Q and A Changes

1. 77

   EricDockettposted 7 years ago

   It looks like qanda questions/answers now appear on the Hub itself and on their own seperate pages. I always assume (I think correctly) that HP appreciates feedback, so here's my 2 cents on that:
   
   I am happy to see the content appear on the Hub, and I'm hoping the intention here is remove the pages eventually. My page views for qanda dropped quite a bit over the past day or so, and presumably this is because most readers were clicking through to qanda after landing on a Hub, not vice versa.
   
   Honestly, I don't care about the lost traffic to qanda pages - - I'd much rather see the main page bolstered by additional content via qanda rather than hoping thin pages somehow gain traction in the SERPs and bring readers to Hubs. I see through analytics that some do get traffic, but in my experience (so far) creating a qanda page with the potential to get search traffic is almost as much effort as writing a Hub.
   
   I've tried a few experiements to see if qanda pages can boost traffic to an individual Hub, but it is too early on to draw much of a conclusion (just started a couple weeks ago). However, if HP moves everything back to the main pages and eliminates the qanda pages I won't have to worry about any of it. It also eliminates a lot concerns on what Brandon wrote about regarding keyword cannibalism.
   
   And, from a personal productivity standpoint, I will be much more likely to engage in qanda if I know every answer doesn't create a thin page on the niche site - - or waste a lot of my time.
   
   So, that's what I think. What do you think?

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2. 81

   theraggededgeposted 7 years ago

   I thought it had been like that since it started?

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   1. 77

      EricDockettposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It was like that back when it started, at least at one point. Then it switched to where the question and answer immediately appeared on the Hub , presumably until a moderator could review it. After the presumed review the question was given its own page. The full answer text then disappeared from the Hub, replaced by the question (which linked to the new page) and a very short snippet of the answer.
      
      You could click on the question and go to the question's page, which isn't possible now.
      
      Unless I'm seeing something different for some reason, it appears to have changed.

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3. 98

   Susana Sposted 7 years ago

   I haven't kept track of all the changes to qanda but from the point of view of keeping Google happy I think they're much better off being kept on the actual hub.
   
   I don't mind answering questions but I don't have the time to go into enough depth to make a stand alone page valuable.
   
   Creating lots of low quality pages is the antithesis of what Google wants and I really don't want to see HP head into another traffic crash.

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   1. 77

      EricDockettposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yup, agree 100%. Especially about the time thing. Every time I try to answer a question I think, "How do I write 300 words about this?" and "How do I edit this question so it has some hope of getting search traffic?"
      
      If the stand-alone pages go away those problems are gone too, and I will answer more questions that only require short answers.

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4. 81

   theraggededgeposted 7 years ago

   Oh... I just had a look at one of my hubs, and when you click on 'show more' all the questions and answers are expanded so you can see them all in full right on the page. That's much better.
   
   Clicking on the question on QandA page takes me to the hub itself - but only to the beginning and not to the questions.
   
   I agree, better on the hub and not as separate pages. Is that why Q&A traffic just fell off a cliff in the last couple of hours?

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   1. 100

      DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Mine dropped down to less than half this morning. As Eric pointed out, that loss should not really mean anything. I hope to see more traffic to the articles anyway.

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      1. 0

         robhamptonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Hmm. Just check mine. You're right. literally less than half of what they've been. Wonder what's going on?

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   2. 77

      EricDockettposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I think so re: traffic. And I think that means most readers are clicking from the Hubs to qanda pages, rather than the other way around.
      
      If most readers were coming to qanda via search I'd think the drop wouldn't be so severe.
      
      One of the hopes was that the qanda pages would rank in search and drive traffic to the Hubs. In some cases this probably happens, but I'd bet the traffic most people see to qanda is readers clicking around on-site.

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5. 81

   theraggededgeposted 7 years ago

   Traffic creeping back up on QandA, and some are back to having their own page. Hover over individual questions on the hub and it will show a clickable link on some longer ones and not on the short ones.

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   1. 100

      DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Those that are on a separate page are appearing as an orange hyperlink on my articles. This looks like a good solution so that those really long answers do not bore readers not interested in them.

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