Why has my hub been demoted ?

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   MarieLBposted 8 years ago

   I have three Hubs about the 2015 Sydney Siege.  They were all featured.  They do not attract a great deal of views as these are about a local event.  However, only one of them has been demoted a few weeks ago.
   It now sports the " = Not Featured - Traffic" icon.  But. . .
   
   Out of the three Sydney Siege hubs, 'Sydney Siege - the Hostages and the New Katrina.' has the highest score of the three, and the highest number of views.
   
   I have checked it out and I cannot work out why this is so. 
   
   I have waited for a few weeks as I thought it might be a glitch.
   
   It is still the only hub that is not featured, and it is definitely not the one with the least number of views.
   
   Can anyone please enlighten me as to what could be the problem?
   
   Thank you,

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The only traffic that is counted is traffic from Google searches.  So it may be that your higher-traffic Hubs are actually getting visits from other sources, e.g. Pinterest or Facebook or links on other sites. 
      
      You can get your Hub Featured again by making a very small edit, which will restart the clock - but it will eventually be unFeatured again because as you say, the siege is fairly old news now and there won't be many people still searching for it on Google.
      
      You are right, HubPages does not do any promotion, that's down to you.

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         MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Marisa Wright,
         
         Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.  I will certainly do as you suggest.
         
         However, my point was that to compare the three Siege of Sydney hubs, it does not make sense that the one I am talking about "Sydney Siege - The Hostages and the New Katrina" has the highest score and the highest number of views.  So I cannot fathom why it was demoted when the others were not.
         
         It seems to me that I am missing something.  What on earth can one put into the mix?
         
         Maybe something to do with automation, and auto systems often go wrong.

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         MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Marisa Wright, I took all the advice on board, and the hub is now back where it belongs - Featured.

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      erorantesposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hello miss Marie LB.  The hubs you are talking about is base on a very sad news. All those sad news are in the old newspapers. Many people are grieving in silent. Most people want to forget about the terrible events. You have a great courage to write about the Sydney attacks. Your news was well done. Thank you for keeping us informed. It is time for you to write a hub. How people are dealing at the present moment after a few months of all this tragedy. Good luck with your hubs. Thank you again.

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         MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Hi erorantes,
         
         Thank you so much for taking the time to read my question and to assist me.
         
         The Sydney Siege, may have been 'old news' to the wider world, but is still in people's minds here in Australia.  It is very rare for us to have such events, thank goodness.
         
         I did write a little bit of a sequel around the six month mark after the event, however, the full inquest is still going.  I intend to write about that when it is well and truly finished.
         
         As it happens, erorantes, the demoted hub has been promoted to featured again. 
         
         I only have a few hubs but I aim to have all my hubs featured and that is why I was trying to find out why that particular one had been demoted.  Now all of my hubs are again Featured.
         
         Thanks again for the time.

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   Stella Kayeposted 8 years ago

   I've had this happen quite a bit and found that even just changing something quite insignificant like a few words in the title made a big difference. I'm hardly getting any page views at all whatever I do and seem to be spending more time actually trying to promote my existing articles than writing new ones! I wouldn't worry too much about the demotion as your writing is of a good standard so the hub will become featured again if you make a few small changes, add plenty pictures and comply with the recommended word count.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Stella.  It is good to hear the opinion of one's fellow writers.
      
      I too am spending more time on the old hubs than creating new ones.  If the truth be told I found that the traffic was rather disappointing and I doubt that Hubpages does any promoting as such.  Some of my friends tell me that the search function is not that user friendly either.
      
      I have been through that hub a few times, and did minor editing, with no change.  Yet, it has the best scores and the best views of the trio.
      
      Go figure. . .

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         LeanManposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Traffic is down to you....
         
         You need to select titles and subjects that people are actually searching for if you want to get any traffic from the search engines.
         
         Try the google keyword planner to get some idea of traffic volumes for your titles and keywords. If you don't write about something that people are searching for you cannot expect traffic......
         
         How many people do you think search for "city slicker reshaped" or "Tree change - city to farm"..

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            MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Hi LeanMan, thank you very much for your advice.  It is good of you and some others who take time to spend the less experienced ones like me.
            
            Tell me please, what is this google tool you mentioned?  Sounds good to me, but I need to know how to get to it.
            
            Thanks

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               MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks again and I have found the Google Keyword Tool.  I shall learn more about it.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Stella, I wrote a Hub about How to Optimise your Hubs for Search Engines which would help you.  You'll find it on the slider on my profile.
      
      As LeanMan says, the only way to get decent traffic (and stay Featured) on HubPages is to get traffic from Google - that's what my Hub is about.  So you have to craft your titles with that in mind.

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         Stella Kayeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks...I'll certainly take a look at that

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            MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks again Stella.  All's well.  The hub is now featured. 
            
            I wrote this to you yesterday, but maybe you missed it.  Thank you for the effort.

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               Stella Kayeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Pleased to be of some help. Good luck with your writing!

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      RonElFranposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Stella, I took a look at your profile page, and I have a suggestion that may help you in getting more views. I notice that many of your hubs have non-descriptive titles. For example, "All Backwards and Forwards" and "The Sunniest Place This Side of Heaven." How would a potential reader find those articles? The expectation at HubPages is that most of our views will come from Google. What search terms would someone looking for info on Devon enter into Google that would lead them to an article entitled "The Sunniest Place This Side of Heaven"? The title is the most important factor in getting search engine traffic. For me the key is picking a title that accurately describes the content of the article, and that includes keywords people actually search for. Hope this helps.

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         Stella Kayeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         You are absolutely right and I was thinking to myself that I might have to change many of my titles because of that. Thanks for your suggestion which I really appreciate.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Stella Kaye, I took all the advice on board, and the hub is now back where it belongs - Featured.

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   Jodahposted 8 years ago

   Hi Marie,
   Going on the other two hubs in the series this hub should still be featured. As Stella says it should only take a small edit to get it featured again. Maybe just add the year the siege occurred in the title. Good luck.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Jodah for taking the time to help us out.
      
      I don't know why exactly, but it rankles that one of my hubs has been UN-featured.
      
      I shall go and edit right now with what you and what Marisa suggested.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Jodah, I took all the advice on board, and I am happy.  The hub is now back where it belongs - Featured.

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   The Examiner-1posted 8 years ago

   Congratulations on getting it featured again MarieLB. Remember for future reference that although you may have a high score, I believe that means it is written well. Even though it is high in views, they may not be reading the entire hub nor leaving comments. The "no comments" could have been why it was not featured.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hi The Examiner-1.  You may be right on the count of responses.  Most of my hubs have under 20 responses and that includes the 3 Sydney Siege hubs.  I guess I need to learn more about spreading my work around.  The other point you mentioned was whether readers were really reading the whole hub.  That is a curly one.  Maybe I should be planning the article more like a story, building the tension right to the end?  Any ideas?

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I can assure you that comments have NOTHING to do with it.  I have several Hubs which have no comments at all, and they have never been unFeatured.
         
         The number of comments you get is no indicator of traffic.  For many Hubbers, most of their comments come from other Hubbers - that's internal traffic and doesn't count towards staying Featured.

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            MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks Marisa Wright.  Bit by bit I will get it working right. 
            
            You know, it would be so good if HP gave direct feedback, rather than we have to wade through zillions of words to find the specific item we want.
            
            If it were not for people like you who take time to help, where would we be?
            
            Thanks again.

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            The Examiner-1posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Marisa Wright,
            What about views not fully reading the hub? Because HubPages can tell when the views are full or partially read.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               That's true, but it's never been mentioned when HubPages staffers talk about Featuring/unFeaturing for traffic.
               
               The criteria is the amount of Google traffic.

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                  The Examiner-1posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  They don't mention. They just do something and let you figure it out.

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