I noticed that when I checked my backlinks all of the ones from hubpages were 'nofollow' links. Should this be the case? (I've written several articles and I'd hate not to be getting the most out of them.) Or do I need to change something in the HTML coding linking the anchor text to my website? If so can someone type an example of how the html code should look like for anchor text to be linked back to a site.
Thanks!
They'll become do-follow once your author score hits 75.
I looked at a few articles since they sparked a little debate among other members. I don't think it's very helpful to just tell you the articles are overly promotional, spam articles, and flag them when you're asking for help. So, here are a few unsolicited suggestions for what it's worth.
-Links - Limit outbound links to content that complements the article and do not add more than TWO links to the SAME domain/website (which I didn't see). Use a keyword/keyword phrase for the link's anchor tex and avoid using "click here" or "here". The word "here" doesn't help your SEO efforts and turns a link into a call to action, something you want to avoid because it makes the hub a promotion (aka overly promotional). Use a link naturally in a sentence and you'll reap the do follow SEO value and keep your hubs compliant. You should also interlink the hubs that are related.
One other thing I noticed is that you use bold and italics. It's better practice to use bold/italics on a keyword or keyword phrase because you can lose SEO on insignificant words when you italicize several sentences/paragraphs. Instead of bold, I'd use a new capsule or h3 headings. The call to action in italics looks more like a signature, but HP doesn't have a signature section. You can use links in your profile page, so I'd edit my profile and link to it.
Since someone flagged your articles it's a good idea to make some quick edits. Your articles are informative, well-written, and provide value to the reader. If you edit the current hubs and keep writing new ones you'll do well and get your hub score up.
I hope that info is helpful.
Thank you for your reply. I will review all of my articles and I'll do my best to make the necessary changes. I didn't realize my question would spark such a debate. I'm just learning so I appreciate your thoughtful reply.
You're welcome.
We were all new once! There's a LOT to learn - more than I ever imagined. I made plenty of mistakes before learning how to implement search engine optimization (SEO), etc.
If you have questions you can post them here. I'll do my best to answer. I learned a lot from other members, especially InfoBarrel, another site you might want to check out.
You must have hubscores higher than 40 and a hubberscore of 75 for all your links to be dofollow.
Yes. Please, write a few more hubs so that your score can hit the 75 mark.
If any of the previous commentors had taken the time to look at your Hubs, they'd see that you are violating the rules in regards to over-promotion, and have incurred a HubScore penalty as a result.
If you keep using your present methods of creation and included promotion, no matter how many new Hubs you make, your Score will remain below the do-follow threshold.
Please, elaborate, else no one will know what exactly you are talking about. When a hub is in violation of the rules, it gets moderated. You don't incur a HubScore penalty for it. It's the past you are talking about. Nowadays, rules are enforced much more strictly.
Also, If I looked at the hubs and missed the two that are in the actual gray area where you cannot exactly tell if they should be pulled or left alone, then you yourself missed the other four that are actually very good informative hubs that many readers can benefit from without even noticing the promotional bits in the end.
Relache is correct - the hubs are over-promotional. 100% of them have 2 links to the same for profit site and are an obvious tool to draw traffic to that site.
As such HP will consider them over promotional.
Right. The difference is you are seeing a for-profit site. I am seeing a doctor who is offering help to people. What if someone wants to drive traffic to their site? Businesses are NOT evil!
Wrong. The hubs have merit of their own without the sites linked.
Of course it is a for profit site - the site is to promote that doctors work and is little more than advertising. Nothing at all wrong with that - without advertising most business will fail.
HOWEVER, HP does not want writers whose sole purpose is to provide traffic for another site.
You are mistaken. Whether the hubs have merit or not is immaterial; HP forbids the same links on nearly every hub to the same site and defines it as overly-promotional.
http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Mode … romotional
That link gives the rules and shows several items where these hubs are in violation of being over-promotional.
The hub that you linked says, "Purely promotional offers, and Hubs designed only to promote other sites or businesses, are not allowed." What I'm trying to say is that these hubs are not purely promotional.
Also, can you please quote the line where it says that the same links are not allowed in each and every hub.
Which items are you referring to? Please, point them out. Thanks.
I'm pretty sure you can interpret the rules in any way you choose, but the staff here, or the system here, will say that hubs that all promote the same external links are overly-promotional, no matter how well-written or informational the actual hubs are.
Why don't you flag the hubs then and let the staff decide. I stand by my interpretation. I don't see where in the TOS or on the site it says the things that are claimed here.
Why don't YOU flag the hubs? I couldn't give a toss if someone is overly promotional if the hub is unique and written in good English. I'm not here to check other peoples' hubs.
You have been here long enough to know that not every rule is written in the TOS in an interpretable way.
Do you have a list of banned affiliates, or banned topics?
No.
Because post-Panda, a lot of things have changed. And while they might be sort of in the TOS, they aren't clear.
Meanwhile, I will continue to flag hubs that are obviously against TOS, but no more than that.
Sorry - misunderstood your comment. The article linked to is purely promotional, not necessarily the hub.
That call will, however, be made by HP - personally I expect an informational hub to be longer than 300 words and at least one is shorter than that even counting the effort at the bottom to get the reader to click through.
You are correct in the number of hubs with the same link - it isn't there, at least that I could find. I know it has come out in the forums but it isn't in the learning center.
"Hubs that ask users to click on a link to "read more" or "continue here" are against our Terms of Use." At least one of the hubs has such a comment in it; I did not thoroughly read all of them.
Understand I'm not trying to diss the author, but to point out potential problems that could get the hubs unpublished. To my way of thinking it is best not to even approach that line.
Although it's been said unofficially by staff, they've never put it in concrete since linking to one domain across all your hubs may be spam in one case, but not in another.
The best you'll do is moderator Maddie Ruud's comments on the topic:
"Unfortunately, I cannot clarify an absolute number of hubs over which repeated linking will become a problem. It depends on a lot of factors, including your total number of hubs and the percentage in which you link to the same site. However, we are reasonable with such penalties, and well-intentioned hubbers generally have nothing to fear. This policy is merely meant to catch people who come to HubPages soley with the intention of directing traffic elsewhere."
This was a comment in her hub: http://maddieruud.hubpages.com/hub/Overly-Promotional
However there are other mentions in the site, if you really feel like looking hard enough.
Sure - I know I'd seen it before. In this case 100% of the hubs had the same link - I think that's pretty clearly over the limit.
Flagging and rules violations are discussed quite a bit among Greeters and staff members. I know the rules are not always clear and leave plenty of room for interpretation. I personally have corresponded with new hubbers who simply froze at the sight of the many rules and their interpretations in the forum and did not dare to post their first hub for fear of getting booted. I think it's really counter-productive to keep saying things that we are not sure of, because you know some people are working in the background to keep things going and oftentimes the biggest obstacle to this is unfounded rumors. Still, I think you might as well be right and so let the staff decide.
If you write for the readers benefit I can't imagine running up against anything very hard. Maybe the 50 word per amazon link or something like that.
If you write to get backlinks to another site then it's not for the readers benefit even if you provide a modicum of information while telling that same reader to go somewhere else for the whole story.
Whenever you include and describe a link, you are doing it.
Not so, Haunty. I may write a hub about how to lay a hardwood floor. It will contain all the information I have about how to do that; my goal is to provide the reader with enough information that s/he can do the job by themselves. I might also provide a link to another hub about tools where the reader that has decided to do the work can find the tools necessary to do it with; a backlink to the tool hub. My goal in the first hub is not to get the reader to visit the tool hub though; it is to teach them to lay hardwood. The tool link is strictly secondary - if it did not make the flooring hub too long it that information would already by in that hub instead of shuttling the reader off. I might also include links to related subjects (but not identical) that I think the reader might be interested in - perhaps a link to a hub on how to lay vinyl time flooring. If they haven't made up their mind on which to do it might help them.
OR, I might sit down and figure out how, using the least amount of effort, I can convince a reader to visit my web site. I write just enough to pique their interest and avoid tripping the "over promotional" filter but no more. I surely do not provide all the information I can - just enough to get by.
The first is providing a backlink that the reader may find valuable; that backlink is primarily for their benefit, not mine. The second is providing a hub that will draw a reader to another site and is not in the readers best interests. That reader did not visit the hub simply to be shuttled off to another site for more information.
Yes, I backlink some on other sites to draw readers to HP. I make no bones about it and provide minimum information - little more than the summary a SE sees. But that's what those sites want - a quick blurb with a backlink and not a full blown article. It's not what HP wants, however - they want a full blown informative article, not just a blurb written as a doorway to another site.
I agree with you. I think the fact is there is only one hub out of the six that does something similar (and only similar) to what you describe in the second and unacceptable scenario. This one: Knee Surgery Won’t Stop Osteoarthritis from Developing In the Knee!
However, look at the title and the content of the hub. I think the hub does just what the title promises. It makes a point that knee surgery won’t stop osteoarthritis from developing in the knee. It even cites a study to back up this point. So title and content are perfectly in alignment.
Now look at the links. They lead to complemetary resources. The hub is not about cold laser therapy. It's about what the title says. However, it provides - I think similar to the way you do it in your first scenario - a way for the reader to learn about a related topic, the laser therapy, should they be interested in it.
All of the Hubs link back to the same website, and the last two paragraphs on each are clearly a text commercial pitch for that doctor's business. Some of the Hubs even had three links to the site. When I give feedback on someone's Hubs, I actually go look at them, and this one waved a giant spam flag in my face.
So, I flagged the whole thing, and I did that before posting my reply here to the OP. If there's no problem with the links or content, nothing will happen, but if there is, the moderators will handle it.
@jpwriter: Thanks for taking the time to post these details. You are right, we were not very helpful.
Just to make sure it's clear to everyone, and since both you and relache mentioned this, I'd like to point out that the 2 outbound link per one domain rule has not been violated. If anyone thinks that one hub has three links to the same domain, please look again.
Secondly, when you've been here for a while, you have a few hubs, but you stopped posting, your hubscore will stay below 75 no matter what. You don't have to violate any rules. I know this because I have seen and can point out several other accounts with similar situation. There is no hubscore penalty involved, an abandoned account with only 6 hubs is simply not enough to reach the 75 mark.
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