Why Is Google Messing With My Hub?

1. 0

   Whikatposted 14 years ago

   I hope someone can help answer this question for me. I wrote a hub, I picked the keywords very carefully, I wrote my first paragraph very carefully to attract the audience I wanted.  I wrote a full header description. 
   
   I go to see where my hub ended up after a few days and instead of seeing it on any of my keywords, they decided to use 1 word in my 2 question survey at the bottom of the article to place the article on the search engine. WTH?
   
   I understand that they are the big "G" but why would they mess with someone like that?  I don't think the keyword that they placed me in makes any money at all. Should I delete the survey so they can not use that to place me, or should I just be happy with the penny a day?

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      Never_Forgetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Your hub needs to mature more. You can and will rank for multiple keywords. Give it more time. Has it even been crawled yet or is it still in the initial indexing period? Check to see if there's a cache for it to see if it's been crawled.
      
      Either way, sometimes Google takes a while to pick up on your keywords and index your article properly. Usually the more competitive the topic, the longer it takes, but there are plenty of other factors.
      
      Throw a couple of dofollow backlinks at it with your keywords as the anchor text. This should fix it faster.

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         Whikatposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Never_Forget,
         Thank you for your suggestions, I will try them. I guess I was just upset because they have taken the survey and used that as my hubs description, which misses the whole point of the hub.
         
         If I had known that they were going to treat it like a survey hub, I would have wrote a survey hub, but with different keywords. They make it challenging to do the right thing. All this talk about back links and cheating the system, but I am learning quickly that the honest person gets stepped on by the big G when they are trying to do the right thing.
         
         Anyway, Thanks again for the suggestions. I will get some sleep and try them tomorrow, when I can think more rationally

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            Susana Sposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            
            
            This is due to a new google update. What is shown as the description on the search results can be taken from any part of the hub - it depends on what the searcher typed in the box so it can be different every time. I've seen phrases that were posted in comments come up as the description. It should actually be better as you will rank for many more phrases than just the main one (or few) you have chosen.

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         Never_Forgetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Wait a second, are you saying that you're not ranking for your targeted keywords?
         
         Or are you saying that you're ranking for them but in the description on the search results it's showing the survey instead of the beginning sentences of your article?
         
         If it's the former, my original post stands. If it's the latter, I would delete the survey for a couple of weeks, and then bring it back once the description changes.

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            WryLiltposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Have you tried editing the capsule and writing your own summary text? It's in one of the three tabs at the top of the hub when you are in edit mode. That may help...
            
            Give google a few days to update it though...

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               Never_Forgetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I forgot about that option. That will definitely work. Nice thinkin!

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                  Susana Sposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  It's good to create a unique summary (I always do), but it will not make any difference to the way google now decides on what page descriptions to show as explained above.
                  
                  Here are a few examples:
                  
                  For a search for "describe yourself" my custom summary shows up.
                  
                  Searching for "words to describe someone" shows a different description:
                  
                  Searching "words to describe people" again shows differently.

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                     Never_Forgetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     Those are all showing different descriptions because you're searching for different terms each time ;-)
                     
                     Google hasn't used strictly the opening sentences in years. The description will almost always show a snippet where the search terms are seen in the article, whether it's in the beginning, middle or end, even tags and comments and apparently surveys too.
                     
                     In the OP's case, Google still probably hasn't fully crawled the article. If the search terms are located in the opening sentence, it will show the opening sentence when it is fully matured. Alternatively, the OP can use the Summary feature that WryLilt brought up or delete the survey.
                     
                     I hope I am not misunderstanding your posts. If so, I apologize.

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                        Susana Sposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        Yes, that's what I said
                        
                        Yes, it will show the target summary/description depending on the search words used. Since the mayday update it seems to me that the descriptions that google pulls from the article have become a lot more variable and fluid but maybe I'm just noticing it more Anyway a search for the title of the hub now shows the first sentence.
                        
                        
                        
                        The OP asked why google was not showing the first sentence as the page description so I was attempting to explain why it might not and also why even creating a unique summary might not either. Maybe I didn't explain it so well

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                           Whikatposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                           Hi Susana S, Thank you for your reply. Yes, I was actually referring to my summary in which I did write my own, and it is showing up for some search terms just like you stated. I did some checking and yes, it does not matter that I wrote my own summary, the survey, and comments are showing up on different search terms.
                           
                           I think I will wait it out and see what happens before taking down the survey. The hub has original content and good KW so I will just let it mature.
                           
                           Thank you Everyone, for all your replies and thoughts regarding this issue.

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                           Aficionadaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                           This was a helpful description of the OP's question.  I admit I had read the first post multiple times and had not the faintest idea what they were talking about.  Or rather, I had not the faintest idea of how they knew which keywords Google had "placed them in."
                           
                           PS - Thank you, rebekahELLE.  That was also quite helpful.

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   TopUniverseposted 14 years ago

   Wait for some time ( because you selected the kw carefully ) you will get ranked for your keyword.

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      sofsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I have noticed that the adverts keep changing I think once in four days or something like that, dont worry, in a while the adverts will be more in tune with the the keywords

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3. 83

   Pcunixposted 14 years ago

   It's the Paso Doble of Google vs. SEO.
   
   Google used to pull from predictable places, so of course the SEO folks started using that to assist their efforts.  Google doesn't like being led around by the nose, so they changed how they do that.
   
   They aren't "messing with your hub".  They are just trying to provide the best results and the best summaries they can. If everyone were honest in their writing and their summaries, Google wouldn't have needed to change anything.  But people aren't honest and are always trying to gain an edge, so Google is constantly working to eliminate those weak spots.
   
   That kind of stuff (Google vs. SEO) has been going on for years and will continue until Google's computers get so smart that all that matters is raw content and SEO ceases to exist.  We are likely a long, long way from that.

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      Whikatposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Pcunix, I appreciate your response, but as I stated earlier, I do not believe that the 2 sentence survey at the bottom of my hub is an accurate description of my well over 1,000 word hub. This is not a complaint about SEO, this was a question about them using something as silly as a survey to represent my content.  Thanks for your input.

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         Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         It's Google that is deciding what to show.  That was the point, not that it's "SEO" that is causing this.

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            rebekahELLEposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            it seems to fall in line with their new search methods.
            the first few lines don't necessarily get picked up in the search. this is from an article recently posted about Ben Gomes,
            
            "But Gomes says there's another half of Google search that has been given too little credit. That process is based on a long-existing concept in computer science called "Keyword In Context," which automatically creates a few lines of text that shows users the context of the keyword they Googled.
            
            "Every other search engine at the time gave you the first two lines on the page. What Google did was it showed you the lines on the page that were relevant to your query," Gomes said. "And you might think this is a small change, but it is so much harder to do."
            
            Not only does Google have to find the most relevant Web pages from a query, but it must then search within those pages and automatically build a custom snippet that shows how the keyword occurred on the page."
            
            
            http://www.physorg.com/news202108905.html
            http://www.steverubel.com/google-instan … irrelevant

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4. 70

   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   Search engines tend to "remember" what it read first and last on your page, just like people.
   
   So you should always end a hub or article with the key words you want to be ranked for, as well as at the start. This goes double for blog post.

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      Whikatposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Bill Manning, I will write that down so I do not forget. I appreciate the tip, and will try to remember to apply it in all my future hubs.

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   rebekahELLEposted 14 years ago

   you're welcome. if you go to the above links, they are helpful in understanding.
   everyone's search results are going to look different according to what the user is entering into the search query.

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      Whikatposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hi rebekahELLE,
      I understand what you are saying, and I did read the two articles but I think Big G's methods stink! It has nothing to do with SEO or content  I am talking about relevancy. For example I just did a google search for soap on a rope, now if I look at the snippet in the 3rd position it is from Urban Dictionary and there is a horrible snippet that no person should ever have to see if searching for soap.
      
      Don't believe me check it out for yourself. Google soap on a rope and see what the 3rd place position says, and then come back and tell me how that is relevant to me the shopper who is looking to purchase english leather soap on a rope?

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   Whikatposted 14 years ago

   Never mind about the last comment. I finally figured out the safe search mode for Google's search engine and how to turn off instant search. I am happier with my search results now.

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   DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years ago

   Fascinating---clear as mud to me, but fascinating--because on Etsy, we were told that Google ranks only the first (I believe) 125 characters in the (product) description, and while we are filling in that description, below that text box appears "Here is how your listing will show up in Google search."
   
   It follows along and inputs verbatim everything in your first paragraph, until it runs out of characters for the field.  That way, supposedly, we can see what we might want to shift around to emphasize showing up first.
   
   Now, here, apparently it seems...none of that matters???  Aaaggghhh...too complex for old brains to master!

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      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Here's a little secret that will help bloggers. As I said above, Google "remembers" and uses most often the first and LAST thing it sees on a page.
      
      So, if you have a blog or site, make sure you fill in your footer with your keywords. Many never put anything in the footer.
      
      Yet I often see my site come up in a search and the description it shows is from my footer. Just put two or three sentences of what your site is about in the footer, using your keywords.

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         DzyMsLizzyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Oh, boy---I have blogs, but I use Blogger, and I don't recall seeing any "footer" area....
         
           I do use the "labels"  (a.k.a. 'tags') when I remember.  LOL

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