Do you unpublish seasonal Hubs?

1. 97

   mary615posted 10 years ago

   Do you think it is better to unpublish seasonal Hubs?   They won't get traffic during the year, so I'm wondering if it would be better to unpublish those until the next season.  I am thinking about Christmas Hubs I have written.

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      sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      No I would not.  Some of my most read hubs are Craft Hubs which feature items which can be made throughout the year, not just at Christmas.

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      relacheposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      No.
      
      Unpublishing a Hub sets it back to zero, as though you were publishing it for the first time, and you wind up building it's reputation back up from scratch.  That's why having a Hub become Unfeatured can actually be useful.

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      Kylyssaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I do not unpublish seasonal material. The articles get views all year round so I don't know why it would be a good idea. A Halloween craft hub of mine is currently getting the fifth most views of any of my hubs and none of my other seasonal or holiday hubs have been un-featured for lack of engagement. I haven't even touched a couple of them since the move from Squidoo and they still get a trickle of views.
      
      They won't turn off readers due to being out of season because readers aren't really going to notice them unless they are looking for seasonal information, in which case, they want to find it.

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      TolovajWordsmithposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Never ever unpublish any material which is useful, original and may be of any kind of help in foreseeing future (think about decades). Age of articles is one of rare parameters which can't be falsified, so it's important when bots valuate 'the quality of content' (whatever that may be in their tiny robo-minds). Instead of that try to think about interlinking your seasonal and evergreen hubs to boost both in rankings.

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      peachpurpleposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      i leave my seasonal hubs on, don't really bother them unless they get the half moon logo

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   6. 97

      Kylyssaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I have a hub about how I continue to get views to all of my seasonal and holiday pieces all year round if anyone is interested. I wrote it as a lens back when Squidoo started requiring seasonal lenses to get healthy views all year to stay out of Work In Progress, an unfeatured, de-indexed, invisible to the public except the day it was edited state much more difficult to escape than HubPages' unfeatured for lack of engagement status.
      
      The methods work for me and my writing is nothing special.

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      snakeslaneposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I do, seems silly to have them out there doing nothing. But I can see I am the minority here.

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         Kylyssaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Even if they are only getting one reader a day that one reader could be the one who will want to share your content.

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   SusanDeppnerposted 10 years ago

   You'd be surprised at how many people think about and plan for Christmas throughout the year. Leaving your seasonal hubs published gives those people one more place to find what they're looking for.

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years ago

   I leave my seasonal hubs alone so they can continue to age and get some traffic.  Some of them might get unfeatured, and I will revive them shortly before the season by going over it again and making sure it fits well for the upcoming season.

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   1. 97

      mary615posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your opinions on whether or not to unpublish seasonal Hubs.  I just hate to see my any of my Hubs become "unfeatured" because of low traffic,  but I guess that's OK as Millionaire Tips said.

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4. 79

   Don Bobbittposted 10 years ago

   I do the same as Millionaire Tips. They may go to an "unfeatured" state for a few months, but they are there for me to reinstate later when they are pertinent.

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   Monfernapeposted 10 years ago

   I would simply deny that.
   You see, hubpages also appear in search engines. So it may help people living in different regions of world. Unpublishing it may not help the people.

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6. 81

   Sam Montanaposted 10 years ago

   I would not unpublish any article, doesn't that mean it can drop in Google rankings or are they still crawled. As someone mentioned, other parts of the world can benefits from some types of seasonal articles, like gardening.

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      Don Bobbittposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Sam- I think if you look at the HP info, you will find that they do not allow unfeatured Hubs to be crawled by Google. It was in one of their weekly updates last year.
      DON

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         mary615posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Don, this is what concerns me. If a Hub goes unfeatured, Google won't crawl it.  I read that, too.

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            SandyMertensposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Whoever is visiting your profile and if you have followers who like to visit you, those unfeatured hubs will get read by them. They may not be crawled by Google but your hubs that are unfeatured are still there. Plus unfeatured can become featured the next month. They do change.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            You're right Mary, that's the whole point of unFeaturing.  But if it's unpublished, Google won't crawl it either, so that won't help!
            
            To get the Hub Featured again, all you have to do is open the Hub in "edit" mode, change ONE word, and save it again. That will get it Featured again for a few more weeks.  If it falls back into unFeatured again, repeat. 
            
            I don't normally recommend doing that to keep Hubs Featured - in fact I wrote a whole Hub on how to decide what to do with unFeatured Hubs - but for seasonal Hubs, it makes sense to keep it "alive" because you know it's going to get traffic when it comes to Christmas.
            
            One tip:   check your profile and make sure you've said "No" to the question, "Show only Featured Hubs on my profile?"
            
            That way your followers and visitors can still visit the Hub from your profile.

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            1. 97

               mary615posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks. After Christmas last year, I unpublished those, and just republished them in time for Christmas season the next year.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  DEFINITELY do not do that this year!  You are harming your Hubs by doing that.   
                  
                  If you write seasonal Hubs:
                  
                  (a) always leave them published all year round
                  (b) do a minor edit any time they become unFeatured
                  (c) make sure you have your profile set to show your unFeatured Hubs.
                  
                  I would not give the same advice for non-seasonal Hubs, but for seasonal ones, the above is definitely the way to go.

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            2. 75

               SandyMertensposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I have done what Marisa Wright mentioned. For me, rarely does that work. In the past, I have unpublished all of those that turn unfeatured. But I have noticed that many times those that became unfeatured are featured again later on without any changes.

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                  Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Changing a word did not work for me either. What works for me is adding a paragraph and rewriting any other sentences that sound cliché or use tired/trite language.

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                     SandyMertensposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Then there are those that I have added many changes to and they just don't get featured.

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                        Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        That is certainly discouraging. I had that only once and put the article somewhere else.

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                           SandyMertensposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           I have a few right now that just won't move into featured. Hard to believe that it has happened once to you Patty. You always seem to be on top here.

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                              Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              Not every topic or Hub works on HubPages, so I think it happens to many of us. Hope you have better success in future!

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                              Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              I find that hard to believe, Sandy.   Are they unFeatured for Quality or for Lack of Engagement?

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  In this thread I was talking specifically about Seasonal Hubs.   They are bound to get low traffic out of season but it's important they don't get de-indexed during that time.
                  
                  I give completely different advice for ordinary Hubs which get unFeatured.   In fact I wrote a Hub about it (you'll find it in the slider on my profile).   But in summary:
                  
                  (a) if the Hub has been unFeatured for quality, then it's worth trying to identify the problem and fix it.  Post in the "Improving Your Hub" section if you can't work it out.
                  
                  (b) if the Hub has been unFeatured for lack of engagement, that just means it's not getting enough traffic, simple.  You can get it Featured again with one edit, but there's no point if it's not going to get more traffic - so you have two options.  Either find a way to get more traffic, or move it to a site which doesn't have the same system, like Wizzley or Seekyt or Infobarrel (or your own blog).  And by find a way to get more traffic, I don't mean tweeting or Facebooking - I mean keyword research.

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years ago

   It is also possible to change the hub to make it less seasonal, or roll it over to the next season.  Instead of christmas gifts for men, change it to birthday gifts, or father's day gifts.

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8. 86

   Faith Reaperposted 10 years ago

   Hi Mary,
   
   No, I have not done so in the past just because I never really thought about unpublishing seasonal hubs.  However, I believe I will just keep them published, as they seemed to stay up in score throughout the year.
   
   Hope you and yours had a lovely Christmas.
   
   Hugs

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9. 85

   Happyboomernurseposted 10 years ago

   Hi Mary,
   I have never unpublished a seasonal hub, and I don't recall any of them getting unfeatured during the rest of the year. This was a good question and I learned some things from the answers others gave.
   Looks like most hubbers don't unpublish, and some revamp it to make the hub more evergreen, or useful during other times of the year.

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    Dressage Husbandposted 10 years ago

    I have a couple of Hubs about Christmas Wreaths and even though they are definitely aimed at Christmas to my surprise maintain a steady flow of traffic all year round. In fact they are among my highest trafficked Hubs.

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    Lady Loreleiposted 10 years ago

    Nope, I just allow my articles to float up and down as their season dictates.

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    psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

    No. It doesn't harm to leave them published and is less work. Also my Christmas hubs actually do get some traffic through the year.

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    word55posted 10 years ago

    No, why go through the hassle of trying to get them republished? Just leave them up forever. Let the people read them whenever they feel like it.

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    tirelesstravelerposted 10 years ago

    Many people look at seasonal hubs all year round as they plan for the next season/ holiday. Sometimes its just nice to look at a seasonal hub to remind yourself that the season you are in won't always be where you are.

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    daisydayzposted 10 years ago

    I've never unpublished mine as it is surprising how early people start their planning, especially crafters! Even if you only get the odd few hits the rest of the year, you can never be sure how many will pin them and come back later!

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    Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

    Unpublishing Hubs is a huge mistake: You lose the ranking on search engine results, inbound links get a 404 error code and all your marketing efforts tank.  No major news website unpublishes content just because it doesn't get many views. Also, search engines begin to ignore pages that are on-and-off-again. 
    
    My seasonal Hubs get visits every day.  They don't need to be unpublished just because traffic slows down.

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       mary615posted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Writer Fox, my concern is that the Hubs will become unfeatured due to lack of traffic.  Google won't seach them if they are unfeatured, right?  So what is the point of leaving them published??   I'm confused.....

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          sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          My top hub currently is a seasonal hub but it has never ever been unfeatured  and continues to be very successful throughout the year.

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          Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Good Hubs should never be unfeatured!  But, unfortunately, that is the HP system.  If one of my seasonal Hubs were unfeatured because of traffic, I would change a single word to send it back through QAP again and I would just keep doing that so that it remains featured.  A Hub unfeatured because of low traffic from search engines will never have traffic from search engines while it is unfeatured. At that point, there is no reason to keep that Hub on HP. If you can't keep it featured by sending it back through QAP, you might as well publish it somewhere else and then just leave it on another website where it can mature and be a reliable webpage year-round.
          
          Many, many people complained when HP first started unfeaturing Hubs but HP has never changed its decision to do this. 
          
          Search engines understand and respect the decision by webmasters to disallow SE access to sections of websites, especially sections where financial or personal information is stored.  But, this random insertion of NOINDEX on every other Hub/webpage (39% of Hubs are not featured) is a neck-jerker for search engines, an indication of bad site architecture, and a clear red-flag that the editorial process for selecting content for the site is flawed. These are things when can affect the entire HP site in search rankings.

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             NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

             HP had to hide the bad content in some way or another, I think unfeaturing/deindexing was the most viable solution. Considering resources, reviewing every Hub on the site is not possible. Unfeaturing also looks like a strategy that has worked. It was introduced after the Panda of 2011, along with subdomains, and the site recovered significantly. At least with unfeaturing, too, you do have a chance to fix the article to get it re-featured. I think the unfeaturing of articles was the most viable and most fair solution.

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    aesta1posted 10 years ago

    Some hubs that are Unfeatured for lack of engagement often don't really get a lot of traffic. Moving it somewhere will not bring in traffic. If it is something that people really don't search for, then I just unpublish it. But seasonal hubs that get much traffic and sales during the season, I just revise and submit again.

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    David Trujilloposted 10 years ago

    I leave them. My Canada Goose jackets fall drasticly after winter but throughout the year they do gather some traffic.
    '
    But the point here is what Google Rank does if you unpublish a Hub to Publish again during the season?

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    carolynkayeposted 10 years ago

    I do. I only have a couple holiday-related, but they're in need of updating so I haven't re-published them.

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