.  Moral of the tale - I don't think you can ever write off a well written hub that has even a few hundred searches per month for it's keywords.  Maybe you could in the past, before the popularity of social sites, but not anymore.

      1. Marisa Wright profile image86
        Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        +1

  29. Thief12 profile image90
    Thief12posted 10 years ago

    As of now, I still haven't deleted a Hub. At least not one that I have published. Then again, I've only been here for several months, so there's that too.

  30. spease profile image59
    speaseposted 10 years ago

    I never delete any.  If traffic is low, I add more to the hub to make it better, and promote it some.  I keep working on the lower ones until they start getting more traffic.

    1. janderson99 profile image54
      janderson99posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, my thoughts exactly.

  31. KorenKartalis profile image81
    KorenKartalisposted 10 years ago

    Before I started here, and out of sheer lack of knowledge, I created a dry professional piece for my first shot at yahoo voices. I was trying to cater to what they seemed to want and it got rejected anyway.  It was my first featured piece on hubpages but it was so far off from my actual writing style that I felt it had to go, regardless of traffic or potential traffic.  So yes, it is ok to delete hubs if circumstances so warrant, IMHO..

  32. Joe Cinocca profile image47
    Joe Cinoccaposted 10 years ago

    There's pros and cons for keeping or deleting. I try to make decisions like that, based on the topic, whether it adds value to the portfolio of articles and sometimes based on stats.

    If the article hasn't generated a single view in a few months, it's time to either rethink the hub with a new title or figure out a way to get it going.

    It also depends on how I'm feeling and if I want to devote time to writing more on that particular topic.

  33. paradigmsearch profile image60
    paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

    "What are your personal criteria for deleting your hubs?"

    When I get sick and tired of looking at,

    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

    And I've already tried everything I know how to fix it.

  34. Lisa HW profile image63
    Lisa HWposted 10 years ago

    Ordinarily, I haven't /hadn't made a habit of deleting any of them that I've left for more than a short time; but because I'm not above experimenting there have been lots of times when I'll write one and decide I hate it (or else that it's bizarre or weird in some way, etc.) - and then I'll delete it.

    With the changes that have been made over the last couple/few years I've done clean-up and or "search and rescue"in two major sweeps, most of which had nothing to do with Hubs being unfeatured (although if I'd left them long enough they probably would have been).

    The first main sweep involved taking out anything I didn't think fit on this site at all, and that included a handful of non-fiction stories that I'd hoped offered a little insight but that were out-and-out first-person stories.  It was kind of too bad, because they were (at least I think) good enough/entertaining reads - but since they didn't fall into categories of fiction or poetry and yet didn't really try to offer more than insight and/or "reading entertainment" there was no place for them.  Also, I took out a bunch of (hopefully) useful/helpful Hubs that were written in response to people's requests/questions but that were just too casual to be at all acceptable on here once things changed.

    The second "sweep" has taken me more time because I'm considering what to do about each Hub (somewhere around 80 or them after removing the first 200-plus).

    My latest aim is to remove Hubs that I think could do better for me somewhere elsed (or at least sit, unread, somewhere else where they're not dragging down my score averages while also not-earning me anything).  That includes Hubs that would be considered "articles" but not "stellar Hubs".  They might be too short.  They might be long but not have all the other stuff with them.  Either way,  if they can serve my purposes better somewhere else they're going.  I'm not here for my health, and with the de-emphasizing of Hubs aimed at human readers (as well as the loss of people coming to this site to just browse and read), there's no point.  Google says "publishers" should "write for readers and not search engines".   I'm doing that, one way or another and let the search-engine chips fall where they may.  They're obviously not going to fall in my direction if that particular stuff I have is on this particular site.

    As for some of the Hubs I have that wouldn't be considered "straight, informative, articles"...    I'll have to figure out if there's any excuse/apparent redeeming-HubPages-value to them or not and/or what, if anything, to do about them.  The ones that tend to do best on here are actually the kind of writing I most dislike and have no plans of doing anywhere else anyway; so if they can stay on here and  pick up a little extra money here or there, great.  If not, fine too.

    Worst case, I'll have a subdomain that doesn't get as much traffic as "stellar Hubs"   (assuming stellar Hubs actually do get more traffic) but that at least won't have stuff on it that doesn't fit well on here.

    But, ironically and for whatever reason, right now all but one of my existing Hubs is featured.   The one that isn't (or wasn't before I deleted it) was for non-engagement.  But, having one "featured" doesn't mean much if there's either too little traffic or else if scores get so low it doesn't matter if something is featured anyway.  So, right now (and after giving some of them plenty of time with scores in the 60's), low scores have become one of my primary reasons for considering deleting.

  35. zsobig profile image82
    zsobigposted 10 years ago

    To be frank, I have never thought of deleting any of my hubs so far.
    Well, it is true that I don't have a huge amount of articles yet, but I think even a hub amount above 50 can get pretty overwhelming once you have some work to do on them (like adding the Copyright mark on them - I did this recently).
    But I think someone should ONLY delete a hub once they realise it is not generating any views and/or any income on the long run. There might be various reasons for this, but a hub that is way too personal or is not an evergreen topic might get outdated pretty fast, once that very few people in the target audience have read it.
    That is why I always try to write about evergreen topics that only require a little bit of update every few months. And if I still find a topic that requires frequent updates - then I just pay more attention to it and amend it once I have found enough information for an update.
    So all in all, my advice is to think it over whether your hub is really deemed for deletion or not, as it might only require little changes to be successful again. Additionally, new hubs need loads of time to pay off, meanwhile old ones have already been up and running for a long enough time to be included in the search results.
    Best of luck!

  36. vocalcoach profile image94
    vocalcoachposted 10 years ago

    I have only deleted one hub in 3 years.  I prefer to re-edit or even completely re-do a hub showing low traffic. Changing the title can bring more traffic as well.  I just wish the original URL could be changed.  Wonder why this isn't possible?

  37. fpherj48 profile image60
    fpherj48posted 10 years ago

    After nearly 3 years as a Happy Hubber, a while back, I chose 4 hubs that I felt might best be deleted.  After much scrutiny, I was able to rescue (heavily edit) 3 of them and the 4th simply HAD TO GO.  I gave it the axe because after reading it once or twice I couldn't help but ask myself....."WHO the hell wrote this piece of garbage??"
    Yeah, seriously friends.....when you find yourself asking that question....it's definitely time to delete.
    Just like some friendships.....there may come a time when we simply HAVE to walk away!....

    1. TIMETRAVELER2 profile image86
      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Here is my take on this whole thing. 

      First, just having many random hubs, even if well written, I do not think is a good idea. 

      I also do not believe that writing in many topic areas is a good idea.

      Within a category, there will always be hubs that do very well, and others that do not.  It's OK to keep the lower end articles if they have poor readership, but not if they are of poor quality.

      Writing about extremely well covered topics is not the best idea.  For example, I wrote some very good articles about Breast Cancer that very few people read because there are sooooo many others that have been written by real experts on the subject.  I deleted them.

      In recent years we have had to make so many changes that keeping hundreds of articles online can be a ton of work.

      I say keep what is performing and what is making money for you and rid yourself of the excess.

      I know many do not agree with this, but for me, it is the only way I can maintain control of my work and still make a little money.  I do not make the big bucks of many here, but I like the fact that my articles are focused and grouped.  I also like the fact that I have been here for two years and currently my views have tripled and my CPMs have gone through the roof.  So, I must be doing something right!

 
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