Check Your Categories, People!

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   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   I've been going through some of my old Hubs to update them but one thing I didn't think to check - until today - was which category they were in.  What a shock!   Several of my older Hubs were in totally inappropriate categories, which may be one reason why they weren't noticed for a move to the niche sites.
   
   I do recall a few years ago, HubPages did a big revamp of the topic hierarchy. It's possible my Hubs got miscategorised then (or maybe I was just dumb and put them in stupid categories myself when I was a relative newbie).  Whatever, it's one of those things you don't really notice once the Hub is finished, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

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      JayeWisdomposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Marisa. You're right--it's not one of those things you think to check routinely.

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      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      @ Marisa . . . Okay.

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      viryaboposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I did notice this some days ago, when i was upgrading a couple of hubs, but didn't give it much of a thought. I felt i had made a mistake on those (though unlikely), sometime in the past.
      
      Now that you mention it, it's worth taking a second look at.
      
      Thanks for mentioning this Marisa.

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      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I'm the same, I find it really hard to believe that I could've made such a big mistake, even if I was fairly new at the time!

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I didn't think this would matter much these days because once the hubs are moved they are placed into categories for you.  Since most of mine generally fall into a number of different related categories, I don't think this has been a problem for me.  It's usually something RV, Auto, Travel, etc.  I stopped paying attention awhile back but hubs are still being moved up usually one or two each week between both of my sites.  I'll take a look, anyhow, though.  Thanks.

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      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I think it matters because of where the moderators are looking. If they're trying to find Hubs to fill out a specific niche, for instance, then they're not going to search over the whole of HubPages, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack!  Instead, they're going to look in the categories for that niche. 
         
         So, for instance, if they need more articles on Skin Care and my Hub on skincare for oily skin is in Health, it won't get noticed.
         
         I do think that because they now know you write about RV, they're more likely to go straight to your account and see what you've got.  For those who don't specialise, they wouldn't.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

            This brings up a good point.  Why wouldn't they just go to someone's profile page and check titles?  That way, they could pick up a huge number of hubs quickly from one place and then move on to the next person's work.  I totally do not understand categories because when I search for something, I simply put key words into Google Search to find what I need.

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               lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Well because that would also leave many hubbers in the lurch waiting for their turn.

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               Solarasposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I think categories impart some bit of seo magic. They exist for Google and not for the convenience of editors.

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            3. 85

               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               That's certainly not the way I would do it.  If I was a moderator and I'd been given the job of finding more articles on Alternative Medicine for Healdove, I wouldn't start going through Hubber profiles one by one and looking to see if they had any health Hubs.  It would take too long. 
               
               I might use the HubPages search - but actually it's not that good, and also it returns forum discussions.
               
               Much easier to go straight to the "Health" topic page on HubPages, click on Alternative Medicine and work through the Hubs that came up.

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            Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks Marisa,
            When I write about topics other than my usual niche, I'm not always sure they are in the right category.

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      Alyssa Nicholposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      That is a great tip! Question, how do you change a category on a hub that has already been published?

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      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         In edit mode, right at the top of the Hub, you'll see what category it's in.  You'll see " edit " next to it, click on that and "Start over"

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         1. 92

            Alyssa Nicholposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you!

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   mts1098posted 7 years ago

   thanks for the heads up...it was easy to track these things when we had groups (at least for me) because altering a group usually triggered a possible category switch...cheers

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3. 57

   AmoretteMeyerposted 7 years ago

   Bleh

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      Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Lol. Methinks you are a bad girl.

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         neosurkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         You mean to say "bad" or "bad"?

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4. 89

   Will Apseposted 7 years ago

   The problem with categories is that, on the niche sites, at least, they are a mess. HP are still including spiders in entomology, for example, which is guaranteed to sap confidence. If I wrote a spider hub, I would have nowhere to put it with clear conscience.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Very true, Will.   There have always been some strange hiccups like that in the HubPages categories, too.  And long ago when I wrote those Hubs, it was much more limited and difficult to find the right spot.

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5. 68

   claptonaposted 7 years ago

   Marisa,
   Man I learn so much from your posts and replies about "stuff"
   Didn't realize they had a category under travel and photography! DUH.
   Might help some of my hubs with lots of pictures!! LOL
   Just in case you don't know, you're appreciated, Marisa.
   Some of your tips are sooooo helpful!
   Thanks
   John
   

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      +100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

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6. 83

   earnerposted 7 years ago

   I've often found the available categories don't have a good fit for what I'm writing about, so I've ended up picking random ones that'll "just have to do".

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   1. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      That may be one reason why more of your Hubs aren't getting selected for the niche sites, then.
      
      I had a quick look at some of your Hubs and many of them are about historical events - so why not put them in History?   It's under Education and Science, and there are several sub-categories:
      
      http://hubpages.com/topics/education/hi … /alltopics
      
      Remember, Aberfan may seem like yesterday to some, but to the younger generation it's history!

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         earnerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Cheers. I'd have not thought of History!  I guess I was looking for "natural disasters" or something.
         
         Yes, to me it's not history as I remember it
         
         I've moved them now.  But I wasn't sure if they were Events that changed the world ... so sort of felt 2 might squeeze in there.  That left me with the other two and I put those down as History/Europe, then I was stuck.  It's not Europe, but there was no country category, so I've stuck them then in History/England, which will REALLY upset the Welsh when they spot that ... and they will

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            Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            When there are sub-categories, you don't have to choose all the way down to the end of the tree, if you know what I mean.  If there isn't a sub-sub-category that works, you don't have to pick one. 
            
            Glad you didn't put it in Natural Disasters, because as you know, it wasn't nature's fault although it was a landslide - it was the fault of the humans who built the thing.

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               Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I always have trouble with categories. When I write Astrology, I have to start with Religion and Philosophy, which isn't really right. But it leads me to Astrology. Then many of my hubs describe characters of certain zodiac signs, but are fictional characters and situations I made up. How do I categorize that? I consider it fiction.
               
               Most are in Exemplore, but also in Paired Life or the niche about celebrations, because I wrote about getting married under certain astrological positions.
               
               Just curious, I've been fixing up ones about other topics that I wrote about.

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   stepheng1205posted 7 years ago

   even i have not found right category to create my hub. i want to create a hub but still thinking of category in which should i post.

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8. 78

   Sulabhaposted 7 years ago

   Yes, I agree. I too had initially chosen a wrong category for my Intrapersonal Hub.
   But I also sincerely feel that more categories now need to be created. This is a Communications Age and therefore we do need a separate Communication Category.

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