Deleting Own Hub to Increase Profile Hub Score?

1. 0

   peacefulparadoxposted 14 years ago

   It is advantageous to delete one's own low scoring hubs that have little traffic.  I figure getting rid of the low score would increase the average of the rest of one's hubs.
   
   What do you think?

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I think it's a silly idea.  Your profile Hub Score means absolutely nothing outside HubPages, so why delete potential income-producing Hubs for the sake of it?   Sometimes a low scoring Hub will suddenly take off.  You never know, and it does no harm to let it sit there, just in case.
      
      The only reason anyone should ever delete any Hub is if you have somewhere else to use it, where you feel it might do better.
      
      I'm perplexed at the number of Hubbers who write Hubs, then delete them all just because they've decided to go in another direction, or have decided to leave HP.  Unless they have another use for the Hubs they're deleting, it's madness - because it means they miss out on truly passive income.

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   2. 64

      Daddy Paulposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I would not delete a hub. Just rewrite it slightly. Every hub can be improved. A few well placed clarifying words can make the hub more pleasant to read and improve hub score. I would not add junk words just to get the score up.

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2. 72

   thranaxposted 14 years ago

   With the factors involved, your hubs should always average out. Average scores in the 60s and 70s still give people a profile of 85+.
   
   ~thranax~

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3. 69

   easyspeakposted 14 years ago

   Depends.  You're score will definitely go down for a bit once you do that.  But I think in the long run it's beneficial.  You shouldn't waste your deleted hubs though. 
   
   Once it's gone from hubpages, you should copy it to a blog or another writing site and link it back to a hub so you won't waste your writing.

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4. 96

   Sue Adamsposted 14 years ago

   If only we knew the exact formula for hubber scores. But as Marisa said, hubber scores don't matter outside.

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5. 94

   viryaboposted 14 years ago

   I could never delete what i put so much effort to write. I will continuously improve it till i feel comfortable with it. Deleting hubs, like Marissa says, isn't wise. You may loose out in the long run.
   

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6. 60

   flread45posted 14 years ago

   The only place you will see a hubber's score is here on hubpages.
   Google doesn't give a hoot about your score,they are only concerned with good content for their ads to be placed on and make money,for you and google and whoever else is involved..
   I have never hit 100 hub score and really could care less.

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      LMScottposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you very much for your sound advice, including the useful comments of several others on this topic, you are all superb and your comments most welcome.
      I was just about to close this account down as completely unuseable for several reasons, mainly I do not agree with machines taking over our lives and making decisions, and then fortunately or not, with my finger poised over the delete button, I found sound guidance within this post.
      Not being computer literate, it took me two days to get past the tag barrier, but finally I did manage to post an introduction piece to my work,this includes hundreds of true Police stories from the time of Life on Mars, even one from the very same same Police Station, and all directly out of my 1960's pocket book and some very accurate official files.
      My work being of great impact has already been accepted by Government, some Select Committees and one of the most influential Libraries in the land, so as you may imagine I was not very pleased to get a yellow card for lack of content from a machine, almost like a penalty ticket from one our imitation police officers, not the card board ones of course.
      Can I say GRRRR or could that be classed as inflamatory.
      
      Thank you each and every one, I think that will probably be all from me,
      
      Best Wishes.
      Cheers H.

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      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Automated content filters are inevitable when trying to cope with hundreds of people, all writing at once.  The good thing about HubPages is that there is a real team of humans behind the filters, and you can email them for a review if you feel unfairly treated.
         
         However, bear in mind that a Hub should be at least 400 words long - if one of your Hubs was flagged for being too short, then perhaps it was too short for this particular venue. 
         
         The other possible reason for flagging is that Hubs need to be original, which means not just your original work, but also not published anywhere else on the internet. Pieces you've published in a magazine or other hard copy publication are fine, but not articles you've posted elsewhere on the web.

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            LMScottposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you Marisa for your sound explanation, obviously my post was too short for the machine to accept,I could have stretched it to the point of acceptance, but I will continue to observe posts here, and explore other avenues of publication with a more personal touch.
            
            A click on google will show that I have posted sound, honest, specialised material for quite a few years, so I have possibly offended the basic rules in other directions.
            
            I do have knowledge quite unknown to the press or anyone else for that matter,for instance who else knows the reason why so many passengers fell out of express trains in the eighties and were killed, I know because I carried out the examination of a carriage with two doors that flew open at express speed, and I wrote the official report.
            
            By not getting passed the introduction stage on this site is the reason why the full story has not been revealed.
            
            Thanks again to all those who contributed to this post,and passed on the information regarding the issue.
            
            Cheers H.

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               relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Given that the content rules are listed quite clearly on the FAQ/help page, and that even when the Hub gets an automatic flag, it says why, it's not actually a mystery as to why Hubs get flagged.
               
               http://hubpages.com/faq/#what_is_allowed
               
               I find HubPages to be very upfront and transparent when it comes to why they flag Hubs and what to do to fix them.

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7. 61

   Dao Hoaposted 14 years ago

   You do not need to delete a hub. Rewrite it instead. Like Marisa said, "Sometimes a low scoring Hub will suddenly take off." Listen to her, she has been here long enough to know!

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8. 87

   Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

   Why thank you, Dao Hoa!  Actually, my role model is Relache - who hasn't been here much longer than me, but who is far more successful.  I've heard her say she sees more value in polishing existing Hubs until they shine, rather than abandoning them and writing new ones. 
   
   The thing is, don't assume a Hub is doing badly because of the subject matter.  It may be too short, or not well enough written, or it has too many general tags, or not enough targeted ones. 
   
   I recently revised my low-scoring Hub about writing a resume.  I didn't do much more than add two paragraphs and edit the tags.  Its HubScore and its traffic have both shot up to near the top of my statistics!

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      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Wow... thanks, Marisa! 
      
      It's true.  Anything I've ever published that seemed to be lagging was able to be improved and there were even a few that got completely rewritten from a fresh angle.  I also spend a lot of time staring at the Hubs I have which do really well and comparing them to ones that don't do as well.

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9. 0

   peacefulparadoxposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for the advice.  I'll try to improve my low scoring hubs instead of deleting them.

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10. 0

    shinujohn2008posted 14 years ago

    i too delete many of my old hubs that get no traffic or have lower scores and make new hubs.

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11. 55

    andromidaposted 14 years ago

    Deleting hubs is not a bad idea for traffic improvement. You can use the deleted content to make another hub with a new and longer URL. I have found that  for the same content longer URL with targeted keywords get more Google traffic in comparison to smaller URL.

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       Dorsiposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       So if someone posts a hub with a poor title then deletes it and publishes it with a more appropriate title this would be better?

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          Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          I think you mean if they delete a hub with a poor URL and republish it with a better URL (not title). 
          
          I'll be interested to see what others say, but I've been told you can make up for a poor URL by having a good title, so it's not worth all the hassle of rewriting just to change the URL.

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             Dorsiposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             An answer to this question would help me alot with the chapters of my book which I published here,then unpublished due to poor traffic. I used urls with my name and chapter 1,2 and so on when I think I should have used urls that had to do more with the specific chapter topic, which every chapter had an emphasis on something particular. I want to find out so I can decide how to republish them, and if I only need to make a title change well then that's what I will do.

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                Sally's Troveposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                I think you are on the right track. Think of how people find information...through keywords (search terms). Unless you have a following who is going to search "Dorsi Chapter", then a more productive approach might be to key the title or the URL to something like "south seas sailing tales" or whatever the topic of the piece is.  Hope that helps.

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12. 96

    Sue Adamsposted 14 years ago

    I agree with Marisa and Relache, polishing is worth it. I never delete anything but keep going back and usually there is room for improvement either on the writing side or lay-out, or tags relevance and distribution.

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13. 79

    Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

    My average of all my hubs is 71. Yet, I have a hubber score of 100. The two are not necessarily connected.
    
    And, as other has said, I would not delete a low-scoring hub I would either leave it or add more content to it.

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14. 88

    Len Cannonposted 14 years ago

    I can not stress how little your hubscoore matters.  Unless you are promoting your own websites, it does not matter if you have a 50 as long as it is making you money.  Do not delete a potential money maker just for some pretty numbers by your name.

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15. 64

    Ivorwenposted 14 years ago

    Some of my least visited hubs are the ones that make the most when someone clicks an add.  I wouldn't delete them if they have good content.

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16. 73

    KeithTaxposted 14 years ago

    I agree with other folks about rewriting. I don't like the idea of deleting hubs.

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17. 60

    Actioncameronposted 14 years ago

    I'm new to the hub pages experience and I'm finding a little frustration that the content of my Hubs are getting me what looks to be low scores. I've seen someones candycanes get a higher hub score than leading technologies and topics I think are so worth looking at and that I find so worthy of consideration. Then again I'm pretty new and perhaps wanting to run before I walk. Wouldn't be the first time.

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       yoshi97posted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Never delete old hubs ... rewrite them or let them rest. Another interesting boost tactic is to change the title. Why? Because your title could be in heavy competition with others and a change of title could boost your traffic.
       
       Now, read this part carefully ... if you have a hub that's producing revenue for you - change nothing! Never mend something that isn't broke!
       
       So, go through your hubs and find ones that have had none or little traffic over the past 30 days and if you are looking for a quick fix - try a title change ... wait for a few weeks ... then if that don't work, rewrite the hub.

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18. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 14 years ago

    If you have poor hubs, then improving them will help your score.  If they are spammy, and you don't want to improve them then I suggest unpublishing them.
    
    I've noticed some low scoring hubs that are decently written, but that they cover a very broad topic where the Hub has little opportunity to gain an audience.  If you have hubs in this category, sometimes, focusing them on a more narrow niche will help increase your traffic and hubscore.

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    1. 78

       Sally's Troveposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Then there are the Hubs that have a brief season, for example Hubs that aligned themselves with the last US presidential election. I've got two of those and both perform poorly.
       
       I'm not going to remove them from HP, but I am going to look at the central ideas they convey to see if they can be repurposed and retitled.

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19. 0

    Website Examinerposted 14 years ago

    Have been wondering whether this "do not delete rule" also applies to hubs that don't quite seem to fit in. For instance, it could have been intended as the beginning of a new series, except it did not gain traction. Or it was written somewhat impulsively and maybe does not meet the same quality as other hubs. Could keeping such "out of character" hubs cause readers to lose interest in the hubber's work as a whole, so it would be wiser to delete them anyway?

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       relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       There's no such thing as a "do not delete rule."  You are free to delete as many of your Hubs as you wish.

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          Website Examinerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          By the "do not delete rule" I was referring to what appears to be a consensus among most experienced hubbers that it is better not to delete one's hubs.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Website Examiner, the vast majority of your readers never see your work as a whole.  They will arrive at one of your Hubs via a search engine, and may follow your links to some of your other Hubs, but very few of them will go on to read your Hubs on unrelated topics.
       
       If you participate in the forums and comment on other people's Hubs, other Hubbers will take an interest, visit your profile and browse your Hubs - but that's a very small community.

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          Website Examinerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks, Marisa, that fully answers our question.

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20. 95

    Dolores Monetposted 14 years ago

    I don't  know, but I think that if you consider yourself an artist, a writer, sometimes it's good for you to delete or wreck something. Destroying your own work can be good for the creative person.

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       viryaboposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       

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21. 77

    Peter Dickinsonposted 14 years ago

    Although I like the idea of making a bit of cash, more often than not I write on subjects which interest me. Two of the hubs I wrote I doubt were of much interest to anyone and so they just lay there with their very low hub scores.
    Then one day....wow! They were way up at the top.
    Checking it out I found that the subject was all of a sudden in the news. People searched on the internet and eventually came to my hubs. Lots of hits. Quiet again now. It may be quite some time before it happens again...but the hubs are there still waiting.

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22. 55

    Siew Chengposted 14 years ago

    I think you can add one or two more text capsules to lengthen the hub with low traffic.  I find that longer hub attracts more traffic from search engines.

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       LMScottposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you for the information, Siew.
       Cheers H.

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       chinweikeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Not just longer hubs but quality longer hubs

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23. 0

    peacefulparadoxposted 14 years ago

    Another reason why one might need to delete a Hub is if a Hub is talking about a time-dependent event that has passed.  For example, if a Hub talks about Tiger Wood to play golf at the President's club.  Well that was back then and no longer applies now -- as you may know Tiger is not playing golf right now.
    
    Or it can be a Hub that talks about where to get H1N1 flu shots.   Well in a couple of years, those location will probably be changed and the information will become out-dated.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       My response would be - don't write those Hubs in the first place!
       
       You may have noticed  Mark Knowles and Nelle Hoxie discussing deadlines for writing Christmas and Easter Hubs.  They're writing them three or four months before the holiday, to make sure their Hubs are properly indexed and high enough in the rankings to do well.  There's really not much point in writing Hubs about highly topical news items - there's too much competition from higher-ranked news sites to have a hope of getting attention within the time frame.

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          Dorsiposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          I'm doing some experimenting with that. I wrote a hub about my granddaughters easter dress and am curious to see how fast it gets picked up by Google. It will be interesting to see.......

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24. 96

    Sue Adamsposted 14 years ago

    Hi Marisa, nice to see you.

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