Expressing a number in a Title of a Hub

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   mary615posted 9 years ago

   I believe numbers one through ten are properly written out; over that the numeral can be used, but how should I express the number five in a title?   5 or Five??

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      Faith Reaperposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I think you are supposed to write it out, Mary.  As you stated, numbers one through ten should be written out.  However, I have seen plenty just use the number.

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   2. 0

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Mary,
      
      Numbers should never be used to signify a series of Hubs ("Part 2," "Chapter 3," etc are discouraged) but otherwise whether you write the number out as a word or use the number just depends on your preference. The two are generally treated as the same thing in Google these days.

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         mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Christy, I have read several other articles since I  posted this question, and the advice I see is that the digit should be used instead of writing the number.  The link http://blog.hubpages.com/2015/03/23/hub … -makeover/ 
         sallybea gave us that link and  it says HP advises using the digit.

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2. 61

   missoliveposted 9 years ago

   Hi Mary, they had me write out the number when I was in the apprenticeship....Five
   Hope that helps.

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      missoliveposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I just wanted to add...
      You can write it out both ways. Example, write it out for the title and use the number in the summary. Or vice versa.

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3. 84

   Good Guyposted 9 years ago

   I have been flexible on this rule, depending on the context, and just how I felt while in the process of writing.  If it is the first letter in a title then it will appear on top if you search according to alphabetical order.  I have a few hub titles with the beginning "9" instead of "Nine".  I wonder whether I should change to "Nine".

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      colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      you are on the track ~
      thank you for sharing the truse...
      9 it is for me.

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   I forgot who,  but somebody told me to write numbers out for mobile users.

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5. 100

   DrMark1961posted 9 years ago

   The best way to do it is write out the number for the time being.
   Then, a few months from now, open up your hub and check the stats to see how your hub is being found through the search engines.
   If you have 50 people that are looking for "5 ways to paint your fence" and only 10 people who type in "Five ways to paint your fence" you should go ahead and change it to the number.
   The number of people who find your hub should go up after that. Traffic too, one would hope!

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      colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      +1
      Or any site.

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      Good Guyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If I were to do a search, I would just type 5 instead of five.  I think I would just stick to status quo.

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         sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I noticed in the HubPro examples that the number is used.  I have subsequently altered some of my hubs-
         
         http://blog.hubpages.com/2015/03/23/hub … -makeover/

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            mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for that link!

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               sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               You are welcome

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   Susana Sposted 9 years ago

   Studies have shown that people are more likely to click on titles with numbers, but only when they're expressed numerically. 
   
   The reason is not that searchers use numbers when looking for info, but that headlines with numerical numbers stand out more in the search results and therefore, are more likely to be clicked.
   
   I can't remember exactly where I read that now, it may have been over on hubspot. com. Maybe here: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/write … -headlines
   
   Edit: Here - http://moz.com/blog/5-data-insights-int … ders-click

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      This is exactly what I was thinking.

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      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for sharing this.
      
      I just went and changed two of my hub titles to reflect this information. I'm eager to see if it has any effect.
      
      It's one of the great things about HubPages that we can change titles and content until we figure out what works best for us.

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         Susana Sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         You're welcome
         
         Yes it's definitely a plus that we can change titles!

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   lobobrandonposted 9 years ago

   Susana is right, when writing online it's better to use digits in titles as that catches the eye on search engines more than words. People are always looking for multiple ways to do stuff.
   
   
   For instance, they may not notice you have five ways to do ... on 3rd spot on the SERPs and just go ahead and click the first result. But if you have 5 ways to do... on position 3, it's hard to miss it. They will read the rest of your title and are more likely to click through.

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      Susana Sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      +1
      
      You expressed it better than me

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Exactly.

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   mary615posted 9 years ago

   Thanks for all your help.  sallybea reminded me of what HP says about this.  They do recommend using the number, i.e. 5 recipes, 10 best BBQ sauces, etc.etc.
   I have noticed on other sites the number seems to be used most frequently,(NOT spelled out).  When I look at my Title, it just looks weird compared to all my other Titles.  I did use the numeral.

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   kisstheskyposted 9 years ago

   In creative writing class back in high school we were taught 1-10 to be written out, I sort of follow it most of the time unless I write "2 out of 3" or similar phrases with multiple numbers.

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    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    Here is a link where this group says to write numbers as numerals not words because of mobile users
    
    http://www.nngroup.com/articles/web-wri … -numerals/

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       mary615posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for that link, Linda.  I just read it.

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