This hub gets no google traffic, can you help?

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   Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years ago

   This hub of mine was Hub of the Day when I had been a member of HubPages for only 6 days. I got plenty of praise for it, and it was quite popular around Christmas time. I really like it, and I like the title of it too. But I don't think Google does. Do you think I should change the title to something like "how to Make a Gingerbread Village from a kit"? Sounds so generic, but whatever works I guess.
   
   http://sherryhewins.hubpages.com/hub/Ho … ly-6-hours
   
   I know I can't expect much traffic to it at this time of year but my other Christmas craft hub does get a little Google traffic, and this one gets none. I hope you can help, so I will be ready for next Christmas.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes!  As you're discovering, humorous titles may appeal to human beings, but Google robots have no sense of humour.  Even people can be dense sometimes - if I was searchng for good instructions, and saw a result entitled "how to make a really mediocre gingerbread village", I wonder whether I'd bother clicking on it?
      
      Why not replace 'really mediocre' with 'basic' or 'simple'?

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         Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I think I'd leave the discriptor out
         "Tips for building a gingerbread village from a kit."
         or maybe "Tips for building a gingerbread house village from a kit.
         gingerbread house is more searched. or maybe something with Christmas in it.
         "How to make Christmas Village from a Prefab Kit"

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      noenhulkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know much about attracting traffic for my hubs. I just follow what I learned from what I read. Share to digg, facebook, twitter, etc. and be active here in HP if you have time. I am wondering about link building. Is it applicable only if you have your own domain name?

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         Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, but I got a few views from all those places, just not Google

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      moonlakeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I would change the title. Look at your stats and see what the keywords are and use some of the keywords. I have changed titles and it does make a big difference.

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         Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I've had some success with changing titles also. When I changed my Rustic Rainy day Apple Pie, to Rustic Apple From Scratch for the Complete Idiot I got a lot more hits. That was my daughter's idea, I didn't like it, but it did work.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   I wanted to reply to this earlier but work got in the way.
   
   I have wasted my time writing funny satirical bits of fluff for eighteen months. Although it was fun and I like it.
   
   For traffic though - it's a real problem.
   
   No one is going to search for Mediocre Gingerbread Thing.  Even though it is excellent, funny and a worthy HOTD. 
   
   I found with my funny pieces that no one looked for them. So I did the retitling and ended up with a few, disappointed searchers.  If they are looking for information the last thing they want is some egotist (talking about myself here) trying to show how clever or funny they are.
   
   I had hoped that my writing would be of sufficient interest that they would forget they wanted real information and instead be pleased to laugh along.
   
   Nonsense.
   
   Maybe "Funny Gingerbead Village" or "Home Craft Village Disaster" might get the odd search and a searcher who was looking for it.  But it is essential to provide the searcher with what they are looking for.  That means honest titling and keywording.
   
   I deleted quite a few pages that were simply misleading searchers because that is bad news for them and me.
   
   What might work as a witty and fun piece in a magazine is not what this game is about.  In my opinion. 
   
   It makes it quite hard to be creative and fun, and still get hits.
   
   ....
   
   One other thing.  A picture of that village on Pinterest might get you quite a few views.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You've hit the nail on the head, Mark. 
      
      This Hub is about the trials and travails of making a gingerbread kit look like the picture on the box.  It would fit perfectly in a (hard copy) women's magazine.
      
      However in the online world, it's not going to attract searchers and even if it does, I can't see it selling any gingerbread house kits - because it talks about how hard it is, that you can't even let the kids put it together, and how it doesn't look like the picture on the box.  And the featured product in the Amazon capsule is less than $4 anyway, so what commission can you earn on that? 
      
      Maybe it would be better titled "Gingerbread House Kits to Avoid" or "How Not to Make a Gingerbread House" - then people might read it as a cautionary tale, and at least you'd get some traffic, if not sales.

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         Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Marissa I appreciate your suggestions. Even though it is about how much of a pain in the butt the thing was to put together, I did offer the advantage of my experience to help them avoid some pitfalls, so I think it could be somewhat useful as well as fun to read. I'm not much of a marketer I'm afraid.
         
         So here's my new title:
         A Grandma's Tips on Building a Christmas Gingerbread House Village from a Kit
         
         What do you think? Kind of awkward sounding, I guess I'll leave it for a while and see what happens.
         
         Hmm...
         how about "Read This Before You Attempt to Make a Gingerbread Village from a Kit"
         
         Maybe instead of trying to sell them Gingerbread kits I could try to market cleaning products.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            ...and it is!  Like I say, I think it would be just great for a women's magazine.  The trouble with online writing is that the only people who'll find it, are likely to be people who aren't in the mood for it.  That's the difficulty.
            
            
            
            
            The new title could work - fingers crossed!  Maybe you're right about the cleaning products...

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               Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I really thank you so much for your input Marisa. I don't expect it to take off like a rocket, but I think I'll just keep it around and mess with the titles some more. I kind of like that last one I mentioned because I think it communicates what the hub is about, and it's still kind of humorous and interesting.
               
               That's a good point you made about the amazon products, even though my google traffic in increasing, I have not made one amazon sale on any of my hubs, but then most of them are not product oriented. I guess that's an area I need to work on.

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      Sherry Hewinsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Mark, I'm flattered that you'd even compare my little hub to one of your satirical masterpieces. You're right, it'll never be a big money maker. I just recently noticed that even though my other hubs have picked up in google views this one only has 3, ever. So I thought I'd do what I can to help it along. I enjoyed writing it so much that I would like people to read it. I really did like my original title though. I will post it to pinterest when it gets close to Christmas. Thanks for the suggestion.

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