Long or Short Hubs

1. 83

   Whitney05posted 16 years ago

   There are several hubs about the benefits of both long and short hubs.
   
   But, I'm curious as to what you guys prefer to read.
   
   The longer ones that contain tons of detail, that could be spread amongst several smaller hubs.
   
   OR
   
   The shorter, more concise hubs that tend to answer a specific question about a broader topic.

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2. 83

   jimmythejockposted 16 years ago

   Both work for me, sometimes a hub needs to be long because the topic cannot be fully explained in short, and short hubs that are precice and to the point are just as interesting to read as long or longer hubs.....jimmy

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3. 59

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   Short.
   
   But I bet Jerrico will be along in a minute to tell you why he likes the long ones.

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4. 94

   thooghunposted 16 years ago

   500-1500 words seems perfect for me. Although occasionally the 3000 word dissertation I can stand, if I'm particularly interested.

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5. 83

   Whitney05posted 16 years ago

   Interesting..
   
   I'm in between. Guess I should have thrown in my 2 cents. Ha. I think that some hubs are best short and to the point, whereas other hubs end up answering tons of other questions about the topic that the reader may not have thought about beforehand but help even still. I've found that usually, the later case arises as you write. I've never set out to answer 10 questions about a topic in one hub. But, as I write, it's like 'OH what about that' and then 'this' and so on. Eventually, leading into a long hub that is useful with questions that may arise later.
   
   If that makes sense... Basically, sometimes long hubs answer questions that may arise later, and it may kill a bunch of birds with one stone, which usually only works if the answers are short not page long explainations about something. As that would lead to you 10 pages of hub info to read, which I (personally) would get bored halfway through.
   
   But, I like short hubs, in most instances.

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6. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   Interesting discussion but can people give a rough idea of what they mean by "long" or "short"?
   
   I don't like really short Hubs - the ones where I can read the whole text almost without scrolling - regardless of whether they have lots of other content like videos or photos.  I think I feel disappointed by them - I've got to the stage where I'm anticipating of a certain amount of informative content, probably based on the Hubs I look at most (the ones by Hubbers I'm a fan of).
   
   At the same time, I get turned off if I have to keep scrolling and scrolling.  I'll more than likely give up reading before I get to the end.  There's obviously a happy medium in there somewhere.  Maybe I should choose some of the Hubs that feel right, cut and paste and do a word count!

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7. 83

   Whitney05posted 16 years ago

   I agree, with you Marisa with too short.
   
   I think short would be maybe 2 average paragraphs (about 300 words or so). Medium- between 500-1,000. Long, pages of content. Ha. Well, over 1,000 words.

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8. 63

   Mishaposted 16 years ago

   From money making point of view you want to make hubs as short as possible. To spread available content over as many pages as possible, which translates into as many ads as possible shown to as many visitors as possible.
   
   Page should be just long enough for search engines to grasp the idea of your content. I remember reading a research, showing that optimal page length for search engines is between 300-1300 words. And you want to gravitate towards the lower boundary.
   
   Let me give you an example. You write a text and make a hub of 1200 words. After your promotional campaign, it happily sits on the 5th position on Google's first page and brings you, say, 500 visitors a day. Now, you take the same text and divide it between three hubs, about 400 words each. After promotional campaign, your hubs occupy 5th, 6th, and 11th positions; and bring you probably 800 visitors per day total. Providing your CPM is the same, you are making twice as much out of the same text...
   
   Again, this is purely money making point of view.

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9. 59

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   Or, you can write a 2000 word hub which will not make money, and add a bunch of smaller hubs linked to that same hub, which do make money, while still keeping your big one at the top of the rankings and at the same time the small ones come up in the rankings close to the big one and get similar credit.

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   1. 75

      Lissieposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Now that sounds like a great idea Mark - do you link both ways - i.e. big hub to little hub and vice versa or only one way (from the big hub) -  I assume the later will bring more PR to the little hub?

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      1. 59

         Mark Knowlesposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         Yes I do. Actually, with the bikes I have done this:
         
         2008 Motorcycle Guide
         
         then I have done several medium sized ones with a link from the big one and back like this:
         
         2008 Sport Bikes Motorcycle Guide
         
         Then underneath that, I have lot of pretty short ones which are only 500 words or so:
         
         Honda CBR600RR - 2008
         
         They are all interlinked and are all getting pretty good organic traffic. It's too soon to tell whether it was worth this much effort, but I have a feeling this will pay off, especially when motorcycling season comes up (no one buys a bike this time of year) - I had about 10,000 page views this last month, but I hope to do better later. They are all fairly young.
         
         Sorry if I hijacked your thread whitney

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   2. 83

      Whitney05posted 16 years agoin reply to this

      I definately like that idea!
      
      I try to link related hubs as it is (caring for leopard geckos- breeding leopard geckos- my leopard gecko won't eat) all together, as in many cases, I get comments asking questions about another hub that I have, where they don't see the 'next hub' option.

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10. 59

    PurpleZenposted 16 years ago

    Personally, I like long hubs with several clearly defined short sections. Hubs with numeration or bold subtitles are easy to read and provide a deeper understanding of something.
    
    I don't like really long hubs with video after video, personally. And I don't like hubs that have a ton of advertisements to make it long. I also like reading hubs that have smart links. Links that take us to another window to find the source or explore more detail (not links to an ad site.)
    
    Basically, if a hub has something interesting to say, it doesn't matter if it's short or long. But often times, a short blurb doesn't have much interesting to say about a topic. But a long hub with long paragraphs and lots of video/images is hard to read and doesn't hold my interest.
    
    Magazine style is my favorite - some pics, short bits, with interesting info.
    
    PurpleZen

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11. 59

    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    Actually, I'll qualify that - It is too soon to tell whether they are financially worth the trouble - they were a lot of fun to research and write

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12. 75

    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    10,000 views sounds pretty good to me - you are right about the motorbike season in the northern hemisphere! Thanks for the detailed explanation -you have got me thinking  about options for my niches - thanks!

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