High ratings but no traffic?

1. 90

   Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years ago

   Can anyone help me figure out how to best optimize my hubs? I have several that have scores of 90 and above but they hardly get any views...I'm not sure how I could improve that. Even ones that have been changed by Hubpages' editors still don't get much traffic. Is it just the titles that I should be tweaking, and how do I know how to do that? Please help if you can...I took time off from writing and now I feel so out of the loop. I am not at all technologically savvy either, which doesn't help.
   
   
   Thank you so much!

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   1. 88

      theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      You have a great selection of articles. I would definitely explore alternative titles. Use Google Suggest and sites like Answer the Public .You never know you might hit the sweet spot.
      
      As far as ratings vs traffic, I have one article that regularly scores 100 with around 20 visits a month. It's currently showing zero visits with a score of 96. Scores are not really a good indication of anything much, although if the are low, it might indicate poor quality.

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      1. 90

         Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I have been using Answer the Public and tweaking things in the last day or two. It's given me great ideas for new content as well. Thanks for the advice!
         
         I went back and looked at all my lowest articles, too. Oh, wow. I had to rewrite several of them from years ago. They were borderline terrible!

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      2. 58

         Stoor15posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for help

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   2. 78

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I checked your profile and one thing I noticed is that your titles are quite long.  They should be no more than 55 spaces...longer than that and they get truncated in search engines.  Also, remember that you need to write about things many people will search for...some of your topics don't seem to meet that goal.  I've found that the simpler your topic is the more likely it is to be searched.  One author here garnered millions of views a few years back after writing a recipe for no bake cheesecake!

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      1. 90

         Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for taking the time to look at that for me! I hadn't thought of length, just the words in it and was trying to hit as many key ideas as possible without realizing how that could backfire instead of help me.
         
         I'm not going to lie, it breaks my heart a little bit to go for the mainstream instead of the strange and unusual facts that I love to write about, but maybe I'll compromise and do a bit of both.

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      2. 75

         Molly Laytonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Do you mean 55 characters?

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2. 87

   Marketing Meritposted 5 years ago

   In very simple terms, it comes down to two elements:
   
   1. The volume of people searching for the information in your article.
   2. If and where you rank on page one of Google for those relevant search terms.
   
   If only 20 people a day are looking for your article, you are unlikely to get into double figures with your views. If you are on page two of Google for the search term, it is unlikely you will get any of these views. There are other ways to promote your articles, such as on social media e.g. Pinterest and Facebook. However, it would probably be better if you grasped the basics first.
   
   You really need to look at something called SEO (search engine optimisation) and keyword research. As this is a hosted site, there are many elements of SEO which you can't control. Hence, I suggest you focus on keyword research.
   
   Ensure you look at reputable sites as some may contain outdated or blackhat methods. I think Lobobrandon may have published an article about this, so I'll check for the link and add it.
   
   Edit: https://hubpages.com/community/HubPages … -SEO-Guide
   
   Also, hubscores are only a guide and I wouldn't place too much emphasis on them.
   
   Good luck!

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   1. 90

      Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I've read the article, thank you for including the link. It's a bit depressing to hear about the whole url thing, since we don't get another shot at that but better to know and do better in the future!

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3. 99

   Gregory DeVictorposted 5 years ago

   For SEO, the most important component of your article is probably the title. Your title should be a clear, complete, and concise statement that tells your reader and Google exactly what your article is about. Furthermore, the title should contain all of the major keywords and keyword combinations that you are optimizing for.
   
   For example, here is the title of one of my America nostalgia articles:
   
   “2009 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History”
   
   In this title, I am optimizing for “2009 fun facts,” “2009 facts,” “2009 trivia,” “2009 fun trivia,” “2009 history facts,” “2009 history trivia,” “2009 fun facts and trivia,” “2009 facts and trivia,” and so forth. Miraculously, I also rank #1 on Google for variations like “fun facts about 2009,” “fun facts about the year 2009,” “trivia about the year 2009,” etc.
   
   Google now has the capability of reading text that is embedded in a graphic image. If possible, the first graphic of your article should contain embedded text that contains one or more of the keywords that you are optimizing for. This could help your SEO. In the caption field of your first graphic, you should also insert a sentence that expresses the overall theme of your article that also contains one or more of your optimized keywords.
   
   (I noticed recently that my major competition at Google is also using the embedded text strategy on all of his web pages.)
   
   For keyword research, I do not use the source authority that Brandon mentions in his SEO article. Instead, I use the keyword tools at SEOBook.com. You can choose whatever source works best for you.
   
   In addition, the summary portion of your article should contain a more detailed description of your article’s overall content that also contains all of the major keywords that you are optimizing for. However, HP limits the summary field to 300 characters. Google sometimes uses information from the HP summary in its organic search results.
   
   As Brandon suggests in his SEO article, you should also include a keyword in some, but not all, of your text capsule headings.

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   1. 99

      Gregory DeVictorposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Here is an additional comment about your traffic issue: how much competition do you have on Google for your topic(s)? How popular is you topic? Who is your competition? How many web searches are being done per day or month for your targeted keywords? For topics like “how to get out of debt,” “debt consolidation,” “weight loss,” “how to save money,” “real estate,” and even “SEO,” the competition is enormous. Your chances of getting #1 or #2 on Google for your targeted keywords are rather slim.

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   2. 90

      Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the example fror how you came up with a title, that really helps.
      
      How would I know about the amount of competition or web searches?

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      1. 99

         Gregory DeVictorposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         As I mentioned above, I use SEOBook.com for my keyword research. Once you sign up for a free account with them, click on “Tools” on the horizontal menu at the top of their homepage. Then, click on “Keyword Tool” under the section titled “Public Tools.” (There are two sections, “Public Tools” and “Members Only.” You do not have to join the “Members Only” section.) Before I go on, here is the link to their site:
         
         http://www.seobook.com/
         
         This link might not work unless you are logged in, but here is a link to the keyword tool:
         
         http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
         
         Once you are on the keyword tool page, there is a search box. Just enter any keyword into the box and hit “Submit.” You will then see the following information about the keyword:
         
         U.S. monthly searches
         Daily searches
         Daily Google searches
         Daily Bing + Yahoo! Searches
         
         You are also going to see lots of similar information for variations of the keyword that you just entered. For example, I entered “fun facts” into the search box. I received data for “fun facts,” but I also received a lot of data for variations of the keyword “fun facts.” Here are a few of the variations that I received: “fun fact of the day,” “fun fact,” “fun facts for kids,” “random fun facts,” and “fun facts of the day.”
         
         “Fun facts” is a very generic keyword and has a lot of competition on Google. The five variations that I mentioned above are less popular and less competitive keywords, and can be better optimized for over the short- and long-term.
         
         Therefore, if you’re going to write an article about “fun facts,” you’re going to have a tough time ranking on that keyword alone because of all the competition on Google. In this example, it would be better for you to focus on a less competitive keyword combination, such as “fun facts of the day.”
         
         Regarding potential competition for a keyword, just enter the keyword into the Google search box and see what comes up in the serps. Then enter variations of the keyword and do the same.
         
         For my nostalgia articles, my competition includes U.S government websites, Wikipedia, and many websites that have been online for over 20 years or more.
         
         For my 2009 nostalgia article, I rank high for “2009 fun facts,” but also for “2009 interesting facts,” “2009 cool facts,” “2009 TV facts,” “2009 random facts,” “2009 pop culture facts,” and so forth. Why? Throughout my article, I have carefully sprinkled these words into various text capsules. I also make sure that all of these words are in my first text capsule, the Table of Contents and in the Summary.

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      2. 78

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         All you have to do is do a google search.  The number of articles about a given topic appear at the top of the page.  If it's more than 2 million, you may want to write on a different topic.

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4. STAFF

   Larry Slawsonposted 5 years ago

   Just echoing what everyone else has said, but definitely check into SEO.  That's something I had never really thought about until several months ago.  Changing around key words in your title can make a huge difference I've found.

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   1. 90

      Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      How long do you wait after a change before changing it again if it doesn't seem to work? I feel like I have this urge to be change-happy and tweak it repeatedly which I know isn't the best approach.

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5. 80

   ReViewMeMediaposted 5 years ago

   I share all my articles on relevant Facebook groups but my traffic usually comes from when I review something before other people do on this website, especially if I get it moved over to a niche site.

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   1. 90

      Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I was sad looking at how a few of my articles did really well and then suddenly traffic died. I'm thinking it was probably something similar, as I found other Hubbers wrote on the same topic and that probably reduced my traffic a bit. Or I suppose it could also be on Google's end. No way to really know I suppose.

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6. 94

   jansharesposted 5 years ago

   Hi Schatzie, definitely agree with everyone regarding your titles. I'm not an SEO expert and could use some help myself but I did look at some of your titles and agree with TIMETRAVELER2 that they are too long. I would add that they also have too many ideas and may not capture the audience you're trying to tap into. Here are some examples and suggestions:
   
   Your title: "Symptoms and Signs of Toxicity and Kidney Failure After a Dog Eats Grapes"
   Suggestion: "Signs of Kidney Failure in Dogs" or "Why Grapes Are Toxic For Dogs"
   
   Your Title: "Ginger May Improve Asthma, Cancer, and Diabetes"
   Suggestion: "Benefits of Ginger for Decreasing Symptoms of Major Illnesses"
   
   Your Title: "The Safety of Giving Tea to Infants: Anise, Chamomile, Peppermint, Black Tea Warnings"
   Suggestion: "The Dangers of Tea Consumption for Infants" or "Warnings for Mothers Feeding Tea to Infants"
   
   Hope this helps. We can write the best articles with high scores and still not get traffic. For reasons already stated, the internet is a finnicky animal. Good luck.

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   1. 78

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I'm no SEO expert either, but here are some things I do that help to "up" search results:
      
      I always use a Made for Pinterest photo for my first image and repeat the title key words when I put my text on it.
      
      I always write a related summary under the photo.
      
      I always use key words or synonyms for them in the first sentence of my first paragraph and the last sentence of my last paragraph.
      
      I try to use key word descriptions on every photo and sometimes on videos as well.
      
      The best advice I every got was that every word in your title is a key word, so it doesn't take much to use these words in key areas of your article.  However, you should write naturally...if you don't, you'll stuff your articles and lower their rankings.
      
      This seems to work for me, is easy to do and satisfies somewhat the SEO thing.  Try it and see if it works for you..

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      1. 90

         Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Made for Pinterest photo? How do you find these, just a Pinterest search? Are they free? How do you know the copyright information? There was another suggestion of adding text to photos, but if I don't own any of the pictures is this still okay to do? I love this idea, just know nothing about it. Obviously! I'll do a Google search too and see what I can find. Thanks!

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         1. 78

            TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            A  Made for Pinterest Photo is one that is either public domain or one that you produce yourself onto which you place text using an editing program  Good public domain photos come from Morguefile and Pixabay as well as Wikimedia commons and Unsplash.  If you use an editing program you can modify the photos to suit your needs.  If you check out any of my articles you will see examples. You really should read the learning center information on how to use images and which are public domain.

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            1. 88

               theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               There she is! Back and helping people already. Hope you are improving day-by-day, Sondra. xx

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               1. 78

                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you.  Still not able to write much but at least am able to make it to the computer for short periods of time now.  They're telling me it will be at least another 6 weeks until I start feeling normal again...hope they're right.  This has been a bruiser that I wouldn't wish on anybody

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                  1. 88

                     theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Good news. Six weeks will fly by.

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                     1. 78

                        TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        Hope both you and they are right!  I love you for being so positive and supportive...it's just what I need right now.

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      2. 94

         jansharesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Ditto!

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   2. 90

      Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am definitely an example person and this helps me soooo much! Thank you for taking the time to suggest these, I really appreciate it!

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      1. 94

         jansharesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         You're welcome, no problem.

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7. 100

   DrMark1961posted 5 years ago

   There are a lot of good suggestions on here on editing titles, adding made for pinterest images, etc.
   However, I think the best thing you can do is make sure that all of your articles are on one of the HP network (niche) sites. I noticed that several already are, but since you joined HP things have changed a lot. If your article stays on HP it is not going to have a good page rank and traffic will never be good.
   You should start with the article on the top of your account page that is still on HP. Go to the article, edit it, then click on "submit to a hubpages network site" and make sure your article follows all of the regs.
   Unfortunately you can only do this every 15 days. I think you have about 50 that are still on HP, so it is going to take you a long time to do this. It is well worth it. Most of my better articles were moved by HP but the bottom third were getting terrible traffic. When moved to a niche site traffic picked up considerably.

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   1. 90

      Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, good to know. I kind of thought that HubPages would just move them for me after I edited them since I've never submitted anything in the past. I didn't realize I was supposed to be doing it now. And, of course, I've been fixing up all my past hubs but starting from the bottom and going up!

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      1. 100

         DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I think it was Paul that suggested that we spend our time editing the best articles first. If you edit a good hub that is already getting 1000 views per day, and see a 10% increase, the number of increased views is significant. If you edit a hub that is only getting 1 page view per day, and see a 10% increase, you will not be doing much better.

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8. 90

   Schatzie Speaksposted 5 years ago

   1,000 views per day! I wish! I'm beginning to think I'm doing even worse than I thought I was haha. I must admit, I have a fear of changing the ones that are doing the best in case my changes cause traffic to decline instead of increase. Clearly, I need to get over that.

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   1. 100

      DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I think (but cannot prove) that Google gives better page rank if your article ismore recent. If you have a well performing hub that has not been edited in a while, make an edit (even if it is small) and check your monthly traffic numbers against the traffic from one year ago.
      I try to make sure that my articles have are at least edited in the current year. I do start at the top (highest number of page views) and work my way down.

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      1. 68

         OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, HP has proven this true.  They updated all of the articles on some of the niche sites so that their dates were 2019.  Traffic improved significantly.  I experienced it myself when Dengarden was updated.  My traffic has zoomed.

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         1. 100

            DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            This is anecdotal evidence, not proof.
            It would be like someone telling you "I have proof that rabbit manure makes roses grow better because I use it and my roses produce more flowers."

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            1. 68

               OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               As I mentioned, HP has reported that traffic improved on all the niche sites that were edited.  Do you consider that anecdotal?  If so, what are your requirements for "proof"?

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               1. 87

                  Marketing Meritposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  You would normally run something called A/B testing, if you wanted definitive proof Old Roses. So, in simplistic terms, you might compare traffic to updated hubs v unaltered hubs.
                  
                  It's like a lot of people say that traffic to their hubs increased after Hub Pro editing. For me, when my two highest earning hubs were edited, traffic dropped to half of what it was. Can I say this is definitive proof that it was down to the editing? No. Simply because it coincided it with a Google update and that may have caused the drop.
                  
                  Having said that, I believe it's a good strategy to keep content fresh and review hubs regularly. Hope this helps.

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               2. 100

                  DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  Proof is a reproducible fact that shows something is definitely true when there are no other variables that effect the results.
                  To use the case of HP and Google, I can point out that new articles are being published all of the time. Therefore, a variable is involved and part of the increase in traffic can be due to the new articles, Other articles are aging, seen more often, and have increased page rank. Therefore, age of an article can be part of the increase in page rank.
                  I have not seen any increase in traffic since June. Therefore, my case does not support the case. Does that mean because there is one case (that I know of) that the theory is not true.
                  Recently I had a mare with a fungal infection on her right and left shoulder. I treated the right side with coconut oil and a fly spray, and treated the left side with tincture of iodine, an antifungal  cream, and a fly spray. The side that I treated with coconut oil was better in about 15 days, the side that was treated with the antifungal cream took about a month to resolve. Therefore I have anecdotal evidence that coconut oil is more effective than a conventional treatment for fungal infections in horses. What I do not have is proof.

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