Multiple Subject Hubs

1. 68

   Alecia Murphyposted 13 years ago

   I would like to have a feature where you can do hubs on combined topics. Some things I'd like to write about combine say like Music and Television or Movies and Television. I'd like to that rather than trying to do a general entertainment hub.

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   1. 75

      anasshadposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Great idea. And I think that it will help make Hubpages a more reliable source of information.

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2. 77

   CyclingFitnessposted 13 years ago

   Sounds a good idea.
   
   Surely this should not stop you writing your hub as ultimately you're aiming for google not internal hubpages traffic?

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3. 68

   Alecia Murphyposted 13 years ago

   Yeah, that's true. But my main problem now is figuring out how it'll work as a hub in general.

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4. 72

   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   One subject always connects to another subject in some way, shape or form.

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   1. 68

      Alecia Murphyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That's true.

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5. 77

   CyclingFitnessposted 13 years ago

   The downside is how many other categories would you need due to crossover?

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   1. 72

      Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      None actually, just write more hubs directly about the attached subjects and then internally link them via keyword embedded links.
      
      If there's one hub that deals with multiple subjects, then a secondary hub expanding on those other subject would be more beneficial to the sub-domain, by internal linking strategy between hubs.
      
      To allow one hub to have more than one category on one sub-domain would be damaging considering the search engine would have trouble determining what the hub is actually about and also would require the writer to use too many different keywords/tags to identify the hub.

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      1. 75

         Howard S.posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Cagsil, that argument seems to hold for articles that target a niche. I write many hubs that are cross-disciplinary. What you are saying is that my style is literally damaging to my subdomain, right? Each of the following fits equally well in two categories. I try to choose based on how many other hubs I have in those categories, but that is still changing at this point in my writing.
         
         Cancer in Underprivileged Nations
         An Endangered Bird from Indonesia
         An Indonesian Nursery Rhyme
         A Bereavement Soliloquy
         Crossword Puzzle for Plumbing

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         1. 72

            Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You missed the point of my post.
            
            Allowing hubs to have more than one category could hurt sub-domains. It might confuse the bots/spiders/crawlers that review pages.
            
            I'm not saying that writing hubs that have multiple subjects are harmful. They could be harmful, if you don't further write additional hubs on those specific topics? This is unknown. However, even with that said, more internal links, linking relevant hubs through keywords will never hurt a sub-domain.

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            1. 75

               Howard S.posted 13 years agoin reply to this

               @Cagsil: I see what I misinterpreted. Thanks. But there's still something I'm not getting. Bear with me, please. Two specific questions:
               
               1) How do search engines use the category? I know they determine the content of my hub from title, url, h2..., img alt, first 2-3 sentences and the rest of the text. These are given various weights. Is category another one of these? What weight is given to it in relation to the weightier ones above?
               
               2) You wrote that multiple categories "would require the writer to use too many different keywords/tags to identify the hub." It is my impression that long-tail keywords drill deep enough into a virtual heirarchy to nail the topic intersection. Further, that more general tags (not keywords) cover all the various categories to which this hub could be relevant.
               
               So, are you saying that what I'm doing--particularly with the tags--is confusing the search engines? If so, that makes page rank overly sensitive to the particular category hierarchy used by HubPages, or so it would seem.
               
               Or are you saying that I am at least making things more complicated for both myself and the reader? In that case, I can see you might recommend rewriting a cross-disciplinary hub specifically for one targeted category, and then doing a revised version to specifically target the other category if I want to continue to feed both niches.
               
               Sorry this is so long. I've got enough hubs now that figuring out what goes with what is the challenge.

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                  Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Howard, I'm saying that I've applied the category and sub-category to my hubs as keywords/tags. I've noticed that it has helped. Why? Because, it's part of the location where the hub can be located. It's on the page, listed at the top of each hub. Even a search engine has to categorize pages according to category in some manner. It would only make sense.
                  I don't know. I'm not versed enough to know the values placed on long-tail keywords and if you add general tags, I've learned that it hurts more than helps. If the tags are too generalized, such as a single word, then it covers too broadly.
                  I don't know as I stated above. I'm not versed on it enough. I'm only going by what I was told by Sunforged with regards to individual single keyword/tags. I don't know enough about short-tail or long-tail keywords/tags.
                  What I'm saying is that it makes no sense to have a hub categorized in two different categories. You would be better off writing two separate hubs.
                  If you write one hub and it has multiple categories which could apply to it, then manually write a secondary hub that would touch or expand upon the topics in the original hub.
                  
                  Example: I wrote a hub on Character Education. The hub talk and shows the reader all of the different Character Traits Humans have to deal with. I've written several other hubs that expand on individual character traits. Thus, both hubs could be categorized in different categories. One on character(education and science- self education advice and tips) and example(Integrity- which could be talking about Politicians and what they lack?), but put under Politics and Social Issues.
                  It's not a problem and I can understand the challenge. I have multiples of hubs that can go into many different categories and I've tested them in different categories, just to see if the traffic they receive is different.
                  
                  I hope I cleared up what I originally meant to say. I just rather not create more confusion than necessary.

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                     Howard S.posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     OK, thanks. I think we've exhausted that one! Now I just need to fit it in with everything else I know, think I know, do, intend to try, etc.

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