Open Competition or Restrictions?

1. 66

   eugbugposted 21 months ago

   Should new articles be vetted by editors to check whether there are existing articles published that are fairly similar? I have at least two articles that were knocked completely out of SERPs because newer articles were written that cover similar topics and have several keywords in the title that are the same. Or should there be open competition? Because of the Google Site Diversity change several years ago, Google often only ranks one article per domain with similar keywords in the title.

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   1. 65

      OldRosesposted 21 months agoin reply to this

      I've been asked by the editors to make major changes to articles that I've written because they say there is a better one already on the niche site.  I question that because I've been writing here since 2008.  So far I have refused and allowed them to downgrade the articles in question to Discover.  I'm tired of fighting with the editors and have been moving my articles off HubPages.

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2. 67

   PaulGoodman67posted 21 months ago

   I've wondered about that myself.
   
   I guess it's in HP's interests to go with the open competition option but it can be frustrating for the writer.
   
   That said, I think I've been a perpetrator as well as a victim and usurped a few articles by others in the past. Years ago, when the quality wasn't so high, it seemed reasonable to challenge something that you saw as mediocre or flawed. Nowadays, it can feel like we're fighting over crumbs.
   
   Where there is ambiguity over which niche similar articles should be in, my feeling is that editors sometimes put them in different ones but I may be wrong on that.

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   1. 66

      eugbugposted 21 months agoin reply to this

      Me too. I have tried to compete with older articles in more recent years, but my articles were written in the early days of me being on Hubpages when I was ignorant of how things worked and I didn't know anything about ranking or the Google search algorithm. I wasn't aware the other articles existed until they turned up in search results when I was checking ranking of my ones. So we really should check before we write new content.

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3. 80

   EricDockettposted 21 months ago

   It is not so much about open competition as it is about smart SEO. When two pages on the same site target the same keywords the end result could be a downgrade in organic traffic for both. This is called keyword cannibalization, and it is a problem every HP niche site suffers.
   
   Yes, the editors should be aware of this. When there is already a page about Blue Widgets that ranks well on a niche site, they should not move a new page over to compete for those keywords.
   
   If that seems unfair, writers can avoid unnecessary pain by making a check for competition part of their keyword research before they write an article.
   
   If writers aren't doing keyword research before they write an article, well, that's part of the problem here too, isn't it?
   
   On a site like this, we are all going to step on each other's toes. I've had it done to me many times (just the other day in fact) and I am sure I've accidentally done it to others. Heck, I've even done it to myself.
   
   And it is tough when there is such a long history here, going back to when we had subdomains, and then the Squid merger. There are going to be redundant keywords. Fixing those issues in a fair way is tough, but there is no excuse for new pages blundering in and muddying the waters. Both editors and writers can take steps to avoid this.

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   1. 83

      Kenna McHughposted 21 months agoin reply to this

      I agree. I thoroughly check the niche site before writing any article. It's proved beneficial.

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4. 85

   Miebakagh57posted 21 months ago

   To me, this is a complex question. But I've been here since 2014 I think.                                 The first thing I noted parallel to this 'competion' was the challenge of dxplication. That is similar or note.                                But it  hit another article on my Bloggers blog.                                    Critically and seriously, I'm not keen with SEO keyword researching, though I've learnt the basic of it, and will continue to increase my knowledge bank.                                That said, I write my stuffs naturally. Both the title and sub-title SEO friendly.

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