Changing the title of your Hub after publishing.

1. 89

   bankscottageposted 12 years ago

   After publishing a Hub, do you ever change the title?  I have used title tuner to improve a Hub title, but I have never changed the title completely.

   replyreport
   1. 88

      Outbound Danposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Aye, I've changed a few, especially after looking at the title tuner. 
      Others I have changed because I realized how little I actually liked the title. On occasion, I have deleted the entire title; however, what I end up is still in the spirit of the original title.   
      I try to avoid keyword stuffing as it usually makes for a miserable title.  Whether this is black hat SEO - I'm not sure.  I thought I knew what google wanted and accepted, but recently I have lost nearly 90% of my traffic - it shows what I know.

      replyreport
   2. 61

      gabgirl12posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My title changes, but I notice it doesn't change it in the URL. For example I had originally started a hub called 'Born again without a clue for women' then I changed it to 'Born again with a passion'.  (I've since deleted that one) But it still would say the original title in the URL. I don't know why.

      replyreport
      1. 78

         lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Because the URL Cannot be changed.

         replyreport
         1. 61

            gabgirl12posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            That sucks! So if you make a grammatical error, might as well delete the hub.

            replyreport
            1. 78

               lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               That's why you're supposed to check it in the first place. I made a mistake with my first hub.

               replyreport
               1. 61

                  gabgirl12posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm aware of that but sh*t happens.

                  replyreport
                  1. 78

                     lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Haha

                     replyreport
2. 71

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   Yes, I have changed my titles.
   
   I change my titles at times, just for testing purposes. I usually return to my original title when done testing. I don't go too far from my original keywords used for the hub. I have completely changed titles on some which I left in place because I like them. It might account for some of the low traffic on some of my hubs.

   replyreport
3. 86

   andyozposted 12 years ago

   This is something I have wondered about.  For instance, if I write a hub called, 'new music coming in 2012'.  A year later would it be smart to change the title to 'new music coming in 2013'.  Of course the content of the hub would also need editing.  But this way you get the bonus of a years worth of age on the Hub.
   
   It's something I know some Hubbers do, but with Google making all the crack downs, is it something they would consider a Black Hat SEO tactic?

   replyreport
   1. 61

      noenhulkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think it is consider to be one as a black hat SEO tactic.

      replyreport
      1. 89

         bankscottageposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I hate to sound stupid about SEO, but I am.  What is a "black hat SEO tactic"?

         replyreport
         1. 86

            andyozposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It's basically a method you use which is not allowed but you get away with it.  So back in the day it was keyword stuffing, using masses of bad links and other stuff.  Any SEO you do falls into one of three catergories, white hat, which is acceptable methods that will help drive traffic.  Grey hat which are frowned upon but you should probably get away with them.  Then black hat, methods which are not allowed but experts exploit loop holes to drive traffic.
            The Google updates we keep seeing are designed to eliminate sites and pages that use black hat and now we are seeing them crack down on grey hat methods as well.

            replyreport
         2. 72

            jacharlessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Black Hat is a manipulation technique (exploit) used to trick or excessively bend the guidelines for submission of links, data, content to a Search Engine.
            Each Engine has its own set of parameters or guidelines that insure proper indexing, placement, ranking and SERP for.
            The aforementioned is known as White Hat.
            
            For example, a slug or permalink can be altered or a "faux title" created by a plugin, used to force indexing for Wordpress versus clean, real Title, Link and Keywords, etc that match the content of the page.
            
            James.

            replyreport
   2. 78

      lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      As long as your URL doesn't contain 2012 I guess it should be fine, because Google will see it as an updated page anyway. The updation would give you a further boost I guess.

      replyreport
   3. 90

      Turtlewomanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes that's fine...you can update it to 2013! A lot of people update their titles all the time. Your title and subtitle are more important than URL anyway, as far as inserting keywords.

      replyreport
4. 89

   bankscottageposted 12 years ago

   Thanks for all of the great information.  I don't know if I am getting into trouble with what I have done or not.  I haven't intentionally done anything to drive traffic to my hubs.  I'm not sure that it would matter since I still haven't been approved for a Google AdSense account.  Could unintentional violations keep me from getting approved?  Would Google be reporting these to me?

   replyreport
5. 95

   ktrappposted 12 years ago

   I sometimes adjust titles if in Google Webmaster Tools I see a pattern of similar search queries with low avg. position.

   replyreport
   1. 78

      lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Oh good point! I've never tried that. I should give it a try.

      replyreport
      1. 95

         ktrappposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You should definitely give it a try. It's worked well for me. I like to sort the "avg position" column and look for queries where the average position is low, but not too low. I should point out that I don't necessarily always change the title, but sometimes some of the body text.

         replyreport
         1. 78

            lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I'm definitely adding this to my holiday plan I guess it would be a good idea to modify the text too. I'm sure it would help.

            replyreport
            1. 95

               ktrappposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               What holiday or do you mean vacation?

               replyreport
               1. 78

                  lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Ya vacation

                  replyreport
                  1. 95

                     ktrappposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Ah - well don't sit in front of your computer all vacation!

                     replyreport
                     1. 78

                        lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        I got just 30 hubs and 3 months Just the afternoons Will be writing a few more though.

                        replyreport