Have Hubpages closed the door to search engines on certain search term

Jump to Last Post 1-8 of 8 discussions (20 posts)
  1. Neil Ashworth profile image42
    Neil Ashworthposted 12 years ago

    I'd be interested to know what others think about this one:

    I published a new hub this week - 100% original, high quality and with zero external links on the page - however, it has failed to get indexed in search from what I can see. My articles usually get indexed pretty quickly, almost immediately due to sharing on social sites and use of RSS feed etc..

    However, this one didn't... ;-)

    All I can suggest is that it is because it is written about network marketing - I won't post the link here but any of you who are interested in reading or reviewing it (or trying to find it in search) can find it on my profile page easily enough.

    I may be wrong in jumping to this conclusion but it seems that even though I have followed HP guidelines and written an article that has been approved something odd has happened to sink my ship even before it has set sail...

    Can/Have hubpages decided to close the door to the search engines for specific terms in order to remove any/all association with what (for some reason) they classify as dubious content??

    Look forward to your insights ;-)

    1. paradigmsearch profile image61
      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yahoo indexed it, so it is not HP's doing. smile

      1. Neil Ashworth profile image42
        Neil Ashworthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        Aaah... so it's Google I must battle with ;-)

  2. Peggy W profile image94
    Peggy Wposted 12 years ago

    I've always been told that it takes a while for a new hub to be noticed and therefore rise to the top.  Perhaps you have been lucky.  My other thought is that this is probably a widely written about subject so it may take a while to be noticed?  I seriously doubt that HubPages has played a part in this.

    1. Neil Ashworth profile image42
      Neil Ashworthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not talking about it being noticed or indeed rising to the top of search - this will take months for this keyword as it is highly competitive - but the hubs I write (I've been writing on here for around 2 years) are usually indexed within 24 hours - some within 5 minutes - this one has been online almost a week and is nowhere to be seen.

      When you build your own blog you have the option to close the search engines to certain pages - this is easily done in order to hide pages/content/visitors etc - and can actually benefit your overall site some believe.

      I have traffic to the article from several sources BUT not Google... tells a story perhaps??

      1. Peggy W profile image94
        Peggy Wposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        Neil...you are obviously much more experienced in this respect than I am.  I did not even know one could "close search engines to certain pages" etc.  So good luck with your query and hope you find out what is happening and that it is to your satisfaction.

  3. joseph merlin profile image39
    joseph merlinposted 12 years ago

    I am new member I think some expert Hubber will sure answer you about this problem.

    And I think personally it is taking time to indexed now Hub by Google in two or three days.

  4. wilderness profile image94
    wildernessposted 12 years ago

    I doubt that HP has closed any doors to the spiders.

    Like you, I usually see hubs indexed in a day or two, but I have also had perfectly good hubs take as long as six weeks to index, and 1 week isn't all that uncommon in my experience.

    In another thread, several hubbers report that Webmaster Tools is showing widely varying traffic from the crawlers in individual subdomain.  My own went from around 300 per day to 20 and is now rising again; this will certainly affect time to index.

    Patience; if you build it they will come! smile


    Side issue; I didn't read it, but if your hub is about MLM (for which I have seen "network marketing" used) it will probably be checked thoroughly by HP.  As a whole the subject is mostly taboo here, although a very well written hub without links or promotions might go through.

    1. Neil Ashworth profile image42
      Neil Ashworthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The hub has been passed and you are correct, network marketing is now taboo (or at least promotional material in that niche is).. this article is not promotional at all - in fact all the articles I have published in this niche (around 40) are non-promotional/informative so it is a little frustrating to have to go through this with each new hub in this niche.. I guess that's a fair price if the sub-domain is ranked well - which it is on most occasions.

  5. AEvans profile image72
    AEvansposted 12 years ago

    It takes time for your hubs to be indexed and if the market has been flooded by the same information, having your work found on google could be a bear. As far as HP blocking search engines. I don't think so, wouldn't be great for business. smile

  6. TerryGl profile image57
    TerryGlposted 12 years ago

    The only way Hubpages could close the door to your hub is through robots.txt.

    Here is the robots.txt http://hubpages.com/robots.txt and there is no category blocking going on.

    I agree with wilderness, it will be YOUR subdomain that's the issue. You need to work on your subdomain as a whole to bring it back again.

    1. ThomasE profile image69
      ThomasEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's not quite correct. Every subdomain has its own robots.txt,

      http://neilashworth.hubpages.com/robots.txt

      which could be used to block individual pages (but isn't in this case)
      and hubpages could also use a noindex in an individual pages source code, but that isn't happening either.

      My conclusion is that hubpages is not blocking crawlers to this particular page.

      1. Neil Ashworth profile image42
        Neil Ashworthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        Thomas,

        Thank you for your comments - how have you come to your conclusion that this isn't the case out of interest?

        1. ThomasE profile image69
          ThomasEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Because, as I said, I checked the most easy white hat ways for hubpages to block google crawlers from your particular page.

          They didn't.

          Of course, there are other ways that they could block your page, but these are all considered black hat, so Hubpages would be unlikely to use them.

          My conclusion is hubpages hasn't done anything to block your hub.

          1. ThomasE profile image69
            ThomasEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Just to add, the idea that google necessarily has any problem with the page or with your subdomain is not likely to be true, either.

            Google has just ran the panda algorithm. In my experience, pages that are added just before the algorithm is run often have delayed 'uptake' in terms of being added to the index.

            1. Neil Ashworth profile image42
              Neil Ashworthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

              Very interesting and useful information. Thank you

    2. Neil Ashworth profile image42
      Neil Ashworthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Terry,

      My subdomain ranks very well - top 3 positions on Google for most of the keywords I have targeted in this niche until now - which is not why I questioned it but it would suggest there isn't a sub-domain issue here. Perhaps I'll just have to wait a few weeks as some of you have suggested before this begins to show in search..

      1. TerryGl profile image57
        TerryGlposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        The last time Googlebot visit your subdomain was "This is Google's cache of hxxp://neilashworth.hubpages.com/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 24 Aug 2011 02:37:32 GMT.

        Today is 3 October so the bot has not visited your domain for quite some weeks.

        Now like I said, it is your sub-domain that needs to get the attention of the Googlebot. You cannot get a page indexed unless Googlebot comes and has a look at it.

        Your subdomain does not rank very well. Sure you have a few keywords but there different articles. Think of your sub-domain as a whole. It is your subdomains authority that you need to build for quick indexing.

  7. Neil Ashworth profile image42
    Neil Ashworthposted 12 years ago

    Thanks Terry - I'll take your advice. Appreciated ;-)

  8. Neil Ashworth profile image42
    Neil Ashworthposted 12 years ago

    Very interesting that since I posted this question 5 of my articles have now been unpublished by hubpages:

    100% unique content
    High quality
    Non promotional
    No external links

    Looks like the flagging police are out in force again.. nothing better to do I guess.

 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)