Could this be badly affecting HP google rankings?

1. 40

   Ritsosposted 12 years ago

   I hadn't created a hub for a while, partly for other reasons but also partly because of HPs poor rankings post panda. However I had a play with market samurai and decided to test a topic I found that I thought would rank well.
   
   The topic is 'totes umbrella' ... so I wrote one and although hadn't done any backlinks thought I'd have a look to see if had hit the first three pages of google ... very optimistic I know but thought I'd check and unsurprisingly it hadn't.
   
   So I typed the url into google to see if it was on there pages and it is ... but here's the thing.
   
   The first line or so of my article reads:
   
   "Totes umbrellas are possibly the most popular if not cheap umbrellas on the market. Whether you are looking for a clear umbrella or a mini umbrella, you will find what you are looking for in a tote umbrella."
   
   ok .. maybe not my best writing ... but this is what appears in google
   
   Totes Umbrella - HubPages
   Especially when we can carry our stylish totes umbrella! vote upvote downsharePrintflag. Was this Hub ...? Useful; Funny; Awesome; Beautiful ...
   
   Now that bears no relation to what I wrote and includes the useful, funny etc
   
   I think HP needs to look at this as if that is what google is picking up, we'll never get a decent ranking at all.

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2. 61

   SunSevenposted 12 years ago

   Panda is gone. Have no fear.
   Just re-invent to get accommodated.
   It was always that way cookies got crumbled.
   
   Best Regards

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3. 0

   EmpressFelicityposted 12 years ago

   Do you write custom summaries for your hubs?  It used to be the case that your first sentence would become your summary if you didn't write a summary yourself, but from your post that doesn't seem to happen any more - you just get random verbiage instead.
   
   IMO it's always been best to write a custom summary but now that seems to be more true than ever.

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   1. 40

      Ritsosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's interesting .. I hadn't even seen that option and just went back to check and I do see it where it is .... I've popped the summary in and will keep an eye on that ... thanks for pointing that out ... would be nice if it was a bit more obvious though
      
      thanks

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      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         The Summary option was obvious in an older version of HP about a year ago. But they moved it to the inconspicuous location with the other tabs on the right when you're editing your hub.
         
         When you add your own summary then HP includes it in a "meta description" statement in the code, which Google uses for the description. If Google doesn't find that then it uses a best effort at piecing together a description from the text on the page. 
         
         If you don't write your own summary then HP places the first sentence in the meta record. But I found Google doesn't always use the meta information.

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4. 82

   ngurecoposted 12 years ago

   And if you search: Totes Umbrella HubPages, you get the following:
   
   Totes Umbrella. Totes umbrellas are possibly the most popular if not cheap umbrellas on the market. Whether you are looking for a clear umbrella or a mini....
   
   I believe all is well for your hub.

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   1. 40

      Ritsosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's also interesting
      
      Is that google.COM ... It's still as previous on google.CO.UK

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      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It's still wrong on google.com also. But there are other results in the listing. ngureco may have found one of the others.

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5. 75

   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   The summary option is a fairly new feature, Its only been added the last month or so, unless I was missing it the 18 months prior to that

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   1. 61

      SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Summary option was the all along.

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         Ritsosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         it's pretty hidden though but will certainly use it for future hubs and may go back over a few older ones

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         1. 61

            SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It was not hidden. But got buried in the flurry of dumb changes.
            
            Yes. it would help if you write your own summary. It was auto all the way since inception.

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6. 81

   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   The summary says to the searcher "look at me, read me!"  It needs to sum up everything fantastic and urgent and wonderful about your page within twenty words.  Once read, they need to be drawn in like a moth to wahtever attracts moths (is it butter?)

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      SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Mark, you are a superfast learner.

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      1. 81

         Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks SunSeven!  It hasn't worked for me though.  I've tried "read this", "don't read this", "please read this" and none of them work.  Of course there's a little thing like keywords to crack as well.

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         1. 61

            SunSevenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I like to fail too. Its inherent. Glad you are having failure, I mean success at that. I am going full steam ahead. If I lose steam midway, I win, and if I win I lose.

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7. 88

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I've just published a hub on this, as I only recently noticed the change.
   While I was always advised to write a separate summary (and yes the option has always been there), there was no need, because the HP software was set up to pull your first paragraph into what is known as the meta-tag.
   Under the older HP, if you clicked on 'summary', you saw what you had written in the first couple of sentences, so all you needed to ensure that your hub was optimized for search engine traffic was to include your keywords there.
   Under the new, improved HP, you do have to write a separate summary. It would have been nice if they had told us that our hubs were no longer optimized without the summary box being filled!
   Fill in your summary box, everyone, for all your hubs. You will see an immediate difference in traffic.

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      Ritsosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      might do a few of my older ones but yes .. since doing that, that hub is on page 1 and that's without a backlink!

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      1. 88

         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         And you do understand why of course? As Market Samurai has shown, getting those 4 pink boxes has ensured your on page optimization is spot on.
         When you get round to it, sort your older hubs too, and watch your traffic double overnight

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            Ritsosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Kinda .... still a bit trial and error with MS and had a wee glitch that I think I've overcome by re-installing ...Certainly throwing up some interesting things .. pretty sure I'll be splashing out for it in the next couple of days :-)

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            1. 88

               IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Get used to it LOL. Market Samurai is full of glitches. Sometimes it won't return results, or it hangs or something to make you think there must be an easier way!
               
               But their programmers are always on the ball with new updates every other day which makes the program run smoothly again.
               
               It hogs bandwidth, it slows everything down.
               
               But for me, it paid for itself within weeks and has taught me so much about SEO, it is definitely worth every penny.

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