Two significant search trends

1. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 7 years ago

   I wanted to share two trends I see in content that are very successful today.
   
   The first one is what I call the opposing argument to the search term. Google wants balanced search results. You will often see articles that promote a very positive sentiment, but rarely will you see opposing or dissenting content. In my view, this is a really big opportunity to explain the opposing argument.   Here is an example in the search results for the term guinea pig. https://www.google.com/search?q=guinea+ … ent=safari  See the pethelpful result. The content almost serves as a warning to folks considering a guinea pig. There are lots of examples where people could offer opposing, dissenting or warnings. It's a big opportunity.
   
   The next one is the list. 25 reasons why math is important, 15 incredible ways to BBQ chicken, 287 ideas to dress sisters for Halloween are all ways of crafting title and then supporting content that is quite good and useful. Of the newly written articles we see that get lots of traction, this  format is dominating the top traffic list. I saw this being successful and wanted to try it myself. I created this article on BBQ sauces. It's now one of my most popular articles. https://delishably.com/sauces-preserves … ecipe-Ever
   
   Several of the most sophisticated companies at optimizing for SEO results have invested heavily in this format. Every time you see a result from Pinterest in the search results, look at the title. Hearst is another example. Search for baked chicken recipes and see how well Delish, the Hearst property is doing. They have had huge growth on the back of lists of recipes with great photos.   
   
   The key is to build a really deep list and supporting content that is fantastic.

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      wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Paul.  It's tips like these that are so much help to so many hubbers.  We just don't have the time or expertise to dig these things out.

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      MarleneBposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Paul. This is helpful information. When I think about it, my highest performing hub is one with a list of things, but the title does not suggest a list of anything. I'm thinking if I tweaked the title a little, it might help increase traffic. We'll see. Anyway, since I am personally more attracted to titles which indicate that the content includes a list of things, I'm going to try this with my next hub and see what happens. My guess is that it will be a positive experience.

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      gerimcclymposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Very helpful -- thank you.

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      PegCole17posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I am seeing a constant improvement in traffic for one of my hubs that moved to a niche site a few months back. On the original version, I had used a number in the title (10 Something somethings about something ...) so that's what appears in the URL. Some time ago, I changed the title and removed the number. I can't remember why. Even so, it's gained views.
      
      Based on your post about these trends, I'm going to try changing the title back to match the URL. I'll soon find out if it alters the traffic it's been receiving.
      
      Thanks for keeping us in the know.

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   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   This is very useful information Paul. I usually write articles based on one view. However, I see the attraction of discussing opposing arguments and I will keep this in mind for future hubs I write. I may even modify existing hubs to include opposing arguments.
   
   The list idea is also important to keep in mind when writing hubs. I have one right now that I published a long time ago, where I have discusssed several items, but neglected to make it clear in the title that this is a list. I'm going to make that change and see how it goes.

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   Will Apseposted 7 years ago

   I'm addicted to 'ten best' lists. Most of my traffic comes from pages with 'best' in the title.
   
   I occasionally stray into writing a 'types of' page, another kind of list. 'Types of Crab' is one of my pages that gets good traffic.
   
   Serious writers will make fun of you, but they certainly would not refuse the cash that flows over the years from this evergreen kind of content. lol.
   
   Strangely enough I read a comment from a woman who writes a lot of gardening pages but gets very little traffic. I was going to suggest she switched to list type pages. Something like 'Best Perennials that Bloom All Summer' 'Best shrubs for brick houses' -- whatever Google suggest throws up and she knows about. But I can't find where she posted now.
   
   Anyway, its a miracle I noticed this thread at all. I wish 'E-Commerce & How to Make Money Online' and 'Search Engine Optimization' dwelt in the main forum.

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      Paul Edmondsonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I think the "the best" isn't as effective as x number of things.
      
      23 incredible Jell-O shot recipes
      65 ways to paint a clown face
      18 herbs that will grow in low light
      
      I'm not sure why it's so effective today, but the data I see suggests it's a simple way to structure content that most people can do that will generate an audience.

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   Vabsposted 7 years ago

   Being a indian and being a movies fan it is difficult to choose which one is better than to other.
   If we choose one out of other option I think it will be an offence towards other and it will not bring justice. Both the film industry has their own charm.

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   Will Apseposted 7 years ago

   hxxp:listverse.com has nothing but lists with a very specific format. Title/text/photo/text/photo/text etc. Most of the pages run to between 1200 and 2000 words, eg
   
   http://listverse.com/2017/02/05/10-amaz … ilistines/
   
   1600 words
   
   They like a short intro before the first picture (timetraveler style). And they do not go in for 'best' very much.
   
   I think I will keep 'best' for anything product related and 'types of' isn't a bad way to take on wikipedia in the academic arena.
   
   But I will take on board your point about x [whatever the list is]. In fact, I will try a couple.
   
   Maybe '25 Ways for Smart People to Get Traffic on Hubpages'. If only I knew 25, lol.
   
   One more example of a site making the most of lists:
   http://www.cracked.com/article_20254_th … =companion

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   jansharesposted 7 years ago

   Thank you very much for these suggestions, Paul, based on real data of what works. I have a few list hubs, I think at least two are on niche sites. I will work on doing more.
   
   Edit: Is it best to write the word (Top Ten) or the number (Top 10)?

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   lobobrandonposted 7 years ago

   Jan first let me reply to you, I don't have all the data that Paul has, but I would pick 10. Because it's more visual and people would notice this against a regular 'ten' on the search results.
   
   I second Will's request, could we move these topics to the general forums? Most of the hubbers are not going to see this post. I only got here thanks to Will.
   
   My hub on Green apple benefits was doing pretty well. I did notice that the CTR increased and ranking too (I assumed this was just an over time improve) after I changed it to include a number in the title. Google Green apples for instance. Also, check out 'green apple health benefits' that's where I get a knowledge graph entry (just one of the many popular keywords I get a knowledge graph entry).
   
   The opposing take on stuff, that's an awesome find Thanks for that.
   
   EDIT: Just did a search on 'pet rabbits' and took a look at the results, there's a lot of different views that share the top 10. Almost all of them have a different take or angle on the subject.

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      Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You can write a page in any number of ways. A page about magnets could be '12 Things That You did not Know About Magnets' or '25 of the Strangest Uses of Magnets' or any other listified approach.
      
      I usually assume that kind of thing gets social traffic rather Google traffic but I might be wrong.

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         lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not sure about the ranking improvements, but once you are on the top positions having a number increases CTR. I have just one hub to test this on. But the change was significant.

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            Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            If Paul said where the traffic was coming from it would help to understand what was happening. If the lists are drawing social traffic it must be a click bait affect.
            
            That could work in search, too, though, I suppose. Get ten results on the first page of search and one has an irresistibly clickable title, it could easily rise up the rankings on the basis of preferential selection.

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            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I made a change to a title of one of my hubs to include a number of items two days ago when Paul posted this, and I noticed a significant traffic improvement too – although the increase is coming from ToughNickle and not from Google. Actually this makes sense, because there's no way Google would have updated the index yet, and ToughNickle would have the new title immediately.

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               lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Well, all traffic is good traffic. Having the people flowing between the niche sites and staying on the sites also helps. When I'm on Youtube, I always click the suggested videos when they have good titles (even though I shouldn't) and it's the same thing here.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  That's what good titles do – they attract traffic.

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                  Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  For product orientated pages, Google search traffic is always best.
                  
                  It goes:
                  
                  I want/need to buy something
                  I search for info on what is best
                  When I find something I like the sound of, I click an ad to buy it
                  
                  Casual, entirely spontaneous purchases are a rarity (unless you are a one-percenter, perhaps).
                  
                  Simple surfing is a different matter, people will jump to whatever catches their eye.

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                     lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I'm writing a hub right now as we speak on one of my age old topics - Range hoods. I know a lot about them, worked 2 years for a client on building up his website and have seen a ton of videos, questions from people and so on. I'm trying to write one based on high volume searches as well as a number in the title with reviews and comparisons. Let's see how it goes. If all goes well it will be moved to a niche site and we can use it as a test piece, since I know you write a lot of product hubs too (I did at one point, got them all on my own site now).

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                        Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Paul's advice, as I understand it, is forget about 'The 12 Best Range Hoods' and go for something like '12 Range Hoods That Will Make Your Kitchen Perfect'.
                        
                        In other words, drop 'best'.
                        
                        I am saying that 'The Best Range Hoods' is a worthwhile search term in itself for product orientated pages and attracts people who are determined to buy.
                        
                        There is the question of will 'Best Range Hoods' ever rank in the top search results for 'Range Hoods' alone , I suppose.
                        
                        And by the magic of the internet here is the answer:
                        
                        https://www.google.co.th/search?q=Best+ … p;ie=UTF-8
                        
                        https://www.google.co.th/search?q=Range … p;ie=UTF-8
                        
                        A small number of  'Best Range Hood' titles rank well in a 'Range Hoods' search. None of the results have pure click bait titles.
                        
                        I ain't saying the same holds true for non-product orientated pages.

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                           lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           Yup, I agree. But what I'm trying to do is see if a top 3 or something on those lines gets higher rankings just because it is a list with a number in it. My next one is going to be based on problems and mistakes when buying range hoods. That would kind of cover both the aspects using product hubs. Yes, the second one is not directly a product hub, but it's related to the topic discussed. I want to see if they rank well just because it's an opposing argument. I will be writing both of them in different sub niches just to make sure they don't directly compete with each other.
                           
                           EDIT: The thread is not stickied. Awesome

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               Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Glenn, this post is really posted so many times with different images and varying post numbers. How does it happen? I could n't understand it. I came here through related posts (discussions) to see is it any other post or the same one.
               On this page also there are some related posts linked to this thread.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  You just proved what I was saying in another thread - that Paul posted this several times and each little different.
                  
                  I think you must have missed my reply to you in one of the other threads where this problem was discussed. 
                  
                  Other people were saying that they got multiple notifications for this. But I noticed it was just one notification for each copy of the post. I know this is confusing people. I wish Paul would reply to my question about what happened. But that probably got lost in one of the parallel universes.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     So  Glenn, do you mean that Paul edited his post several times and you got notified with each new edit? Do you think that's what's happening?

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                        Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        I have no idea what Paul did. He never responded to my query.
                        
                        All I know for sure is that each notification pointed to a different thread. If I knew this was going to become such an issue I would have saved all the links from each notification. I did find two others however. Here they are:
                        
                        This has an image and one comment from Venkatachari:
                        http://hubpages.com/business/forum/1399 … arch-trend
                        
                        This has an image but no other posts (at this time):
                        http://hubpages.com/business/forum/1399 … arch-trend

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                        Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Marisa, we can't tell anything with certainty. There might be some glitch with his own computer or page loading and/ or responding to the submit button. When it did not respond, he might have clicked several times the submit button. Or, it could be some technical issue with HubPages itself.
                        Glenn, I have posted all the links of repeated notifications that were received from Paul and Don Bobbitt at the other forum post commented by me as per your above reference.

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                           Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           If Paul clicked the submit button ten times then each of the ten posts would be exactly the same. However, as we both know, some have an image and some don't. They are not the same.
                           
                           I did see your listing of the ten posts. In that thread I mentionen to Christy that I think there are two problems. She said they only fixed the one that is sending multiple notifications for the same post. But she didn't refer to this problem.

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                              Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              Thanks, Glenn. Let us hope the issues get solved soon.

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   Will Apseposted 7 years ago

   People are forgetting the OP's point about 'debunking/refutational/putting-thing- in-perspective' type articles.
   
   I seem to remember that one of the most successful articles on HP when I first joined (or during the early years, at least) was one that tackled some of the hype around green tea. Green tea was the fad before acai berries.
   
   I reckon it was something like 'The Truth About Green Tea'.
   
   Can't find that article now.
   
   edit: 'refutational' is probably not a word, lol.

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   Will Apseposted 7 years ago

   Well, I converted one travel page into a list: '10 things to do in....'
   
   See if it gets booted back to the main site.

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    Will Apseposted 7 years ago

    Sorry, I think have a few badger genes. I can't help digging.
    
    Going back to listverse:
    http://listverse.com/2011/07/01/top-10- … listverse/
    
    Quote:
    "Today is Listverse’s birthday! Since the site was launched four years ago, we have had over 290 million page views. (These are our 10 most popular pages):
    
    Top 10 Incredible Recordings
    10 Strange Things About The Universe
    Top 10 Careers Damaged by Photos
    10 More Unsolved Mysteries of the World
    9 Extraordinary Human Abilities
    10 More Mysteries of the Unexplained
    Top 10 Codes You Aren’t Meant to Know
    10 More Terrifying and Mysterious Creatures
    
    
    JAMIE FRATER
    Jamie is the founder of Listverse.... He is fascinated with all things historic, creepy, and bizarre"
    
    I am not fascinated with the bizarre but I could make an effort, I suppose. I am rather fascinated by traffic.

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       lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       This hub will never be featured. Lots of plagiarism. Did you write any original content other than the last 2 lines?

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          Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          I would steal all their content for 290 million views in 4 years (a million plus views a week). If only I could get away with it...

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    srirad0675posted 7 years ago

    Thanks! The list tip worked for me!

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    paperfacetsposted 7 years ago

    A few years ago, maybe 3 years ago, there was a big push to remove The Best.... and Top 10.... from article titles, but rules change on the Internet as we all know. I have one "10 Reasons Not to......." and that has remained my best landed article. The editors changed another one of my garden articles to  "10 Reasons to...."  because it did have a list of 10 reasons. It is growing weekly in visits and by spring it may be doing really well.
    
    I was thinking they were performing simply because they were garden hubs.

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       lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       Ranking well is one thing, garden hubs here tend to do well. But changing the title to include a list gets the added Click through bonus. People tend to click more on these links.

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    Will Apseposted 7 years ago

    I got enthused about the possibility of list orientated pages and thought I would try one. It took a couple of days to write, got an opening score of 83, and has been completely ignored.
    
    I won't be pitching at Reelrundown again. And lists will remain unexplored. You can only learn if you have data, and if a page does not reach a niche there is no data.

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       lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       When did you publish this hub? Mine took like a week to get to the niche sites after publishing.
       
       My hub on the three best budget wall mount range hoods was changed to things to consider when choosing a wall-mounted range hood.
       
       I'm not happy with this change. The keywords I targetted are not in the title anymore and the number is gone too.

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          DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

          I just read it and your original title is also more descriptive of the content. Aren´t you allowed to change it back?

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             lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

             I really want to. But I don't want it to be taken down from the niche site. If that happens, the hub is useless. Do you think I should try? Maybe create a new thread and try and get a staff to reply to it?

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                DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

                I doubt that would happen but I hesitate to suggest it and then have it go badly for you. I just changed the title of a hub (that is on a niche site) that I edited recently and I do not think HP minds.

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                   lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                   Haha I want to do it, it won't be your fault if it goes down from the niche site I think I'll do this though, tomorrow or the weekend, maybe. I just want to see where it ranks the way it is.

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                      DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

                      How it ranks on Google? Don´t you think it is too early to tell?

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                         lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                         Not really. My hub on Magnets is already on page 2 and sometimes even on page 1.
                         
                         The niche domains have a certain authority, so we rank pretty well usually. It will not be the best that it can be, but you still get a rough idea if it's going to do well for your term or not. I would say if it's not in the top 5 pages a week after it was indexed, it's a bad sign. But that is just my take on things.

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                      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                      I changed my cold sore Hub radically a couple of months ago. I'm pretty sure they changed the title of that one and I've changed it again.  Not only that but I added several new paragraphs and changed my recommendation for best product.  It seems to be surviving.

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                         lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                         Good to know.

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                            Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                            I would take advantage of Paul's kind offer and tell us what happens.

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                               lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                               I did. I wasn't sure who he was referring to. He said both of us.  Looking forward to his reply on Monday.

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          Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          It's been up for 9 days.
          
          Maybe it just doesn't work as a page. I wrote it to interest me initially, but I was prepared to mess around with it and see how dwell times went until it was obviously meeting readers needs. Without feedback there is no point using that approach.
          
          I am being forced out the door for my morning exercise, right now, so I will revisit this later. My wife likes to my coat in good condition, lol.

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             lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

             My hub on mangets took almost a month to get moved to the niche sites once published. It depends on which niche it's going to get to and the queue in front. I suggest you just wait and watch. I'm currently waiting on my electric range hub to get through. It's the same quality as my others that were approved, so I don't see why it shouldn't, but it still hasn't.

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                Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                A month is way too long. It damages motivation and slows the learning process for newbies (or anyone willing to learn new tricks) to a crawl.

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                   lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes, that's what happened to me. I had to wait for that to go through before I wrote my next two. And among the next two one's title was changed so that it doesn't really cover the content and the other has not moved yet. So I'm on hold again

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14. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 7 years ago

    It shouldn't take that long. Drop me the links to your articles so I can take a look.

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    Nancy Owensposted 7 years ago

    I can see why lists are being heavily used... more people searching with cell phones and tablets, and lists are fast facts, which is what people want nowdays... Am I starting to get it?

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       gerimcclymposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       I think you are spot on.

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    Jagdish Patroposted 7 years ago

    Thank you for the nice tips givens here for attracting the readership. it is also interesting to see the discussion by the fellow members here and it would be helpful for a new starter like me. I have authored about 65 articles published in an educational website but appears lower traffic generation.
    
    Tourist spots and biography are my favourites. How to generate traffic in this area? can you guide me with some tips?

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    Mick Rogersposted 7 years ago

    Just 2? Why not a few more? There are alot of trends out there

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       lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       The title does say significant.

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