Concerning summaries of hubs on your profile page, do you write a short one or j

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   Faith Reaperposted 12 years ago

   Concerning summaries of hubs on your profile page, do you write a short one or just let the system?
   
   I have noticed a lot of writers who do not write a short summary on each hub, but just allow the system to pull from the first words of that particular hub.  On the statistics page, if you do not write a summary, it will have it marked as missing a summary.  Which do you prefer and why?

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   Pollyannalanaposted 12 years ago

   I always write a summary even if it is short. I would think it would count against at least the beginning score since I have forgotten to put it sometimes when I save unpublished and I immediately notice a lower score so I try to include it before saving even if I only put a shorter one than the one I will end up with.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks so much, Pollyannalana.  That is what I have thought, as it is instructed to do so, but I have seen so many that just let it go.  Appreciate you.

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   teaches12345posted 12 years ago

   Faith, it is important that you write a short summary that captures what the hub is about.  But, most importantly this is what SEO's pull from to get your article out where others can find it easily.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      teaches, thanks so much for the answer.  I have always written a summary, but then I kept seeing a lot who do not and wondered why.

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      teaches12345posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You are welcome, Faith. Write those short summaries - they do make a difference to visibility online.

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   Rosemay50posted 12 years ago

   What Teachers says is right. If you put keywords into your summeries the search engines will pick them up.

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      teaches12345posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Right on, Rosemay!

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks so much, as that is what I was thinking is correct, and as I have stated before, I just began noticing many writers do not.

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   fancifulashleyposted 12 years ago

   I always write out a summary. This is what the reader sees first. It lets the reader know what the hub is going to be about and what they should expect, it is also a kind of courtesy to the reader. I know as a reader, I find it annoying when there is no summary and a sentence from the article beginning gets cut off midway.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks so much for the answer.  Yes, I think writing a summary is what we should do, but just wondered as I stated above.

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   melbelleposted 12 years ago

   I always write a summary on the contents of the hub.  Some may only be a couple sentences long, but most of them are several sentences in  length.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Melbelle, thanks so much for answering the question which is obvious the correct answer, as everyone has stated here.  I have always written a summary, and thanks about adding the great point about length.

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   wheelinalloverposted 12 years ago

   I share a lot of hubs to social networks. I never know if they have a summary until I am sharing. What summaries do is let the reader know what to expect. I have seen summaries which cut of mid sentence also.
   
   Why your keywords are important is to let readers who find you on social networks or search engines know what they are going to find in your hub. If they read a summary then don't find information which pertains to what they are searching for, they won't stay long.
   
   This affects bounce rate and can knock you off page one. Keep summaries short, if possible put your keywords in two short sentences. Always once and one word twice if you can. For long term search engine placement never let the system do it for you.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I appreciate you answering the question.  I did not know all of this, but I have always written a very brief one-line summary.

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      wheelinalloverposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My experience tells me you chose a best answer which isn't based on truth. Summaries are not  used by search engines as SEO. they simply tell people what to expect in the article or hub.

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   jansharesposted 12 years ago

   I  always write summaries. Besides reasons already mentioned, I think it's a good exercise to give us practice on how to concisely let readers know what our hubs are about in 2 to 4 sentences. I now write my summary first, then complete the article.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks so much for the great answer.

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   talfonsoposted 12 years ago

   I prefer two-sentence summaries - with the title keywords. It really helped me with traffic and revenue because I'm practicing good SEO strategies.

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      Faith Reaperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks so much, talfonso, yes, I am not up to speed on the SEO yet.  Still working on that issue.

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