Freshness factor on Google - useful post

1. 89

   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   I came across this useful post about how Google's new freshness factor affects your rankings:
   
   http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-fresh-factor
   
   Because we now have our own sub-domains, which are regarded by Google as individual websites or blogs, I'd say (based on this article) that our "freshness" factor is best maintained by adding new Hubs regularly, rather than having to constantly update individual Hubs.

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      BRIAN SLATERposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I would say after reading the report that it depends,
      
      if your existing pages are seen as "thin" and not giving searches adequate info then by adding substantial amounts of text to the main body of the article can be seen as as way of improving your site.
      
      like wise, if you have substantial pages and you offer new articles regularly to your otherwise well received domain then google will "credit" you and like your site additionally.
      
      Each hubber will have to look at their own pages and see which criteria they fall into.

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2. 89

   WryLiltposted 11 years ago

   I'm just glad that I get enough comments to add freshness and my hubs have aged decently to rank well.

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      John Holdenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      But the article said that comments don't count for much

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         WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes but I'm assuming I don't need much, since I have aged content.

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         1. 89

            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Wry, the thing is that "aged content" used to be the be-all and end-all, whereas this freshness thing has changed the landscape.
            
            With my own websites, I've always taken the approach of creating a solid body of content, setting up the ads then switching my focus to promotion - the idea being that the changing products in the ads, comments and news feeds are enough, and it's the age of my original content that matters.
            
            The new "freshness" algo suggests Google is no longer so impressed with age alone.  If you have a long-established site and you're not adding to it, it won't keep on maturing - it will slowly start going backwards.  I'm noticing this on a couple of my established sites since the freshness algo was introduced and I'm now thinking I will have to start adding a post once a month or so.

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               WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Ah well, my views are still going up on Hubpages. And I don't plan to write anymore hubs.
               
               But thanks for the info - I'll apply it to my own sites.

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               1. 89

                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  That's my dilemma too - except that my Hubs seem to have been hit by Panda in early December which makes it worse!
                  
                  I also have no plans to add more Hubs but worry that will make things even worse.

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                     WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     This account went sky high after subdomains - I have other accounts still getting almost no traffic thanks to Panda. *Sigh* Sucks, hey?

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3. 80

   LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years ago

   Just read it and some parts of it make sense then others can be confusing to say the least. However, overall the article is very helpful. Thanks Marisa

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4. 89

   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   I found it helpful because I've been seeing advice that we have to udpate all our Hubs to keep them "fresh", and it didn't seem to make sense to me.  After all, that would mean I should be constantly updating every single post on each of my blogs, too.  Google may be unreasonable but surely even they wouldn't be that dumb!

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   ronaldohposted 11 years ago

   I can see a lot of sense here , and I would consider updating hubs as well.

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6. 81

   Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years ago

   Marisa, thank you so much for sharing that link. I've been wondering how much I need to update and how much I need to be adding new hubs. You've taken the burden out of my balancing act. I think I'll just continue to do what I do. I'll add new hubs as I have been doing. Also,as I learn new information, I go back and update hubs (though I don't really have older hubs yet), and I have a schedule to periodically review hubs. I'm more interested in topics that are mostly evergreen anyway.
   Thanks again.

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7. 82

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 11 years ago

   Thanks!
   
   Of course doing both could only help, right?
   
   Luckily for me I'm ....intent on being one of the "winners" here before branching out too much more, and I seem to be needing all the help that I can get :-;

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Wes, looking at your account, I'd be tempted to say that in your particular case, you should focus more on improving Hubs than adding new ones.  By creating a Hub account of over 250 Hubs, you're creating a potential headache for yourself in the future! 
      
      It's a pretty safe bet there will be more rule changes on HubPages in the future - things change on the internet, and HP has to change to keep up - and if your account gets too big, it becomes a nightmare task.  It would be a good idea to start a separate account for one of your specialist subjects.

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         janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I disagree - the small subs (mini-subs) never get lift off in terms of page ranking. Nothing builds PR and authority with Google like big numbers of pages. The work required for amendements is the same whether you have all your fish in a one big basket or a lot of little ones. Go for the huge nuclear powered subs that hardly ever need to surface!

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            rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I've heard the same thing from numerous hubbers who have tried to get their secondary accounts ranking. I think Wes has an interesting portfolio of hubs. I see no reason to discourage someone from adding hubs to their account if that is their preference. I looked at a number of his hubs and found them well written and informative.
            
            I think it's preference. If someone wants 1000 hubs, it's their account to deal with.  I, personally, would never want that many hubs to deal with. I may stop at 100. I'll decide when the time comes. I like to update and work on what I have and write when I really have something I want to publish.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            But the question is, is there such a thing as "big enough", or is bigger always better?  Once you get to a reasonable amount of content, does adding more lead to a proportional increase in traffic, or are there diminishing returns?  Will a domain with 1,000 Hubs rank 10 times better than a domain with 100 Hubs?
            
            Bear in mind I was talking to Wes, who already has 274 Hubs, not to someone with 10 Hubs.

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               janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               In my experience Google really likes huge numbers, which signifies authority. I have several websites with over 3000 pages, and some with 300.
               The larger ones rank PR4 whereas the smaller ones rank PR3 (log scale) - this makes a huge difference in my experience. I have a small extra hub which I use for sales hubs to stop any negative effect on the bigger one. Payout thresholds for small subs are anther factor.
               
               I am not  a big fan of all this cleanup and dump stuff. Again I have found that some hubs take 6-12 months before they start to perform. Who know what Google wants anyway. Better to focus on writing new hubs.

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               1. 89

                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Interesting, thanks.

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                     janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     A final comment - There appears to be a general relationship between PR and number of hubs in a profile sub (have a look at the peak group of Hubbers 100-95, number of hubs and profile PR). Page PR also has general links with Sub PR.  While PR has been downgraded, I still think it is important - hence the need for backlinks. More hubs increases the PR of a sub, and this flows on to increases the PR of the individual subs. This may be old-fashioned, but I have found with external websites that building large numbers of pages is the key to traffic and a higher PR for the host URL helps with this. Age is also important. If every page stood by itself, and was not linked in a sub or URL, traffic would be much lower. - cheers

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         Wesman Todd Shawposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Oh you're absolutely right about the headache.
         
         While I'm making new hubs all the time - I'm also culling my own herd.  I've moved well over a dozen older hubs that didn't perform so well over to blogger, and in fact - you just sort of reminded me that I was planning to do some more of that.

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   klanguedocposted 11 years ago

   This is an awesome piece of information. Thanks for sharing.

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   Garrett Mickleyposted 11 years ago

   In the unprofessional SEO community, regular content additions has always been a main part of the SEO campaign.  That's why you see many business websites with a blog.

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10. 69

    kittyjjposted 11 years ago

    I am new here and wondered which step I should take first: adding new hubs or improving my existing hubs.  Can anyone help me?

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       Website Examinerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       You can do some keyword research, and improve those that you think have the best potential. As for new hubs, consider doing keyword research and aiming for high quality from the get-go. Quantity alone won't really get you anywhere.

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    2. 89

       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       As you're new, I would spend some time learning about how to write Hubs, then fix up your existing ones, before you write any more.  You've made a good start but there are a few things you can do better!
       
       I wrote a Hub about optimizing your Hubs (you'll find a link on my profile) which is a basic start.
       
       If your objective is making money, then WE is right - you need to get professional about it, learn what keyword research is and how to use it.  Susana S has some good Hubs on that.  However, try not to let the research control your life! If you have a subject you really love writing about, focus on that - it won't feel like work, your writing will show your passion and that's a great basis for success.
       
       One thing I notice - if you want to sell anything with Amazon ads, the ad needs to be right next to, or immediately after, the text it relates to.  Amazon ads tacked on to the end of Hubs never sell anything.

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11. 0

    Arlene V. Pomaposted 11 years ago

    You always give great advice, Marisa, and you've helped me out a few times.  In 7 months, I had about 210 Hubs, but there were ones that I could not stand.  I unpublished about 30 of them because I refused to improve them.  I didn't want to spend any time on them, so I hacked.  When you have too many Hubs, it's like having too many articles to keep track of.  So you don't do them justice.  If I am unhappy with my writing, I purge it.  No regrets.

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