Can a Hub be too long?

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  1. Catherine Kane profile image83
    Catherine Kaneposted 11 years ago

    Can a Hub be too long?

    I'm writing a Hub and, as usual, the topic is stretching out longer than I had planned. Is there an outer limit, past which I should break this into a smaller topic?

  2. WorkAtHomeMums profile image86
    WorkAtHomeMumsposted 11 years ago

    It probably depends if you feel like you are going off in a different direction or not. Sometimes I find that if I let it sit for a day I can revisit with a clear mind and see a definite break. Sometimes I notice I have rambled or repeated. Personally unless I am completely interested in a subject a long hub will turn me away. If I'm engrossed and it's an easy read then I will be at the end and not noticed how long it was. It's quite difficult to say without knowing your topic or content. I'd say err on the side if caution and try to keep word count around 2000 at max.

    1. Catherine Kane profile image83
      Catherine Kaneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Good input and thank you for giving a target number

  3. Stephanie Henkel profile image94
    Stephanie Henkelposted 11 years ago

    Yes, I think a hub can be too long, but the definition of "too long" can vary. If the hub is well written with good content, has an attractive layout and is broken up by some good pictures or graphics, then even a long hub will capture the readers' interest.

    If the hub rambles on, is repetitive, lacks good content, or has unbroken blocks of text, it soon gets too long. I have opened some hubs that I start reading and then realize that they are thousands of words long. Unless the subject is completely engrossing, I usually just hop on to something else. Sad to say, the computer age has made us expect instant gratification, even in our reading material.

    1. Catherine Kane profile image83
      Catherine Kaneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Like your specifics. That's helpful

  4. ChristinS profile image39
    ChristinSposted 11 years ago

    Long hubs can be very workable depending on how you format them.  If you use some bullet points, break up the text into shorter paragraphs etc. that helps a lot to make long hubs seem shorter.  Depending on the type of hub (for example how to's and tutorials etc that tend to be long) you can break up the text several times with illustrations etc. 

    I tend to keep things to one hub, because having more than one in a series can make the other parts more difficult for readers to find.  Also, if it's in more than one piece readers may lose interest and not want to click to follow the rest of it.  Internet readers are an impatient lot by nature - so I tend to cater to that in how I format my text.

    If a hub is running into 1000's of words, I would work first to edit and cut out any repetition things of that nature and see if you can actually cut it down to 1 hub size.  There's always room for cutting extraneous words usually when we look.

    1. Catherine Kane profile image83
      Catherine Kaneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hadn't thought of the harder to find thing- that's worth considering. The way this one's going, I'm thinking it may run to 2 1/2 K, so I'm seriously thinking about breaking it in half and that's good to think on

  5. molometer profile image79
    molometerposted 11 years ago

    It is very difficult to judge. If the writing is engaging and keeps the readers attention and entertained, then length is a subjective choice. If it is dull, then you will get a high bounce rate.

    Check your analytic's to see what your readers are doing.
    Sometimes it may help to break it into two or more hubs, and hyperlink them all together using the link boxes, so that readers can follow the story in the correct sequence.

  6. smga22 profile image72
    smga22posted 11 years ago

    It can be. But you should use Table of Content when your Hub is too long. It also good for Google.

  7. profile image0
    JThomp42posted 11 years ago

    I really think it depends on if it can keep the reader's attention til the end, No it's not too long. If one is long and drawn out repeating itself and the reader loses interest, Yes.

  8. ComfortB profile image85
    ComfortBposted 11 years ago

    Yes a hub can be too long, but depending on the content, you can still get away with the length if you use paragraphs and it's well formatted.

    Avoid breaking your hub into parts (like making 2 or 3 hubs out of one).

    I wrote a hub about making cosmetic purse, it was so long I had to devide it into 3 parts using Links. Readers get turned off by that sometimes. Only one of the parts is doing really well.

    There are lots of cooking hubs that are very long, about 2+ k words. Just be precise in your points, use paragraphs to break your thoughts, use question widgets/polls to keep the readers in suspence, and make sure to use good formatting.

    I wish you the best with your hub.

  9. andur92 profile image61
    andur92posted 11 years ago

    Your hub can be as long as you like. Just make sure that you maintain a good structure for your hub. Also your hub should be interesting to read from starting to end because there are many cases where the reader loses the interest while reading something if it is too long, so make sure that you are able to hold the interest of the reader.

  10. DIYmyOmy profile image71
    DIYmyOmyposted 11 years ago

    Definitely. I know HubPages says that 1,500 words is optimum, for on some topics I feel that is simply too long. Maybe I have short attention span, but I prefer that large topics be broken into segments, each one on its own Hub.

    I would think HubPages would prefer that, as well, since it gives them more real estate in which to place ads, but possibly they know that a good percentage never goes on to the 2nd or 3rd segment.

    Nevertheless, I often bail on any online article if it goes on too long, even if well written and on a topic of interest. I stick much better with print media, so it has to do with how I interact with computers and how much time I wish to spend online (which is most often "less".)

  11. rfmoran profile image70
    rfmoranposted 11 years ago

    I don't think a Hub can be too long. Some feature magazine articles are over 5,000 words. HOWEVER, Make sure the Hub is broken up into short paragraphs, with plenty of paragraph headings as well as good photos and videos if appropriate

  12. wheelinallover profile image76
    wheelinalloverposted 11 years ago

    Thank you for the question Catherine. In answer to it I wrote a blog for my website. It is my guess bloggers as well as those who write for any writing platform will have the same question. 

    To answer your question YES they can be too long both word and overall size from a search engine perspective. There is a Google link which lets writers know what size articles will rank best.

    1. Catherine Kane profile image83
      Catherine Kaneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Where would one find this  Google link?

    2. wheelinallover profile image76
      wheelinalloverposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Answered in, in house email.

 
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