Confused on the why and how of groups.

1. 88

   Lady Loreleiposted 10 years ago

   I have seen a few mentions of putting our articles into groups but when I went to put in a heading I found myself stopping because I wasn't sure what to put there.
   Do we go broad categories
   ie: food
   ie:health
   
   Or use keywords for each group title.
   ie: food: recipes, cooking, preserving 
   
   Or niche
   ie: recipes
   ie: preserving
   ie: nutritional information
   
   Another question that I have is how important this creation of groups is. Is it largely just beneficial to ourselves or is there a benefit re: increased traffic etc. I would appreciate any information or advice. I am lost.

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   1. 82

      bushaexposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The major benefit I am aware of is that there are links to two of your other Hubs in the group posted just below the copyright notice on the Hub in question. One is called "previous" and the other "next." This translates to a potential search engine benefit because they are indeed links. Additionally readers will be guided to "related" Hubs based on how you assign Hubs to groups.
      
      I think shorter is better and I use one to three word titles for groups: Education, Real Estate, Banking and Business, etc.
      
      Ideally you should try to have at least three Hubs in a group so that there will always be two other Hubs to refer to at the bottom of the Hub.

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      1. 89

         MelRootsNWritesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         This is helpful information.  Thanks!
         
         I started with very broad groups.  But, as I am sorting my transferred hubs, I am thinking more about what my readers want.  For instance, I had a general category "Animals".  It occurred to me that people reading my dog related articles may not be all that interesting in my backyard wildlife articles.  So, I've spun off a group that is dog related.
         
         I suspect as I figure this out I will have more defined groups as long as I have enough articles to put into a group.  I can also see myself moving some articles between groups depending on the seasons/time of year.

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      2. 88

         Lady Loreleiposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you that information does help. Do you think smaller groupings would be better than larger? For example a group of 5 to 10 rather than 20 to 25?

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         1. 82

            bushaexposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            When you think of the increasing value on the internet of "niches" in virtually any topic, this leads me to believe that a grouping of 3 to perhaps 10 (or even less) is a good way to proceed when you create a group. But this could change depending on your specific interests, and I think that simply taking advantage of the group feature is more important than limiting yourself to an arbitrary number in each group.

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   2. 54

      favoredposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm glad you asked this. I was trying to figure out how to do this for a while but didn't know what to type either.  Thank you Lorelei.

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   3. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Groups exist for two reasons. 
      
      One is to create the "next" and "previous" Hubs at the end of each Hub.  That is crucial, because otherwise readers won't see links to YOUR Hubs at the end of your Hub - they'll just see other Hubs on the same topic, which may or may not include yours.
      
      The other is to make it easier for you to administer your account.   If you want to edit a Hub, it's a lot quicker to select the group and look for it within the group, than scroll down the whole page!
      
      There is no other benefit.
      
      So, to answer your question:  group Hubs so that when readers see "next" and "previous" links, they will be to Hubs that interest them.  Note that you can also drag and drop within groups to put the Hubs in a logical order - handy if you're doing a series.

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   4. 59

      The Examiner-1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Lady Lorelei,
      When you go into Explore > Hubs and you see the list of choices, you go down the list until you see one which you think may match. Click on that and you will see another list of names, go down that list until you see one which appeals to you. Click on that and it brings up another list (do not worry - this is the final list), go down this list to look for something which matches.
      
      For instance, I write about birds and I chose "Education and Science"; my next choice was "Life Sciences"; the final choice was "Birds and Bird-Watching". Education and Science > Life Sciences > Birds and Bird-Watching {I admit that I first took spare time to go through the lists to find out what was in them.}

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2. 83

   kerbevposted 10 years ago

   This is a huge task for me, and a tricky one too as I write on such oddball topics that don't really go with anything else.

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3. 75

   Lionrhodposted 10 years ago

   A good question and one I haven't figured out yet.
   
   With only 20+ pages, many are now grouped as "misc."
   
   I hope that will change once I start writing more in my regular subjects.

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   1. 88

      Lady Loreleiposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I feel like I am racing against the clock and discovering things that I missed as I go along. There is so much to learn and so much to do.

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4. 90

   Virginia Allainposted 10 years ago

   I'm liking the groups and making mine follow my niche topics like genealogy, dolls, Civil War, Kansas, Florida, home decor, costumes, etc.
   
   I set them up so they show the sort of links I used to put in the Related Lenses on squidoo.
   
   They also function like the Lens Labels we had on Squidoo. I can quickly see the performance of a Hubpages group in my Statistics, by selecting it in the window where it says "select an article group."
   
   I can easily see which of my Halloween hubs haven't been updated and which ones are getting traffic.

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   1. 54

      favoredposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Virginia was there a video you watched to learn how to do this?  I can't figure it out, but know it would be helpful.

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      1. 90

         Virginia Allainposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         To get started, bring up your list of hubs. On the "dashboard" you see GROUPS at the top right side.
         When you first open that, all your hubs are listed under Orphan Hubs. Set up some group names, then drag the titles to the groups you made.
         
         You can add more groups over time. I have 50 so far and sorted my 600 hubs into them. You need at least 3 hubs in each topic for it to be effective.
         
         At the end of each of your hubs, it will show 2 related hubs that it found from your group list.

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         1. 54

            favoredposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            OK, this is a little clearer.  You are always a dear in helping me.  Thanks so much

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         2. 54

            favoredposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Can you have an article in more than one group? I have several recipes that fit in more than one group. How did you handle those?  Like soups and vegetarian soups.  Or pets, pet adoption, pet supplies?
            
            I can't seem to rearrange them once they are created.  Is there a way to put them back in ABC order?

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            1. 85

               Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               No, one group only, I'm afraid.   I've often wished for the same thing.
               
               You can drag and drop the Hubs to reorder them.

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            2. 90

               Virginia Allainposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Once you leave the group page, it rearranges into alphabetical order. The next time you go there is is that way.

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               1. 85

                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  You can then drag and drop them into the order you want.

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            3. 90

               Virginia Allainposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               As far as how far to subdivide your groups, think about what you want to show up at the bottom of your hub.
               
               For instance, I first lumped all my book related lenses into one group. I quickly realized that I didn't want a children's book hub showing up at the end of an adult book hub, so I made a separate group just for children's books.
               
               Later I separated out the meet-the-author kinds of hubs from the book review hubs, making separate groups for those.
               
               For Halloween, I separated the costumes out from the general Halloween which includes party ideas and crafts. My fairy garden hubs are in a separate group from my general gardening hubs.

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               1. 75

                  Lionrhodposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Great advice Virginia. TY!

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               2. 54

                  favoredposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Virginia I did the same, and will go through them again when I have more in that sub-category.  I only have one on teens so will leave it with children's for now.  This will help me in fixing my articles in each group first, then I can keep track.  It seems to be going faster that way. They do go in ABC order after you click back to hubs, so that's good for adding new ones later.
                  
                  Thank you for your help.

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         3. 72

            Tammie Jacksonposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            As you can see I don't even have the option of choosing to group my hubs. Was this feature removed?
            
            

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            1. 60

               paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Yes.

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5. 67

   Arachneaposted 10 years ago

   I learned something new today. Though I've been using the option to set a hub group from the beginning of my presence here on HP, I've not known the broader use for them until now. I usually will bring up a group in the filters and edit specific groups at the same sitting. Now, I understand it a means to connect various hubs together so the links of subsequent hubs in the group appear at the bottom. I think this is marvelous. From time to time, I may run a short story series. That would be fun. Thanks for asking the question.

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6. 90

   Virginia Allainposted 10 years ago

   Experimenting a little more with the GROUPS. It seems that the order in which they appear in the group list dictates the 2 hubs that get featured.
   
   In other words, within each group, drag the titles around so that titles are sandwiched between the 2 hubs that you want to appear at the end.
   
   For instance, I didn't want my zombie hub featured on my cute baby costumes hub. I dragged all my childrens costume pages together, all my literary costumes, all my gruesome costumes, etc.
   
   I could have made separate groups for each sub-category of costumes but for the stats, I wanted to see them as a whole.

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7. 0

   Snakesmumposted 10 years ago

   Have really enjoyed following this discussion, and although I had used the Groups function, have learned much more about it from everyone's posts. 
   Thanks to all who offered advice.  Now I'll be able to better sort my hubs.

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