Now I Am Really Confused About Idling Hubs and Need an Answer

1. 91

   Rock_njposted 8 years ago

   I just had a Hub idled for lack of interest that is one of my most popular.  I think I deserve an explanation from HubPages staff regarding why a Hub with these stats is idled for lack interest?
   
   The Hub:  Visiting Fort Myers Beach, Florida | Things To Do In Fort Myers Beach       
   
   HubScore:  85    5   
   One Day Views: 10   
   Seven Days Views: 40   
   Thirty Day Views: 216
   
   Is a Hub generating this type of traffic consistently really one that should be idled for lack of interest?  Please explain.  Thanks!

   replyreport
   1. 0

      TheBizWhizposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      John,
      That is odd. It has to be a glitch.

      replyreport
      1. 91

         Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I want an explanation.  I understand them wanting to idle low traffic Hubs.  At this point I am just deleting Hubs that have no traffic in 30 days.  But, this is one of my best performing Hubs, as can be seen by the stats.  I want to understand their rationale for idling this one.

         replyreport
         1. 74

            Barbara Kayposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I had this happen one time too with a hub that had around 250 views that month. I didn't get an explanation from staff, but someone stated that Hubpages wants the views to be from search engines, not social media. Well, what is the difference!!! Views are views. I wasn't happy about it either.

            replyreport
            1. 74

               relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Not all views are views.
               
               YouTube says a viewer has to watch 30 seconds of a video to count for a view.  Facebook says it was a valid view if only three seconds was watched. 
               
               If Pinterest isn't bringing actual readers over, Analytics would tell you.  A high bounce rate means no one is actually visiting your Hub to read or do anything, and that's what leads to unfeatured Hubs.

               replyreport
   2. 70

      Matthew Meyerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hubs do need to have some search activity in order to meet the traffic requirement of the QAP.
      http://hubpages.com/faq/#search-traffic-to-be-featured
      
      If you have a Hub that is doing well on social media, but only has a small amount of search traffic it can be defeatured.
      
      You can edit the Hub and the QAP traffic acquisition period will start over.
      This can be a good opportunity to review Hubs and check grammar, spelling, and other elements of a Hub.

      replyreport
      1. 91

         Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         OK.  Thanks so much for the thorough answer.  I guess you can close this topic.

         replyreport
      2. 83

         Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Mathews, I have one hub that is defeatured since 3,4 weeks. I have edited it 2, 3 times and improved it. Even then, it is not featured. I don't know about SEO, but my hub quality is good as you can find it. Good quality should be featured. I am very sorry of all these things.

         replyreport
      3. 59

         Alternative Primeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         So Matthew, let me make sure this is crystal clear ~
         
         What you are suggesting is that even if a hub is Exceptionally Well Written, Informative, Authoritative, and Beautifully Crafted, it will ultimately be “De-Activated” or “Idled” if “Traffic” to said piece does not meet HP’s specific threshold ~   ----> ??? <----

         replyreport
         1. 70

            Matthew Meyerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            That is correct.
            You do have the opportunity to edit such a Hub and doing so will restart the QAP period it has to find readers.

            replyreport
         2. 91

            Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I know.  Sounds idiotic, but that is their policy here at HubPages.  It is one of the reasons that so many good writers have gotten frustrated with HubPages and deleted their accounts and moved on.  It's like asking a great artist to touch up his masterpiece painting every few months because the public isn't coming by to see it.  Sometimes a great work of art is done and final.  Whether it is popular at the moment does not reflect on how good it is.

            replyreport
            1. 74

               relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               So why haven't you moved your content to your own site where it can be a finished masterpiece forever? 
               
               No one is making you keep your content here.

               replyreport
2. 80

   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   The activity score is only based on outside/search traffic as I understand it.  Maybe the traffic you had is from the "wrong" sources.

   replyreport
   1. 91

      Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      A good chunk of it comes from Pinterest because my Hub has pictures that are on Pinterest that have gotten hundreds of shares.  Pinterest may very well not be considered a good source for traffic, but I want to hear to from HubPages to see where they are coming from.

      replyreport
3. 74

   relacheposted 8 years ago

   Hubs get UnFeatured for traffic based on an algorithm, not human intervention.
   
   If you want to know where your traffic is coming from, go look at your Analytics (if you set that up). Otherwise, the data here won't tell you those specifics.

   replyreport
   1. 91

      Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Perhaps the algorithm needs to be fixed.  I know it is coming from Pinterest.  You can see that in Google Analytics.  Also, if you look at a Hub's stats while in a Hub at HubPages, it tells you where the views are coming from.

      replyreport
   2. 89

      MizBejabbersposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I certainly hope that algorithm has the ability to read a hub. Humans read. This really makes me want to go elsewhere. I didn't get two degrees in writing just to be put down by a computer.

      replyreport
      1. 80

         psycheskinnerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         The algorithm counts traffic -- this is a traffic based penalty unrelated to what is on the hub.

         replyreport
      2. 74

         relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I hate to break it to you, but this isn't a site for writing, it's a site for "creating content," and unless you know how to do the second, you will probably find this site extremely frustrating.

         replyreport
4. 95

   jansharesposted 8 years ago

   I agree with TheBizWhiz. This doesn't look right. I believe "lack of interest" is the same as "lack of engagement," right? Based on the stats, your hub looks engaged. I hope you emailed the team for answers. I recently saw a forum post with the same issue. Christy Kirwan replied and confirmed something was wrong and asked the hubber to email the team.

   replyreport
5. 80

   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   I would guess they are only counting search engine traffic. But also suspect that Pinterest traffic is just as good as search engine traffic.  It is semantically based, just in pictorial form.

   replyreport
   1. 91

      Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I believe Pinterest traffic is from someone actually visiting my Hub on HubPages, not just the fact that they viewed the picture and link on Pinterest.  I am not sure I understand what you are saying?

      replyreport
      1. 80

         psycheskinnerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I am saying that I think Pinterest visits should count the same as Google visits, but they probably don't.
         
         I see no way that hubpages would be counting them unless they actually clicked the link and landed on the hub.

         replyreport
6. 79

   starme77posted 8 years ago

   Sounds like a glitch to me. I would send a friendly e-mail and see where it goes from there.

   replyreport
7. 80

   LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years ago

   

   replyreport
8. 88

   Virginia Allainposted 8 years ago

   I've heard that the site discounts views from Pinterest and Facebook. Too bad, in my opinion.
   I also wish they wouldn't unfeature my holiday hubs due to low traffic. Well, of course, the Christmas ones have low traffic in July, but now and then someone wants to see them but they aren't visible.

   replyreport
   1. 91

      Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The algorithm was supposed to treat holiday hubs differently, with the rationale programmed in that their traffic would be low to non-existent during non-holiday time periods.  I guess that task never was completed by HubPages.

      replyreport
   2. 70

      Matthew Meyerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Here is the suggestion from the FAQ for seasonal Hubs.
      http://hubpages.com/faq/#featured-seasonality
      
      You may want to set yourself a reminder a month before a holiday to check out your seasonal Hubs and refresh them. It can be a good opportunity to review them for grammar, spelling, and to see if anything would benefit from being updated.

      replyreport
9. 80

   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   This is a content site, the goal is to get enough traffic to justify costs and contribute to profit. If writers do not have this as even a secondary goal then the frustration is a natural reflection of having goals incompatible with their host.

   replyreport
   1. 91

      Rock_njposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      That's all fine and good from a bean counter point of view that focuses on one Hub's performance versus a holistic view of a writer's contribution.  But, when they alienate and chase away good writers by the 1,000s with these policies (check the stats), HubPages is losing the writer's other successful Hubs and the profits those Hubs generated, as well as future Hubs that will never be published.

      replyreport
      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         HubPages does not count social traffic because spammers often use it to generate visits to articles artificially -enabling poor quality Hubs to stay Featured and potentially hurt the site. Like many HubPages safeguards, that does result in "collateral damage" in terms of good Hubs which get unFeatured, but HubPages has said they have no alternative solutions right now.
         
         Let's face it, there's a wealth of other sites where you can publish a Hub that gets unFeatured.  Any serious writer would not be writing solely on HubPages anyway.

         replyreport
10. 90

    Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

    It's also not like you can't just tighten a hub up every now and again with a minor edit and get it featured again.
    
    There's no such thing as utterly perfected when it comes to writing. Even bestselling authors look at their published works and find things they'd change if they could, even hundreds of edits, millions of sales, and a few years later.

    replyreport
    1. 87

       Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       My only comment on making small edits is - why bother?    If the Hub has been around for more than a few months, it's probably never going to get traffic so it will simply get idled again and again and again. 
       
       If something gets unFeatured for lack of engagement, I will always see if there's something better to do with it first.  Only if there's no other home for it, will I consider editing just to get it Featured again.

       replyreport
       1. 90

          Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          If the hub is getting plenty of views from human sharing through social media, why not do something to keep it featured? I believe that Google will eventually develop algorithms that are better at identifying material people like.
          
          For instance, I have a hub that gets between 120 to 1,000 views per day, in dips and surges throughout the year, almost all from Pinterest. Why let that hub lose its featured status if human beings seem to really like it? Is it crazy to think Google may eventually develop the ability to "see" things that inspire people to enjoy a piece of writing enough to share it?

          replyreport
11. 61

    LindaSmith1posted 8 years ago

    There is a method for this madness.  Unfeatured hubs and here you go with the hubber adding, changing content, etc.  Now Google sees it as updated even when nothing wrong with Hub.  Why provide social network share buttons, then unfeature because a hub is not getting a ton of Google traffic, but social network traffic instead.  It takes time for Google to allow new content to rise in search engines. These days, Google is giving first page, second page etc to big corps, etc that are paying for adwords.     Thank God, I don't have to play the HP games anymore.

    replyreport