What is a 'Good" Hub Score?

1. 92

   DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years ago

   Hi--me again..
   
      I was reading that there is a 'nofollow' generated on hubs with scores of 50 or under, so I've un-published all of mine that were down in that range.
   
      The result is that my total hub count is now way down, so that instead of 10 more hubs to 100, I've now got to write 30+!! UGH!!
   
      Most of my remaining hubs, at the top end are about 79, max, and the rest go down from there into the mid-60's and high 50's.
   
      Is there a way to bring those up without begging/spamming people to 'come read my hubs, PLEEEEZE'..???... or is there some factor besides traffic that dictates the hub score.  It all seems very complicated and confusing.

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   1. 86

      WryLiltposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Don't worry - republish them!
      
      From what I heard the no-follow on hubs is 40, and that will only apply to outgoing links on THAT individual hub - not all of them.
      
      As long as your profilescore stays over 75 I believe all your hubs should be dofollowed (except those under 40 of course.)  You're 88 so you're safe.
      
      Anyway, other than effecting the occasional dofollow link, scores have little to no effect on anything else. The only reason you should worry about not having dofollow links is if you use your hub account to promote a lot of your own sites.

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   2. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Republish them at once!  The only reason you would care about "no follow" is if you're using your Hubs to publicize one of your websites.  If you're writing your Hubs to make money in their own right, "no follow" is irrelevant because it applies to links going outwards from your Hubs.
      
      The other thing is - HubScore and Hubber Score have absolutely no effect on traffic outside HubPages, and therefore have no effect on your Hubs' money-making ability.
      
      Things like HubScore, HubberScore, HubKarma, followers and Accolades are all part of the HubPages community.  They are irrelevant to the money-making side of the site.

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   3. 95

      Rochelle Frankposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Early on I never worried about all of these things-- and it saved me a lot of worry.
      
      Time does wonders for your numbers--PLUS, in time, you learn they are not that important.
      I know we all want more readers, either for money or 'hublove'. There are lots of hubs with advice on getting traffic, but I think the best strategy is just to keep writing good quality and enjoying the ride. The more hubs you write, the better-- but it isn't a contest. Take it at your own pace.
      
      You can go back and 'tweak " hubs if you come across a good suggestion, but I still think that the aging of hubs is most important.
      
      Most of the numbers do not have a lot of meaning-- especially hubscore and hubberscore, as long as they are above the aforementioned levels for following.

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      1. 92

         DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Rochelle.  I've been here longer than my accumulated lack of knowledge would seem to indicate...because after I joined, I didn't do much with my pages for several months, so I'm still new, actually.  ;-)
         
         But, most of my questions about numbers, scores, etc. are not becuase I'm 'worried' about them, but just curiousity about which may or may not be important as time goes on.
         
         To that end...I've noticed that 'traffic falling/traffic rising' indicator...but only on 1 or 2 hubs at a time.  And numbers/score wise, it does not seem that any of them are garnering any more/less traffic than any others.  I don't know how to take those...I would have thought it would be placed on each hub all the time, if the indicator was to be worth anything.
         
         So do I take it that any/all hubs NOT so marked are still gathering traffic, and holding steady?  It's all a bit confusing..but, at 62, I'm allowed a few 'senior moments,' I think, eh?  (Trouble is, I seem to have lots of them!  LOL)

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         1. 85

            Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            The traffic falling/rising indicator is just that - it can be triggered by just a few more views or a few less views here and there.
            
            I think what WryLilt meant is that people are easily distracted on the net - they will keep reading if you give them headings and images to catch their eye.  And part of the reason for having long Hubs is that Google likes it - and if Google doesn't like your Hubs, then the visitors won't arrive in the first place!
            
            Don't get discouraged, you'll get there!

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            1. 92

               DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I see--ok, thank you all very much for your patience!

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               1. 71

                  earnestshubposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  Time can be the key with some hubs too, so I would put them all up again Lizzy.
                  
                  I have had hubs that were as dead as a door knob for months that are now earning quite well.

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2. 66

   Info Bucketposted 14 years ago

   You have to write rich quality content hubs and try to include one or more pics that are related to the subject you are writing. In your hub about compass, you can include a pic of it, old types of compasses etc....., This will help you to improve hubscore. Trafiic didn't affect the hubscore upto 75, I have a hub with 2 view per day and hubscore about 70-75. Didn't worry about it, go ahead.

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3. 82

   sriparnaposted 14 years ago

   Hi! Though I am pretty new to hubpages, only two months old, I'll try to mention the points which I feel is keeping your hub score moderate and not high (80-90 or above).
   
   1. Your content is excellent every time but it is written as a single piece of text. Hub scores are good if you divide your content into 4-5 text capsules for readers' convenience.
   
   2. Uploading some relevant photographs, either from the internet (copylefted) or your own will improve the overall appearance of your hub. Actually not only photographs, you have not used any other capsule offered. That means, video, news feed, link etc. That can be a big reason for low hubscore.
   
   3. Some of your hubs like the poetry ones are most probably not meeting the minimum word count required to be considered a good hub (minimum word count for good hubs 500-800)
   
   4. I would suggest you please go through "how hubscore works" by darkside and also some more good hubs talking about how to improve traffic and hubscore. You'll get a fair idea about what to do.
   
   5. I feel bad to hear that you have unpublished 20 hubs - so much of hard work gone! Please don't unpublish any more, you can improve your hubscore with a little more understanding of the basic guidelines to improve hubscore.
   Keep going!

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   1. 59

      Iggy Sarducciposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you much, sriparna. This was very helpful for me also. Everyone's comments were, but your point 3 was new info for me, and very helpful.

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4. 92

   DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years ago

   Hi-
     Thanks, everyone, for your explanations.  In my compass hub, there are actually 3 photos--are they not showing up somehow to anyone but me?  That is a concern.
   
      As far as 'text capsules' I've only just recently learned that trick...and I cannot see that it makes very much difference except with working with things behind the scenes--I'm not seeing a difference an outside reader would notice.  Am I missing something?  Please elucidate.  ;-)
   
      90% of the ones I unpublished were poetry..short..and were flagged as 'substandard--too little content' until I added a paragraph of nonsense fill at the bottom of all of them.  It is a problem with poems.  Many are short.  It is the nature of the beast.  IMO, since HP has a poetry category, then poems should be exempted from the 'minimum word count' thing.
   
      Work is not down the drain, however; I have them all--would just have to go back into my computer and re-copy/paste to retrieve.

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   1. 86

      WryLiltposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      There are photos in your how to use a compass hub but NOT in your how to find compass points hub.
      
      If you want to remove a hub from public view but still keep them, just go into the hub and click "unpublish". This way you won't be losing it all.
      
      Remember - leaving a low traffic hub there isn't hurting anyone - some hubs take months to take off and deleting them also makes any links people have posted to them worthless.
      
      Many people post three or four poems in one hub, if they're all on similar topics.
      
      Text capsules are good because they allow you to integrate your topics into sections with headings. Try and use the headings - otherwise readers won't bother to finish a hub. Most people who use search engines are looking for specific information, not a long read - so they are more likely to skim read headings.  I try and put about a paragraph per text capsule.

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      1. 92

         DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Oh--oh dear, yes, you are quite correct.  I did not have any photos that seemed appropriate to that particular hub. 
         
         Oh, my goodness---how to feel like a dummy in one easy lesson.  I didn't even think about the 'unpublish' function...well, too late now. 
         
         Thanks for the tip about using the capsule subtitles..something else that didn't even occur to me... I don't seem to be getting a very good batting average, here, do I?..  :-(
         
         I am puzzled by your last tip, however--if people "don't want a long read,"  then why does HP REQUIRE such lengthy text for those looking to get into those 'flagship' and 'capstone' programs???  Thats a LOT of writing they're asking for...and YOU are quite correct in your assessment--it seems no one wants to read anymore.
         Personally, I'd much rather sit down with a good book than watch TV, and if I'm reading something online, I just want to read it, and find a mess of pictures and especially videos to be just distracting interruptions.  But then, I've been told plenty of times that I'm weird!  :-O  ;-)  LOL
         
         Anyway, I do appreciate the insights from everyone..

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   2. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I can see them.  I'm guessing the commenter is referring to some of your other Hubs.
      
      
      
      It makes a big difference in HubPages' ability to optimize advertizing, for those hoping to make some money. It also makes it easier to place photos and other items nicely.  Finally, on the internet it's always helpful to break your text up with headings to help the eye navigate down the page.
      
       
      
      HP has a poetry category for those Hubbers who want to use it, but it's well known that it makes almost no money - so it's not a priority for HP to make special arrangements for poets, I'm afraid.
      
      It seems a shame to resort to a paragraph of nonsense fill.  Why not add some photographs; or a paragraph relating how the poem came to be written; or publish two or three related poems on one Hub?

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      1. 77

         psycheskinnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         One obvious approach would be to put a small themed collection of poems on each hub, not just one per hub.

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      2. 92

         DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I suppose there is that--most poets die broke.  :-(  No one reads their poems until after they're dead!  A pox on them all!  LOL
         
         As far as 'how the poem came to be' ... no can do.  The vast majority of my poems are OLD--from back in the 1980's when I was writing profusely, and besides that, I'm not a poet who sits down and decides to write a poem.  That never works for me.
         No, my poems come to me almost fully written, in a sudden flash of inspriation, and it's a matter of  "hurry up and grab something to write with before it escapes."  There really is no 'back story' to most of these--they just come to me out of the blue.
         A few are 'related themes,' and I had grouped some of them...but again, only just this week learned about using multiple capsules.  So I was having fits trying to edit them the way I like to play with the spacing and line breaks, becuase to fix just one, ALL of them were losing their formatting, and it was very frustrating.
         
         Thanks much for your suggestions.

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   3. 59

      Iggy Sarducciposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, DzyMsLizzy for your questions and follow-ups.
      
      I could use Marissa's idea to add a little info about the poem at the end to reach the minimum word count (500 words?) in the poetry category for what are considered "good hubs." I don't really have "related" poems that I'd like to lump together though.
      
      I don't, however, know that adding photos helps the "good hubs" rating, does it? All of my poems have photos at the beginning, but not much of a rating and almost no views.
      
      I'm not very fond of  that "substandard" rating for works less than 500 words in the literary categories. But ah well, I'm a newbie just trying to get the hang of this site.
      
      Anyway, thanks to all - this was a useful forum for me.     
      
      -Ig

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      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I've never seen a minimum word count specified anywhere - I think because photos and videos count too, "content" must be measured in some other way.
         
         However, some of the "gurus" here have recommended that a standalone Hub should be at least 400 to 500 words if you want to be noticed by the search engines (which you need if you want traffic).
         
         Unfortunately you have to accept that HubPages makes its money on advertising - if your Hubs aren't attracting visitors and making any money for you, they're not making any money for HP either.  Creative writing, especially poetry, is a notoriously poor earner on the internet so it's not likely that HubPages will ever make exceptions to their rules for an area of the site that's not profitable.

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      2. 59

         Iggy Sarducciposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I apologize for mis-spelling your name above, Marisa!
         
         Thanks again for shedding yet more light on my Hub-dimlit mind. I think I will make it a point to somehow reach 500 words in the hubs that have better revenue potential listed under the "Stats" link on the individual hubs. But $$$ is the highest rating I've gotten.
         
         On poetry hubs - I'm mostly posting poems for now just because it's already sitting around and easy to toss up - and I'm in the middle of writing a business plan, {sigh}. But yeah, I am aware that poetry will not sell mucho, if anything in terms of AdSense clicks. I'm just doing that to get a feel for the site for now.
         
         Thanks so much! You are so incredibly helpful and omnipotent on here. 

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5. 68

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   I totally agree with Marisa that you shouldn't worry about all of the internal scoring unless you are trying to promote your own external websites.
   
   If you're going to keep on worrying, though, why don't you open a second account solely to publish your poems. Don't worry about the HubScores or AuthorScores with that account--just get your poetry out there.

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   1. 92

      DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      OH.  I didn't even know one was allowed to have more than one account.  Hmmm...perhaps I will look into that...but that would really take a lot of time, moving everything over.   I'll look into it.  Thanks for the tip!  ;-)

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6. 0

   Michael E. Hortonposted 14 years ago

   An A+

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7. 60

   AuthorSteveposted 14 years ago

   Well, the previous answers have already answered your question, but I would like to add something about no-follow:
   
   No-follow is just some sort of "instruction" for the google bot that is crawling a website.
   
   Unless you want to create backlinks from your hubs to your website you can completely ignore whether your link is no-follow or not. Every person can click on this link and will be directed to your site.
   
   But the bot will not get to your site.
   
   I think this no-follow attribute was simply integrated to reduce and avoid spam, which is a clever solution.

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   1. 92

      DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Ah, so!  Thanks, AuthorSteve for a clear and concise explanation of that. 
      
      More likely, I would be operating in reverse:  posting links in my blogs to direct people HERE.  ;-)  I don't have  a website...I do sell a few products, but not on my own site--I'm at Etsy and Artfire...so I do not think those come into the equation, because Etsy, especially, does not like outbound links.  You can put them within an item description, but they will not come through as clickable hyperlinks.
      In any even, my 'shops' have been kind of neglected lately, as I've been concentrating on other things--like my main business, and my writing.
      
      Cheers..

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8. 76

   Aficionadaposted 14 years ago

   I just wanted to add my two-cents' worth about article length.  I have been on both sides, as a writer and as a reader. [I guess all of us have, come to think of it. LOL]
   
   As a writer, sometimes I simply have a lot to say and I say it.  But I have a difficult time seeing where natural breaks might occur and what useful headings for each sub-topic I could provide.  So, out of impatience just to get the Hub published, I just leave long blocks of text.
   
   As a reader, when I am reading someone else's work, I start off with the best intentions of seeing where the reading will take me and, I hope, reading the entire article.  But, if the subject matter or the writing style does not hold my interest, I start skimming to see how committed I am to putting in the effort to read the whole thing.  The paragraph or section headings are a huge help, as I decide whether to continue or move on.
   
   Each time I go through this as a reader, I remind myself to go back to my Hubs where I left long unbroken blocks of text and rework them for the benefit of the reader.  After all, if people just skim and decide not to read, there's not a lot of value in their stopping by at all.
   
   It is actually possible to provide headings within a Hub capsule by using the html code "<h2>."  But, since using separate capsules really does benefit you by giving Google more spots for placing ads, you might be undermining your own efforts if you add headings within a capsule rather than breaking up long blocks of text into separate capsules.
   
   Sometimes, the very long Hubs do better to be broken up into medium-sized Hubs that are linked together. Neil Ashworth has posted (in other forum threads) his recommended method for linking Hubs. http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/47195
   
   As for the short Hubs you deleted, since you said they were poems you wrote a very long time ago you probably have kept handwritten or typed copies of them; and it should not be terribly much trouble to put them in new Hubs in a new account.  You could even publish just one per day, and that might make the scores in the new account do better than if you published them all at one time.

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   1. 92

      DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Some very good points made.  Thank you.
      
      (I have most of my poetry in handwritten notebooks..a fair percentage of them have now been typed into my computer, so it would be a fairly simple cut/paste job.)  ;-)

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      1. 92

         DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         P.S.  I started out with the poems, and kind of got disgusted with HP formatting restrictions favoring straight prose, and other things I've mentioned before, so I was going to just leave HP.  Icreated a new blog for my poetry.
         
         In the end, however, I was reminded that a blog is just a single long list of posts, with no way to group or categorize,  (DUH!  I "only" write 4 blogs--I should have figured that out in advance!), so I ended up staying here after posting only 2 poems in the new blog.

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   2. 59

      Iggy Sarducciposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the helpful thoughts on capsules, Aficionada.

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9. 75

   agagliaposted 14 years ago

   Wow. you guys know so much more than me. This is really fascinating.How do you find out so much about the hubtivity, the scores, etc?
     I am just posting poetry when I can and a blog here and there, I try to keep my hub number up, but really haven't figured out what to do to keep it going up.
      It's been pure dumb luck. And yes, I am enjoying the new community hub pages affords me.
   thanks folks.

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   1. 73

      sofsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Agaglia, just read up all the topics suggested in this thread and you will be better in no time, i am no expert myself but I reading up helps

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10. 83

    erikdwyerposted 7 years ago

    Oh my gosh, thank you. This all makes sense now!
    
    I am a bit confused on why the HubScores of individual articles goes up and down over the course of a week though.

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11. 85

    Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

    This thread is seven years old, so whatever you've read in it could be outdated.  HubPages has changed an enormous amount in that time.
    
    However this answer is still valid:
    
    HubScore and Hubber Score have absolutely no effect on traffic outside HubPages, and therefore have no effect on your Hubs' money-making ability.  Things like HubScore, HubberScore, followers and Accolades are all part of the HubPages community, which exists to keep us all happy and motivated.  They are irrelevant to making money.
    
    Just to prove it, HubPages has recently started featuring high-earning Hubbers on the home page of the site (you need to be logged out to see them).   We've all been surprised, because we've never heard of most of them, because they're not active in the community.   And that's probably part of the reason for their success, because they focus on networking outside HubPages, where they can attract a paying audience.
    
    As to why HubScores fluctuate - they are a relative score.  Basically your Hub is being ranked against all the other Hubs currently published. Since new Hubs are published and old ones are deleted every single day, it's bound to fluctuate.

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12. 77

    psycheskinnerposted 7 years ago

    Indeed. Gamification is hard to resist.  But "Hubscore" is not a very productive game to play compared to "get traffic" or "make money".

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