Announcing a plan for subdomains

1. 87

   billybucposted 9 years ago

   Sigh!
   
   I'm just a writer.  I know nothing of domains or subdomains.  I'm just a writer.  Good luck with your changes and adjustments.

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   1. 60

      DasEngelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      +1!  &
      
      +1  ^_^

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      1. 86

         tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Perhaps with any content writing that is most important. Thanks for refocusing me :-)

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         1. 60

            DasEngelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            

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2. 52

   paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

   Wacky time... Re: my auto hub.
   
   I did a search, "paradigm..." shows up.
   
   I do another search, "hubpages..." shows up.
   
   Oh well, fun to watch.

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3. 52

   paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

   Google is definitely digesting things.

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4. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   ...but completely fails to create the silo structure

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5. 52

   paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

   My auto hub has now completely disappeared from Google (used to be on front page). Where's the d@mned valium? I shall be not afraid. Time will tell.

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6. 59

   Vic Dillingerposted 9 years ago

   sockii--you nailed it.  We've all seen this kind of absurd meandering before, magically on sites that are no longer extant.  The smart thing to do, people, is LEAVE!!  Get out while you can! This site is either headed for sale (same machinations of others we've all seen follow the "change" path) or will simply tank. It is most likely in its death throes.

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   1. 52

      paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      How come you're an 85 and I'm a 78? Oh well, I feel a nap coming on.

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7. 52

   paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

   Sunday evening, usa, and my little corner of the world is active, "Overview Create Shortcut BETA Right now 6 active users on site".

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8. 59

   Vic Dillingerposted 9 years ago

   @paradigm search: I don't know why I'm at an 85 and you're at a 78.  That profile rank never made sense to me.

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   1. 52

      paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      HubPages always did like you best.

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      1. 84

         NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfgrREmy68A

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9. 75

   ologsinquitoposted 9 years ago

   How does this affect being able to delete hubs? I'm in the process of deleting unfeatured hubs.

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10. 75

    ologsinquitoposted 9 years ago

    What I mean to say is will the Google page removal tool recognize this? When does this go into effect, or has it already happened?

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    1. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       ologsinquito, when you delete a page, Google will remove it from search results anyway.  All the Google page removal tool does is remove it faster.  That's useful if you're in a tearing hurry to republish it on your own blog - but the alternative is simply to wait a week before republishing.  Not a long time in the scheme of things.

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       1. 76

          TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          but long enough for someone to steal an article, yes?

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          1. 86

             Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             If the Hub in question has been unfeatured for lack of traffic, then it's unlikely to be a target for theft anyway!   However if anyone is worried about that, it's really no big deal to republish it immediately, if  it's your own blog. 
             
             The only time you may be forced to wait is if you're posting on a site like HP which insists on original content.

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11. 60

    DasEngelposted 9 years ago

    

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12. 59

    FatFreddysCatposted 9 years ago

    Yep, I'm with billybuc on this one.
    
    I give up trying to understand this stuff. I'm just a middle aged nerd whose hobby is writing goofy heavy metal sh*t. As long as HP continues to provide me a place to post said goofy heavy metal sh*t, then I'm fine with whatever they're doing behind the scenes. It's their site, after all. I'm just leeching space off of it.
    
    The rest of y'all can gnash your teeth and wring your hands and worry about your SERPs (whatever those are) and your Google Author rankings or your breadcrumb silos or whatever. I'll be in the corner listening to Black Sabbath (on cassette!!) if anybody needs me.

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    1. 60

       DasEngelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Ha-ha-ha!   ^_^

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13. 75

    ologsinquitoposted 9 years ago

    Thanks Marisa, if it's been unfeatured for a while, does this mean it's already removed from the search results?

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    1. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Yes.

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    2. 99

       DrMark1961posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I would answer this with a "Yes, supposedly"
       Try starting a forum post and asking how many people have unfeatured hubs that are still found in the the search engines! You might find some surprising answers.

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14. 52

    paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

    Well, looks like my auto hub is surviving quite nicely under its new domain. If there was a temporary drop in traffic, I didn't even notice it. And I can't swear to it, but I believe it's even a little bit higher on the search page now.

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    1. 76

       lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       You sure PD? Or are you being sarcastic

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       1. 52

          paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Neither sarcastic  nor whimsical. All true.
          
          If my other hubs do as well, I'll be a happy camper.

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          1. 76

             lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Shocking for two reasons And you know both lol - I hope

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             1. 52

                paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Come to think of it, the word "quite" has different meanings inside vs outside the US. For inside the US, substitute the word "very".

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                1. 76

                   lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                   Oh should keep that in mind when writing. Never knew that one lol. Why did they stop using British English (rofl)

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15. 83

    Buildrepsposted 9 years ago

    Change is always good and inevitable. I like change. We'll see if we change in the right direction, otherwise we'll just change again in another direction

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16. 52

    paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

    The auto category seems to have worked out well. When will the other topics begin to happen? Will they be all at once or a few at a time?

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17. 93

    Kylyssaposted 9 years ago

    Thank you for informing us of this change. I think shorter URLs will be an improvement. I'm glad all our existing links with the old URLs will be redirected to our hubs' new URLs.

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18. 84

    viryaboposted 9 years ago

    Having read all this, do WE have to make any changes to our hubs or does HP do all the necessary adjustments?

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    1. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       It might be worth checking that all your hubs are in the right category but otherwise no.

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       1. 84

          viryaboposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks Marissa.
          I had a feeling i might have to look into that. Probably have to check them all, just in case.

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19. 75

    chezchazzposted 9 years ago

    I've had (and am still having) a difficult year with personal and family related issues, and have not been as active here as I would like, but I do feel compelled to add to this discussion.
    
    I am also a squidoo refugee -- and a happy one who actually did better on HubPages at first. Even after the last round of changes,results were not as good but still decent. This month has been dismal. October earnings on Squidoo were my highest of any month. Here, it is the worst Halloween season I've had in more than 6 years.
    
    This may be due at least in part to some major changes in one of my most popular and highest earning Halloween "lenses." That was the hub that was chosen to be "edited." (I have no idea why a poorly performing one was not chosen. Perhaps the editor just liked this topic?) Anyway, I was not happy with the outcome overall and had several concerns besides the amateurish quality and questionable copyright infringement issues of the illustrations that appear to have been traced from frames of one of the videos in my original version. Since I did not have the time or energy to deal with this at that point, I simply unpublished it. As Halloween approached, and lacking the same affordances to change the lens/hub back, I decided to publish it and see what happened. I also promoted it heavily on social media. The results were dismal.  I will unpublish it again at the end of this week and either move and revise it, sell it, or trash it.
    
    At this point in time, I know the new set of changes are well-meaning (at least from a business standpoint) and I hope the changes being made are indeed helpful. I am postponing making any decisions about my hubpages account for a few months or until, hopefully, other responsibilities take up less of my time and strength.
    
    I just wanted to add one other note that addresses the tone of some posts here and in other topics on this forum.  Passivity and silence are not always due to or the same as acceptance, laziness, or indifference. So do not be too quick to judge those not participating in discussions or being more proactive. Hubbers are old, young, and middle-aged. They are boomers, millenials, gen-xers and generations in betwee. They are caretakers of young children and/or aging parents. They are healthy or not. They are under- or unemployed as well as successful in their fields. They speak many different languages and may not be comfortable participating in English in the more informal environment of these posts. (Hubpages can be translated, edited, and polished before publishing. Entries here are generally on the spot, even if not spot-on.) In short, we are a diverse group in every way which is one of the qualities I hope changes at hub pages does not alter by its efforts to update and seemingly homogenize the site.

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    1. 87

       MelRootsNWritesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       ChezChazz, well said! On a side note,  I just wanted you to know that you're not the only one who had a dismal Halloween.  I never made many sales lenses at Squidoo, but had one Halloween one that did welll.  When it transferred over last year, it did really well.  In fact, it did better at Hubpages.
       
       I knew I would have to update it and I knew it would get snagged in QAP.  But, I did it early (June or July) thinking any problems would be resolved in time for the Halloween traffic.
       
       I met my goal, it was featured again within a week, but the traffic never came back.  It made me reluctant to touch any of the others for fear they'd drop off the face of the internet, too.  Last year it got quite a bit of traffic starting the first week of September until a week before Halloween.  The earnings were good, too.  This year, I believe the best day was 10 page views.  Whatever I did to it to make it less sales-y, pretty much killed it.
       
       My other Halloween hubs are picking up this week at least, so it isn't a complete loss.
       
       Anyway, I just wanted you to know you're not the only one experiencing a disappointing Halloween.

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20. 83

    Buildrepsposted 9 years ago

    Besides checking the categories one by one, you might want to back up all your Hubs. Just in case...

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21. 66

    Maffew Jamesposted 9 years ago

    HubPages intends to move profile pages to new URLs and I imagine these will still be indexed in Google, allowing you to find your profile page in search too. With any Google search, it is possible for any keyword or specific combination of keywords within your article to cause it to be found on the result page, including your user name if there is no one else using something similar elsewhere, or you're not using the same user name for other sites that may rank higher.
    
    Case in point: A search for 'how to make apple pie' on Google yields a result page where practically none of the top-listed pages actually use that particular title. The highest ranking result is simply titled as 'apple pie recipe'. It ranks for the term because the article contains relevance to the search term.
    
    Title is an important SEO signal, but it's worthless if the use of keywords isn't homogeneous throughout the entire article and further relevance isn't created to help the search engine understand what the article is about. In the example above, you can see how an article that makes good use of keywords is able to rank for those terms without even including them in the title.
    
    
    With AdSense, you shouldn't need to change anything. I think some people who signed up later for it may be confined to using it on approved sites and this may require re-applying or adjusting settings if its currently restricted to your subdomain.
    
    Revenue...this will drop temporarily after the transition. This can take a few days after a 301 redirect because Google doesn't adjust immediately. Then there's a process of normalisation when the content settles in its new location. This could take several weeks and earnings could increase or decrease after this occurs based on whether traffic changes substantially.
    
    As for why traffic will change following the redirect, this is due to the fact that your content is being assessed based on the authority of the hubpages.com domain rather than your subdomain. Sure, the 301 redirect preserves links to your content, but its still a different domain now and the overall quality and quantity of links and related content on that domain affects your own content. Expect poor content to negatively affect good content, and vice versa. Removal of the subdomain takes your work out of its own little protected bubble and causes it to be considered part of a larger whole.

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22. 76

    lobobrandonposted 9 years ago

    As I stated earlier I'm all for this. If HP is going the way it is, it's going to need to go down deeper into the categories. Paul said that he's doing this to allow people to switch between sub-categories and not having any impact on the URL of the hub.
    
    But it's unlikely people will be switching between the broad categories that constitute the current breakup. So, as you say they can be split up.

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23. 52

    paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

    HubPages does indeed need to expand the top categories for SEO purposes. Then they got to figure out the programming to make all the hubs go where they are supposed to go when the changeover happens. If they are going to do all of this right, then it will probably be awhile before they can actually do the changeover.
    
    Meanwhile, I just had another hub get a sudden influx of Pinterest traffic; this is beginning to be a fairly regular occurrence for me. Has it been addressed as to what kind of hissy fit Pinterest is going to throw when HubPages starts throwing a tsunami of redirects at them? As I recollect, they already went ballistic once when trackers were introduced into the URL.

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    1. 81

       sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I hope not, most of my traffic comes from Pinterest.

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       1. 52

          paradigm searchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          HubPages staff may need to invite Pinterest staff out to lunch; won't be the first time.

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    2. 76

       lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Redirects don't affect pinterest in anyway, so I hope not.

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24. 69

    makingamarkposted 9 years ago

    The thing is.....I don't get it. How can you move people from sub-domains to category domains without first sorting out the categories properly?
    
    How many redirects are there going to be?

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25. 69

    makingamarkposted 9 years ago

    I like to be in charge of my own redirects.
    
    I change where I locate a topic on my new websites and then change the URL at the same time. What I like is that the website host gives me the facility to organise my own redirects so I'm not dependent on anybody else getting it wrong.
    
    All I have to do is take the old URL and then say what the new one is and the host then tells Google et all where to find it. Works perfectly and happens as and when it happens.

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26. 88

    RedElfposted 9 years ago

    From all the replies I can see that there are way more savvy folk than I weighing in on the issue. just wanted to say I'm glad to see HP staff is still fighting the good fight. Necessary content improvements aside (and they were necessary - and there are still a lot of blog posts masquerading as hubs), Panda was a real kick in the pants - always happy to see some hopeful changes

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    1. 76

       lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Nice to see you around, been a while since I've seen you post on the forums

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27. 69

    brakel2posted 9 years ago

    If the broad categories are left as they are, it will be difficult to get many on the first page of Google, in my opinion. I have a hub that has always done well, but if all the hubs are put under education, and it is about memory, what chance do we have that have hubs under memory. Many exist. Will hubbers with niches  such as recipes or poetry have difficulty? I haven't seen this issue discussed but hope I am not repeating anything.

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    1. 76

       lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       To be frank, when you had a subdomain there was no real category coming into the URL and since Google didn't really consider the subdomains as subdomains anymore meant that your memory hubs coming under education is in theory a much better option than what it was until earlier today. More categories would help improve the traffic further is what I and many others here feel. But, we're going to have to see how things play out.

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       1. 69

          brakel2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks so much for your response. Maybe more categories will make a big difference if HP decides to broaden the list.

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28. 69

    brakel2posted 9 years ago

    In addition to Pinterest, will Facebook and Google+ all need redirects, and why are all the rest of hubs being done today per staff post.

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    1. 76

       lobobrandonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       All hubs are moved as of now. And yes all your old links are automatically redirected. There is nothing that you need to do.

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29. 74

    easylearningwebposted 9 years ago

    Lots to read here and I read it all, but I still have some questions, for anyone that can clarify:
    
    What will happen to the link that contains our Hubpages name, for example:
    easylearningweb.hubpages.com
    Will this link no longer work? It sounds like it will be  redirected but then there is a note to change external links? Can't we just let it read direct? But what will the new URL look like?
    
    Can you provide examples of old and new links so that we can better understand what will change with regards to URL's?
    
    I also reviewed the article on the blog: http://blog.hubpages.com/2015/10/24/LIK … NEW-AGAIN/  but it would not let me post a comment unless I logged in to Wordpress.
    
    Thank you!

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30. 52

    paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

    Part 2 of this adventure is at http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/133740

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    1. 84

       NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks. Someone said the change was made, but I hadn't seen the official announcement. Looks like good news to me.

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31. 90

    Rochelle Frankposted 9 years ago

    Anyone typing that in ( easylearningweb.hubpages.com) will land on your profile page. Try it, yourself.

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32. 54

    Harry Santosposted 9 years ago

    I personally felt the decrease in traffic when it was switched to subdomains back in 2011. I wrote a new hub with my analysis that includes hubs I've written back in 2011 regarding the switch to subdomains. In my hub, I linked the announcement of switching to subdomains and it was cited as a "test".
    
    I explained why I believe we will all benefit as we share the authority of the main HubPages domain, at the same time HubPro is also very helpful in making sure content is high-quality. I'm glad this "test" is over.

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